Company for the Weekend

This weekend I had company and I couldn't think of better company to have than my grandson Zacheriah.  He came to help out Grandma while Papa and his younger brother were off at a boy's camp for the weekend.

I have set aside an album for each of the kids using my 'left over' photos so was hoping to get Zach to do a bit of crafting with me. Despite some initial reservations he eventually jumped in with both feet and really enjoyed himself.

As he gets older he's less keen on Grandma taking photographs so it was lovely to see him pose proudly for this one.  He was really excited to think I wanted to share it on my blog.  I was really excited to think that I could share my love of crafting with boys LOL! 

One of the things he was keen to do was create text and pictures using the computer - he likes to play around changing up the font styles and colours.  He also had to get to grips with 2 kinds of trimmers, a corner rounder, double sided tape and  a CM cutting system - all for the first time - but it was fun to show him and then watch him do it all by himself.

Now when he stays over again we can do a second page.  I have plans for his brother and sister to get started on their albums just as soon as we can as well.  What a fun activity this was!  I love building memories with these guys.

And speaking of which when Zach arrived he had brought his 'play quilt' with him and since I've never shared this I took the opportunity to photgraph it.  I made this quilt for him when he was several months old.  I used up all my old plaid and denim shirts to make it - clearly I used to wear a lot of these - can't you tell?  This is a very generously sized quilt as I used large 8" squares plus a wider border around the outer edges.

I used the pockets intact so he could tuck his cars and trucks into them plus appliqued bright pictures on squares.  I got these from cookie cutters and early colouring book designs that were to hand at the time and used red for a splash of colour.  I love red.  I added ties for when he learnt to tie plus a few buttons and snaps too.

 

Because he loved to chew on tags and labels I included many of these as well which made for a fun addition and could be sewn on as loops for his little fingers to grab hold of or even made into a fun feature such as the second sail on this little boat.

And here he is sound asleep with his quilt on the bed.  My daughter had actually tucked this away for safe keeping and ran across it one day whilst looking through boxes.  Zacheriah actually cried when she told him it was his and that Grandma had made it.  These were good tears though and bless him - he has had it on his bed ever since. 

Sadly it caused tears of another kind when his brother asked 'where's mine ?'.  Kaleb had a lot of 'hand me downs' as a second grandchild so I never quite got around to making another one.  However, I still have squares that are left over and already cut - I just have to make the time to do it.  But I think maybe I'd better.

It was lovely seeing this again so long after making it and I am really pleased that it's holding up so well.  It's also nice knowing that Zach thinks it's special enough that he's keen to take such good care of it too.

I knew there was a reason I sew and make handmade gifts (warm fuzzy feelin').

Hugs :-)

Suezie