Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Busy little bees - two birds with one stone

The other day I showed you the pictures of Sarah participating in the practice expedition for her Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award

The award is in four parts: Expedition, Skill, Service and Activity

As you can see from previous photos the expedition is pretty much self explanatory. Two days walking and orienteering 15km each day (about 10-12 miles) and camping out the night between carrying all supplies with you.

Sarah just has to participate in the real thing now, without hands on guidance from leaders etc, to complete the expedition part of the award.

Going back about a year or so Sarah helped out at a Church Children's Club once a week for a minimum of an hour each time for a total of three months. This fulfilled the 'service' section of the award

The activity part is usually a physical activity - Sarah chose trampolining as you're encouraged to try something you've not done before.

With any one of the three sections; skill, service and activity, you can choose to extend your three months to six. Unsurprisingly Sarah decided to do the activity item for six months.

She now has to do a three month stint at a skill. Lots of deliberation went into the subject for this section and initially she was pretty amenable to the idea of doing patchwork and quilting under my guidance.

Then she went off the idea and thought she might like to have a go at building a doll's house.

Finally, when we looked at all the pro's and con's, she returned to the P & Q idea, she'll save the dolls house idea for a higher level in the future, but pinning both her and I down to a specific hour each week was almost impossible. So much easier if you join a club and go to a certain venue at a set time and day.

Then I had a brainwave!

Sarah's friend Megan is very interested in fabric and sewing and often looks longingly at things hanging around my sewing area. So as the pair of them usually hang around our house for an hour or more after school gassing to other mates on MSN on the computer I suggested that both Megan and Sarah might like to have a go at each making a patchwork quilt one teatime each week. Megan was delighted and of course having her mate working alongside her will keep Sarah's nose to the grindstone.

The hidden bonus in all this is that Megan took her Art GCSE a year early (getting an A by the way) and so, although I hadn't realised when I made the suggestion, is doing Textiles this year. The P&Q will be an added project for her to put towards her final assessment.

Double Whammy - two birds with one stone!!!

Here are the two girls putting together the start of their initial block - Rail fence.

Sarah has 2 metres of a lovely deep pink fabric with yellow and green flowers and purple spirals on. She's matched this with a checkered yellow, a mottled lime green and a deeper purple. Megan, on the other hand has had to take pot luck with my stash, so although she's working with a palette of bright pink and turquoise hers will be slightly more scrappy.

We've decided they'll do nine 12" blocks which, with sashings and borders, should give them a 4ft square lap quilt each.

It was lovely to pass on my skills to a willing audience but boy is it harder teaching than actually doing it yourself.

14 comments:

meggie said...

What a great idea, Anne. They are lucky, they have a wonderful teacher, as your work is always superb!

Andrea said...

I would love my Jess to have a go at quilting but I'm afraid it's a no-go !! Looking forward to seeing Sarah and Megans progress. Will they be making sampler quilts ?

Patti said...

Finally having a chance to catch up with you Anne! What a busy summer you had. Sure understand what you mean about the going back to school thing and it REALLY being the start of a new year. No kids in school for a long time now, but as long as DH is teaching it will be this way. Our calendars at work start out with September also LOL! As a credit union that was started by teachers in the 1940's we still order our give away calendars by the school calendar.

It's going to be so marvelous for all three of you - the girls learning to quilt. I'm guessing you will learn as much if not more than they do LOL!

sewkalico said...

Lovely to see them sewing and I look forward to seeing their quilts. Best of luck with the teaching which is harder than one thinks :O)

chook said...

I cant wait to see the girls quilts it is so nice when your children get into the same craft as you and even nicer when you can raid there stash heheheh
Have a fab day hugs Beth

Lily Mulholland said...

Excellent idea Anne! Yes, it's hard to teach - you just want to dive right in!

loulee said...

Excellent idea. Good luck girls.

Suzie Sews At DOTTY RED said...

cool...
Suzie Sews

Sew Create It - Jane said...

Well Done YOU! The world needs more people like you that are willing to share and educate our youth in the pleasures and art of sewing, patchwork and quilting!

Vintage to Victorian said...

Clever you! They look as if they're really enjoying their quilting - far better than MSN all the time!!!!!

Thanks for your comment Anne, I hadn't thought of it as Desert Island Discs. Perhaps we should all go through our playlists and reveal all!!

Sue

Ali Honey said...

Good luck with your quilts Sarah and Megan! Please let Anne show us a photo of them when you are finshed.

YankeeQuilter said...

I know what you mean about teaching...I get so worn out after a class I can't sew the rest of the day! It is great she has a pal with her quilting. My older sister taught me and my best friend how to embroider and crochet when I was about your DH's age.

atet said...

What a great idea for both of them -- and for you! And yes, teaching is always harder than doing it yourself -- but oh so much more rewarding!

Holly said...

My "year" is always based on the school year, too, Sept-Aug.

How fun to be teaching the girls the very craft you love. My daughter made a quilt once for a friend's wedding but she lacks the patience to make it a life long hobby.

Hope you are feeling better soon. I've noticed that it is always a couple weeks into school that the colds start going around.