I made this when Emily (now 7) was 2 and Ellie (now 5 1/2) was 3 months old. The technique is called trupunto and I learned about it by watching HGTV...do you think Alex Anderson has any idea how she has changed my life??? I will be buried with this as it is such a wonderful part of my textile journey...and it's my babies! Plus how do I choose to give it to one daughter over the other??? I have another one prepared to make for Sara...with all 3 hands of the girls but time is fleeting...good thing these can be made later in life...all you need is to capture their hand prints now...so precious! I have imagined doing one for each year of a child's life...maybe the grandchildren...or maybe it will be Sara...who knows.I was commissioned to make this next one for a friend after she saw my creation of the girl's hands.
This posed some unique problems but I think I worked through them. She had 3 kids 2 older with quite large hands and one little one about 2 years old. My Sister's hands was all done by hand while I nursed and the baby took naps...but this one was done both by hand and machine and I love the echo quilting that was able to be consistent throughout the piece.
Now before you get all overwhelmed...this is not so difficult to make. This can be simplified and made with the kids with brown paper bags from the grocery store! Trace the hand and then use a 1/16 hole punch to punch holes along the drawn line...not too tight...then thread a plastic needle or yarn needle and thread some yarn or floss onto it...then allow your preschooler or older child to stitch along... leave an opening for stuffing...then close it up and trim away the excess paper!!! Here is an example made into a Gingerbread Woman...i wrote on the back of this one all the memories of the year and it hangs up on the Christmas tree every year...the kids love to read about the year we moved into the house! This can be made in an afternoon...looking for more boredom busters? Check out my other posts about painting the deck...and Threadibilities!!! Inspire, create, grow with your kids!!!
