Category: Girl Scouts (Page 1 of 2)

Thank You Gifts for a Girl Scout Event

Girl Scout Thanks youI made some thank you gifts for a Girl Scout event.  I do love to make handmade gifts. I’m not sure they are always appreciated but I’ve made peace with the fact that not every gift is a hit whether it’s handmade or store purchased.

This event was a volunteer retreat and most of the people attending and volunteering to help have been Girl Scout members for many years. I’ve had some vintage Girl Scout fabric in my stash for several years and I decided it was time to use it to thank these special people. I made little flex frame pouches and fussy cut the fabric to frame the parts of the fabric that I wanted to use. Due to the printing on the fabric they all turned out a bit differently. I thought they turned out very well and were cute. I hope the recipients find them useful. It seems like I can always use a pouch or container for the little things like chapstick, change or even a charging cable.

in progress

Thank you Girl Scout friends.

Postcards

Postcards were again on the agenda for my camp friends. I tried to customize them a bit with something special for person. Sometimes this happened to be a name, like Chipmunk or Tigger. I didn’t have any Tigger fabric so had to make do with Pooh instead. And one for a friend whose name was from the Wizard of Oz, and there were several themed ones as well.

A Nature, a boating, a generic Girl Scout, a crafter, a Cat (mouse) and even the kitchen folks.  These were fast and fun. I might have made them more elaborate if I had started sooner but… Starfish Alley

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Fall is in the air!

Fall is in the air here in Edmonds.  After an unusually warm summer it’s time to get into the fall routines. I’m working on that for sure.

I have done lots of odds and ends of sewing here but really haven’t had the inclination to post much. I’m looking forward however to some updates here and continue to make a record of my finishes.  I’ve got lots of plans for the fall so we’ll see how I do.

One of my finishes this summer has been a second baby quilt. This is for the friend of daughter #2 who is expecting her daughter #2. When I started this I really only expected to test the block idea and size but after I had finished several of the blocks I decided that I really like it and it would be perfect for this new baby. I did struggle with the binding for a bit but finally settled on this green stripe. At first after it was done I thought I had made a mistake because it’s so much bolder than I had anticipated but I do think I like it and it does go with the fabrics.

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As I was searching for this picture I also found many others.

Another project from earlier in the summer was another pillowcase. This was also for a Girl Scout friend.

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In my dreams..

In my dreams I update this blog frequently with new projects and fun sewing activities.  In reality, I just dream about it because there really has not been a lot of sewing.  I did make a couple of skirts for a daughter’s birthday. I’ve also done a few zippered pouches and a bit of mending.  I’ve also made a few dish towels with some applique. I would love to do more and maybe that will happen and maybe only a dream for a while.  Part of the reason is just far more hours spent working.  You know those adult kind of work things.  I’ve also done some reading and tending to family issues.

This week is camp week however.  After 21 years of attending Girl Scout camp as an adult and many more years as a girl, camp seems to be a part of my summer.  I “retired” from camp a couple of years ago but still have lots of friends who attend and carry on this fabulous tradition.  It looks like they will have a great week this week too.  I try to send some mail but it needs to be sent at the beginning of the week or it will not arrive in time.

Although I didn’t think of this very far in advance I wanted to send mail and thought it should be a bit different. I’ve read about fabric post cards and have some leftover Girl Scout fabric so thought I would give it a try.  Although these are not very elegant or elaborate it was a fun diversion and I’m going to make some more.  Because it was a last minute thought I decided that I would use what I had on hand.  I had some Peltex and Wonder Under so I created my own double stick post card base and then experimented with ironing on the fabric and doing some simple applique.  I got some permanent fabric markers and sent them through the postal mail.  I do hope they receive them and if not I do have a picture.

Off to make a couple more.  I have several friends that were not able to go due to health reasons.  I thought they might like camping@home mail.

 

post card frontpost caard backs

Three Blind Mice!

Three blind mice! In this case I have four blind mice but the result was the same.  I had this pattern from Fig Tree & Co.  The Three blind mice pattern. Oh, they were fun to make. Fast and easy.  They are filled with some batting and craft pellets.  These particular mice were thanks yous for some special ladies who cooked and planned meals for an adult Girl Scout volunteer event.  We all go out to one of the camps owned by our council and have a wonderful time visiting, crafting, singing and what ever else we want to do.  The three ladies who help organize menus and meals are all sewing, hand craft types of ladies and they all use pin cushions.  Mice are always a part of any camping experience and a perfect match was made.  The fourth mouse was a thank you to a woman who helps us with craft ideas and wasn’t able to make it this time due to illness.  I also have another mouse cut out and half sewn for myself.

Three Blind Mice

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Three Blind Mice

Making Lanyards

Making lanyards for the girls was lots of fun.  I started with one of the Robert Kaufman Girl Scout roll ups and separated the strips into the Girl Scout prints and the coordinating prints.  For this project I knew that I wanted to the use the fabric that was specifically Girl Scout themed.  Becuase the strips were two and a half inches wide, I cut my light weight interfacing two inches wide and ironed it to the inside.  Then I folded and pressed the fabric so I could add the lanyard clip and finish the seam and do the top stitching.  This was a fairly quick project for one but of course did take a bit longer to make 24. That way we did a few extra for special staff and other gifts.  The girls were able to use their lanyard for their whistle and their schedules which they put in plastic name tag holders.  All in all, making lanyards was a very successful project!

roll up

zippers and lanyard clips

lanyards

lanyards

The Next Step

The next step in my adventure was to match up the strips and the zippers.  I knew that I wanted each of the zip pouches to be unique.  I wanted the strips in pairs of patterns and also didn’t want to be too random and stuck at the end with odd color combinations of strips and zippers.  I took the roll ups apart, matched two of the plain prints with a patterned print and then added a coordinating zipper.  I laid them out on the cutting table about 20 at a time and them clipped them together with a binder clip and put them in a basket.  My friend and co-director volunteered to sew the strips together and press the seams open.  That was a life saver for sure!  With a few strips isn’t not so bad but when you are talking in the neighborhood of 70 or so.. this accounts for some extras and several “test” pouches.

 

pairs of fabric strips

strips on the table

strips with zippers

When I got the strips back from Linda, I cut the strips in half and restacked them with a layer of batting.  At this point I could baste them and head for the sewing machine. Now it’s on to the next step.

 

Camp and a Girl Scout 100th birthday celebration.

Camp and a Girl Scout 100th birthday celebration.  What do they have in common? Well of course, this is a Girl Scout camp so we have to celebrate the birthday.  As a co-director my thoughts deal with staffing as much as girl activities.  The adults spend many hours planning and preparing for camp and then volunteer to spend a week of their summer as camp counselors so 160 girls can spend a week out doors cooking, canoeing, swimming doing crafts, archery and nature activities.  Of course there is singing and learing to work in a team environment as well.  We are an all volunteer run camp so money that is collected from the camp fee is used for the camp rental, food and camp program. At the end of the week we like to celebrate with an all camp campfire and thank the adults who helped with a small token of our appreciation.  It’s always a challenge to think of something that might be fun, meaningful, useful and not just a trinket. Last year I realized that the Robert Kaufman company had produced a wonderful line of Girl Scout fabric.  I knew it would be fun to make something for the staff and for the high school girls who worked as program aids. The dilemma was as we are a non-profit organization and volunteer run camp we did not have much money for thank you gifts and buying fabric to make gifts for 80 people was in our budget.  I also was concerned about sewing 80 items in enough time for camp.  My original thought was pillow cases.  I knew from experience that I could make pillow cases in an assembly line fashion and with several months lead time I could probably make 80.  The Robert Kaufman company agreed to donate Girl Scout roll ups.  If you are not a quilter you may not have figured out that pillow cases were not happening with roll ups. Roll ups consist of 40  2 .5″  strips of fabric.  I was thrilled with the donation but knew I would have to come up with a different plan.

roll up bos of roll ups

The thinking cap went on and now I was to plan #2. After a bit of experimentation and discussion with my co-director we decided that zip pouches for the adults and lanyards for the girls would be perfect for the fabric available. The adults would love the Girl Scout fabric in the zip pouches and the girls would find the lanyards useful for their schedules and their whistles.

The next project was to order supplies and make a few trial versions.

zippers and lanyard clips

All was ready for step number two.

 

Dabbler Badges

When I was growing up in the Girl Scout organization one of the badges that you could earn was a Dabbler Badge. To complete this badge you had to complete activities from several areas.  As part of our 100 year birthday celebration retreat activities we decided to create our own Dabbler Badge. The change of place did mean some modification in what we did but everyone had a great time in spite of the changes. For our badge we rotated between, semaphore flags, folk dancing, fire building and knots. The semaphore activity and fires and knots were all done sitting at tables so this was a modified activity.  Fires were edible fires and there was no burning of buildings involved. At the end of activity each participant was awarded a Dabbler Badge. I made these from a patch I created and printed on the printer. Next I inserted the paper into a plastic page protector sleeve. I then sewed around each patch about 3/4 of the way. After I cut the circles out I inserted the magnets into the back of the sleeve behind the badge and then stitched them up on my sewing machine.  It was a fun activity that was not hard but did take some time. Like with the magnet making activity the first six were quick but when I got to 48 I was glad to be done.

 

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