Building Readers -- One Baby at a Time

Books and Babies

"Research shows that reading aloud is the single most important thing you can do to help a child prepare for reading and learning," and "More than one in three children arrive at kindergarten without the skills necessary for lifetime learning." ~ www.readaloud.org

These two statements alone should convince parents (and the village that surrounds these children) that reading aloud is important.  All children need a village to encourage them in their pursuit of lifeskills.  Reading and all things related to literacy is important.  To that end whenever I give a baby gift, I include a book, sometimes a stuffed animal, and often a flannel blanket that I have made.  Books are an important part of the present.  Including a gift for the child sends a message to the parents to affirm their own idea that books are important - -and to the child who will be the recipient of the gift.  Make a statement -- reading is important -- give a book.  And consider including a copy of this Read Aloud brochure with each gift.  So here are some ideas...  

Lee Bennett Hopkins is a poet who is so respected for his own poetry collections as well as an anthologist, this 2015 collection Lullaby & Kisses Sweet: Poems to Love with Your Baby; with illustrations by Alyssa Nassner (Abrams Appleseed, 2015).  This book has a velvety soft cover, and a board book construction -- very well suited to young hands who will enjoy hearing this book read aloud time after time.

The bear motif cloth seems to be just right for this lullaby collection.  Soft green minky fabric was used for the back of the blanket, and the quilted blanket was edged in a darker green, white polka dot binding.  The back of the burp cloth and the bibs are a small white dotted green flannel.

In most cases, if I know the name of the baby, I create a small tab with the babies name and sew it into the binding making the blanket one that can be taken to daycare without any further marking.

These books and animals were chosen because I just liked the books. The baby chick fabric is a Robert Kaufman fabric - Urban Zoologie Mini Birds Spring in 100% cotton flannel.  Several stores carry this fabric.
The backing for the blanket is a rosette minky officially referred to as "minky swirl fabric."  I purchased the fabric in the hot pink minky rose swirl fabric and the light pink minky rose swirl, as well as a lime green minky swirl fabric.

I found a 100% cotton pink flannel with large white polka dots which I used to back the bib and burp cloth.  The bib pattern is included at the end of this blog; but the flannel burp cloth is simply a rectangle -- with flannel front and back finished at 8 1/2 inches x 17 inches.  So cut the rectangle to accommodate the seam that will need to be sewn.  I generally sew the items right side together, leaving an opening to turn the item so that the right sides are out, and then top stitch the outer edge of the seams.
With this gift, I actually included a very small blanket for an older sister's doll and included the second animal and book set, for the older sister.

The bird theme would lend itself to connecting the fabric gifts to favorite bird books.  Suggestions: You Nest Here With Me and Where Do Birds Live?

 

 Packaged and ready to be given.  I have started to create quilted cards to accompany the packages that I send.  The cards are created by sewing small pieces of the cloth used to create the gift.

I actually purchased the boxes I am using as the packaging but think I will attempt to use sturdy shoe boxes to decorate and wrap for the next gifts.  I'll see how that goes.

 If the child is a little older there might be some other items that could be gifted.  In this case a sundress created from a purchased t-shirt (to coordinate with an organization the parents were involved in), added fabric shoulder straps, ruffles, and matching bloomers.  I made a quilted card to coordinate with this gift and added a book.  Thematic books celebrating the patriotic Red, White, and Blue philosophy would be another good choice.  Janeczko's Firefly July, with illustrations by Melissa Sweet would be a great choice.  The book of poems provide poems that can be read during several sittings or all at once.  And Ryan's Flag that I love is an information book about the symbol of our patriotism -- a win-win in terms of books that celebrate our country and literacy.

The next time you find a baby in your life - consider giving a book with your gift; and with every other gift that you organize for any child in your life.

If you are interested in making a bib - you might wish to use this pattern.  When you download the pattern the square should measure 1 in x 1 in.  The x is where you will attach the velcro fastener strip.
As mentioned above the flannel burp cloth is simply a rectangle -- with flannel front and back finished at 8 1/2 inches x 17 inches.  So cut the rectangle to accommodate the seam that will need to be sewn.  I generally sew the items right side together, leaving an opening to turn the item so that the right sides are out, and then top stitch the outer edge of the seams.  The larger blanket is a square made the width of the fabric - two coordinating pieces quilted or tied and bound.  Obviously if you do not sew you might wish to select a purchased gift and find a book that coordinates with the theme -- or just enclose one of your favorites.

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Things I Love #1 - Vodka Starch

I was first introduced to this starch at a sewing guild meeting (Cedar Rapids Chapter of the American Sewing Guild)...
Count me as a doubter - but this really does work.  1 part Vodka (cheap will do) and 2 parts water (distilled but tap water works too).  Put in a spray bottle and mist fabric and press.  Works great.

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Green Frog Gifts -- unique gifts -- sewing and cooking

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Using Border Fabric Creatively

Border fabric provides compatible colors and fabric that can be used for small sewing projects.  In this case a holiday border fabric provides the greens and reds that can be used to create a holiday table topper.

The finished table topper will be 15 inches by 18 inches.  The center focus square/rectangle will be 9 x 12 inches.

A holiday themed border fabric provides several options for colors and designs and along with  a 1/2 yard of coordinating red fabric which together provides the fabric necessary for two 15 x 18 inch table toppers.  Eight steps.

1. Choose fabrics that include the colors that you want for your project.  Then create the center square/rectangle.

2. Once you have decided on the design that you wish to make; be prepared to fussy cut the parts of the border fabric that you want to use.

3. Cut two of the same size squares (a square of the border fabric and a square of the red) - decide how large you want the center square/rectangle and create a square as large as the largest dimension, plus 1 1/2 inches.  Sew the square closed on all four sides.

4. Cut the sewn square diagonally from corner to corner (X).  Press open and you will have FOUR 1/2 triangle squares. 

5. Arrange the 1/2 triangle squares into the pattern that you want.  Trim the square into the dimensions that you want.  in this case we wanted a finished piece 9 x 12 inch - so trimmed pieces was cut at 9 1/2 inches x 12 1/2 inches.

6.  Cut the green part of the border fabric into 1 1/2 inch strips and use as sashing on all four sides.

7.  Cut the red fabric into 1 1/2 inch strips and use as sashing on all four sides.

8.  Add a floral sashing for the amount of width that is needed to bring the size of the topper to 15 inches x 18 inches.  Cut a solid piece of the red fabric as the backing.  Put the pieced top on top of the batting and quilt the material as desired.  When the quilting was completed, place the backing fabric (red) face down on top of the right side of the pieced item.  Sew around all four sides leaving just a 2 1/2 inches opening to turn the sides so both right sides are out.  Press and sew the open closed, and finish with stitched edge.

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Green Frog Gifts -- unique gifts -- sewing and cooking

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Strawberries - Recipes and Books

Three of our favorite classic book titles featuring strawberries - bring memories of two of our favorite recipes for enjoying strawberries - with fruit dip and other fruit, and along side of chocolate (in this case fudgy fudge), and add a favorite gingerbread cookie recipe (delicious with strawberries and ice cream).

Strawberry etc. Fruit Dip (click on images for full sized copies)

Fudgy Fudge (click on images for full sized copies)

Honey Gingerbread Cookies (click on images for full sized copies)

Strawberry Books - Classics too good to miss

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A Tomato Pin Cushion - the History

A Tomato Pin Cushion - the History

Many sewists have traditionally utilized a tomato pin cushion to manage their pins for sewing, but most of us do not know why the shape was popular - as now there are many shapes and sizes of pincushions.  Households often had pin cushions (or pin pillows) of some type. Early on the pin pillows were ornate, and actually used more as a decorative item.  Eventually they were utilized for pin organization. By the Victorian Era, folklore tells us that a fresh tomato placed on the mantle or a new home warded off evil spirts and promised prosperity for the residents of a new home.  Fresh tomatoes were used initially but as they were only available during certain seasons and would not stay fresh for too long, the good-luck symbol was frequently created from fabric  and stuffed with sand or sawdust and made to look like the real thing with embellishments such as leaves and veins.  Eventually sewists realized that the tomato could also serve as something more useful.  As needles and pins were left around the house they were picked up and stuck into the tomato.  So the concept of a good-luck symbol and the utility of a sewist's pin pillow merged.  A strawberry was added, filled with sand, that aided in sharping pins.

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The pincushion is one of the basic tools that a sewist needs - other tools include a good fabric scissors, a fabric gauge, hand sewing needles, a cloth tape measure, and a needle threader (handy but optional).

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More Owls

Owls and Babies -

In an earlier post I shared a pink owl and a blue owl gift set I prepared for a friend to gift to her nephew's twin children - a baby girl and a baby boy.  That post, Owls and Bears and Elephants can be viewed at http://greenfroggifts.blogspot.com/2017/11/connecting-books-with-baby-gifts.html.   Those babies are now over a year old but so so cute.

But there is more owl fabric and more books for some other cute babies.

This owl flannel has larger owls with big wide eyes - so I used some of the blue minkie fabric and created a stuffed owl to go with the soft blanket.  And added an owl book.  

Little Owl's Colors by Divya Srinivasan (Viking Books for Young Readers, 2015; board book).

Green Mint Chocolate Cake

Green Frog Gifts loves anything green -- and this green mint chocolate cake is a great dessert to serve for any holiday get-together or St. Patrick's Day pot luck.  Simple as pie - well simple as cake.

 

Prepare cake mix as directed.  Substitute 1/4 cup of Creme de Menthe for 1/4 cup of the required water.   Add the oil and eggs as directed.

Optional: If you like a chocolately chunk component (and I do).  Take 3 Hershey's chocolate bars and chop them up.  Put into the batter and stir.

Bake and cool the cake.

Now for the topping - once the cake has cooled you will want to spread on the hot fudge layer.  Since the fudge is so thick I usually warm it in the microwave before spreading on the cake.
It'll still be warm on the cake so I stick the entire cake with the fudge layer into the freezer while I flavor the whipped topping.









I add a tablespoon or so of Creme deMenthe to the whipped topping and stir.  Add green food coloring if you want a deeper shade of green.

Cut the Andes mints into random chunks.

Spread the green Creme deMenthe flavored whipped topping on the cake over the fudge layer.  Randomly drop the Andes mints onto the top of the cake.

Share at your potluck or holiday meal.

Enjoy every crumb.

Do you have a book package that you'd like to order -- suggest something special just for you...  Visit Greenfroggifts on Etsy for the latest choices. 

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