From the Learning Room ~ Homemade Dye and “A New Coat for Anna”

One of our activities last week to go along with our study of “A New Coat for Anna” by Alfred A. Knopf was to make a homemade dye, as they did in the story. In the story, Anna and her mother picked lingonberries to “make a beautiful red dye”. This was the first time I had ever heard of lingonberries, so I didn’t expect to find any, but I did have some fresh blueberries in the freezer that would make a nice substitute.

First I boiled a pan of water -

Next I added the blueberries (thawed) and let them boil for about 1/2 hour – until it looked like the water had turned a nice deep color -

I took them off of the heat and let them set for awhile to steep as much color out of the berries as possible. I then strained them through cheesecloth into another pan. I gave each child a swatch of white fabric and they each placed their swatch into the pan of dye. We pressed the fabric down into the dye with a wooden spoon and left it for awhile, while we watched our nightly “Little House” episode. -

When we came back to it, the white fabric swatches had turned a lovely shade of purple! We squeezed them out and laid them on waxed paper to dry.

Tommy’s finger here is pointing to the white swatch (hard to see) we started with, which shows the transformation -

I will be ironing these and then cutting them into the shape of a coat(s). We will then mount them on a piece of cardstock with the title of the book and they will be placed into the children’s notebooks.

Another short project that I did with the littles last week was to make these cotton ball sheep -

The olders and I read about sheep in the encyclopedia and we all took a short drive down the road to take a look at a neighboring farmer’s flock of sheep.

I shared these pictures earlier of the children weaving placemats to complement our study -

We haven’t played that game of “Made for Trade” yet, as I did end up taking Anna in to the doctor for an infected ear, but we did spend some time discussing bartering and, hopefully, we’ll be able to get that game in today.

If you’d like to see what other topics we discussed in relation to this story, click here.

Have a wonderful day!

Blessings,
Nancy

Grandma’s Apron

The aprons in the picture above are from my collection – the fruit apron was actually my grandmother’s apron, while the other three are some that Jeff bought me – he likes to hunt for them on Ebay for me and usually buys those with hand stitchery or quilting, and, of course, gingham, because he knows how much I love it!

My Mom sent me this e-mail and I loved it so much I just had to share it here.

The History of Aprons

I don’t think our children know what an apron is.

The principal use of Grandma’s apron was to protect the dress underneath, because she only had a few, it was easier to wash aprons than dresses and they used less material, but along with that, it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven.

It was wonderful for drying children’s tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears.

From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.

When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids.

And when the weather was cold, Grandma wrapped it around her arms.

Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove.

Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron.

From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables. After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.

In the Fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees.

When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds.

When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner.

It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that ‘old-time apron’ that served so many purposes.

REMEMBER:

Grandma used to set her hot baked apple pies on the window sill to cool. Her granddaughters set theirs on the window sill to thaw.

They would go crazy now trying to figure out how many germs were on that apron. I don’t think I ever caught anything from an apron . . . but Love!!

I don’t know who wrote this, but it brightened up my day! I hope it did your’s too! And I’ll certainly be thinking about all of these things the next time I pull out one of my aprons to wear!

Have a lovely day!

Blessings,
Nancy

A Few Craft Projects

I have several different handwork projects going and thought I’d give you a peek –

This is my main sewing project of the moment. It is Michael’s Christmas stocking that I am cross-stitching. I have finished all of the cross-stitches, and am now working on the backstitching or outlining all over the stocking. As you might be able to tell, I am partially done with this, too. I really want to get it done this year for Christmas, as it has been an on-going project for a number of years now – I pick it up for awhile, and then ignore it for awhile. I need to finish it, as there are two more stockings waiting in the wings to be sewn for Anna and David.

Here is a quilt I am “working” on. I hesitate to call it that because I haven’t worked on it in months. But it is sitting on my dresser, staring at me, begging me to give it attention – and I really, really want to, but there always seems to be something else calling my name, as well. I have only completed one block. It is a block-of-the-month program through my local quilt store – I pick up a new block kit each month and am storing them up until I have time to work on it. It is called “Be Attitudes” by Nancy Halvorsen. It would probably go much faster if I used the sewing machine, but I am hand-stitching it, so it will take a bit longer.

Here is what the finished quilt should look like (someday) -

This is another quilt that I have going. I started it before I joined the block-of-the-month above. It is a Thimbleberries pattern called “Month by Month” by Lynette Jensen. There is a different block for each month of the year. I have completed January and February, and was working on March when I set it aside. If I remember correctly – someone got into my basket and decided to practice cutting on my almost completed March block, and I never got around to recutting fabric to redo the sections that were damaged. I do love this pattern, and look forward to picking it back up again soon.

The last one I have to show you is just a little tidbit that I started the other night at our monthly Keepers of the Faith meeting with the girls. Our lesson this month was on crochet, which I do not have any experience with. I tried to teach myself years ago and gave up, so I was glad to have the opportunity to try it again. I really don’t intend to make this one a new hobby, since I don’t have time for the ones I already have, but I really did enjoy working with the yarn – the colors are so beautiful – and so, I may pick it up from time to time and work a few rows. We’ll see.

That’s all for now – if I get myself off of this computer, I just might have some time to work on some of these projects! If I don’t show back up later – which I may, I have a delicious apple tart recipe to share – have a lovely weekend!

Blessings,
Nancy

The Simple Woman’s Writing Post

Do you enjoy keeping the lost arts?

Do you enjoy getting mail that is special?

Do you enjoy using pretty papers and pens?

Do you enjoy using the “art of the long hand”?

Do you enjoy meeting other women?

Do you remember the “round robin” letters from girlfriends?

Do you enjoy finding that “just right” card to put in the mailbox?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions you may enjoy the *new* “Simple Woman’s Writing Post”…

(excerpted from The Simple Woman)

Peggy at The Simple Woman (home of The Simple Woman’s Daybook), has had a wondeful new idea! She is starting The Simple Woman’s Writing Post. She is organizing writing circles, where the longtime art of letter writing, by hand, can flourish. If you love beautiful stationery and papers, card-making and corresponding with other women, then you may want to join The Simple Woman’s Writing Post. Just click here to find the guidelines and the opportunity to sign up – the deadline is Sunday, August 17th.

Thank you, Peggy, for this lovely idea!

Blessings,
Nancy