ideas please.
 

Hi - I know if anyone can then you guys can come up with ideas for a small group of young sewing enthusiasts.

This morning I received a text from my 12 year grandaughter inviting me to her lunch time group on Tuesday and Wednesday lunchtimes at school. "Grandma, I was telling my friends that you were coming in September and that you were a quilter. We all said that we would love you to come and do some sewing things with us." Isn't that lovely - I was thrilled.

After a few more texts I find out there's 9-12 of them, al 12 - 13yrs, and mostly do small craft items that they can achieve in 2 or 3 ½ hour sessions. They do all sorts in this little group that they started in January as newbies in a girls high school, mostly teaching each other something they know how to do. All they've done sewing wise was make poppies - a red yoyo with a black button .

Off the top of my head I've come up with pipkin purses, woven hearts, mug-rugs, and 3D flowers - any other ideas?
They'll sew by hand but Siân says we could take in our machine. (I keep an old Janome at their house)

I live in North Wales, UK and my family near Canberra in Australia. Can't wait to see my family but now I have the added privilege of passing on a love of sewing/quilting to young girls who want to learn. Think I might have to chuck a few things out the suitcase and take part of my stash with me!!

Over to you now - any ideas? Thank you in anticipation.

How about those easy tissue holders? Those could be done by hand or machine. They only take minutes each so maybe they'd like to make their moms one as well.

Because they do mostly hand sewing how about something with hexi's so they can keep working on it when not in group. Some hand applique would be fun too :-) I think its great that you will be able to share with your grand's that is awesome!!

I agree with Plumtree - I was going to suggest that as well!!

Oh - and have a great time planning this - I hope your trip is fantastic.

I've been teaching my 10 year old granddaughter to sew. I told her she needed to learn hand sewing before she could use a sewing machine. Here are a few things I found when searching for ideas.

http://www.lovetosew.com/freepatternscraftsforkids.htm - string of hearts and beads; heart pillow
http://missyballance.typepad.com/cra...pillow_tu.html - four patch pillow with pocket for stuffed bunnies. Pattern for the bunny is included. Cute!
http://spoonful.com/crafts/flower-power – felt flowers. Quick and easy and can be used for many things. She made a hair clip.

Since your group of girls know how to make yo yo’s, show them what can be made with them:
http://spoonful.com/crafts/squash-softies - mini pumpkins. We made these. Adorable!
http://zakkalife.blogspot.com/2009/0...-bracelet.html - bracelet

I don't have any ideas for you I'm sure you will get plenty from here. Have a great time on your visit and I hope you will have time to visit Floriade (14 September – 13 October http://www.floriadeaustralia.com/ ) while you are close to Canberra

If you can arrange to have a couple of sewing machines, pillowcases would be fun and easy.

A single large quilt block that could be made into a pillow ~16" or 12" plus 2" border around it.

Maybe a friendship star, or even a large 9 patch. If you want to do hexies, check out the sizes of round pillow forms and then choose the size of the hexies.

http://erinerickson.com/2011/11/circ...ouch-tutorial/

Instead of a zipper, you could overlap the opening (like when doing the back of a pillow cover). You could use those small velcro dots, or snaps to close the opening. They could hand sew those on. You could also make it square. It might be easier for those that might not have sewn before. No matter what you make, it sounds like fun!! Good luck.

My 13 year old granddaughter made lots of flannel PJ bottoms for her family when she visited me this year. They are an easy project that can be made in lots of crazy colors. The most fun she had sewing was making hair scrunchies for herself and her sister. She went through all my stash and must have made 25 of them, all remarkable colors. All the materials needed were fabric and elastic ( they were sewn on my machine).