a crafty book review by Aria!

One day, not so long ago, a book arrived by mail. Always a happy moment! This time, the book inside was one I'd requested from C & T for Aria to review. It's We Love to Sew by Annabel Wrigley.

How cute, right? With how much Aria (age 8) enjoyed Sewing School, a learn-to-sew book that focuses entirely on hand sewing, I figured she would really love another. I mean, she seriously made virtually every project in Sewing School and some more than once. It was definitely time for more inspiration!

So, I sidled up to Aria, flashed the goods and baited her, "Want to earn this book?" She began eagerly flipping through while I explained that she'd need to do one test project and then write a little about her thoughts on the book. Then, I'd share her review here at Stitched in Color and, boom - it'd be hers!

She made this cupcake project that very, very day. No time like the present! Look how nicely she machine sewed the black embroidery? Way to go, girlie!

Let me tell you a bit about the book. First, awesome photography and design. The book is incredibly visually appealing through and through.

Second, chock full of good messages. For example, these "thoughts to sew by" are so, soooo true. I especially appreciate the advice to "sew like a snail" because speed-sewing can lead to "tons of mistakes." This is the kind of stuff you don't have ears to hear from mom. Right? Right.

Yesterday I heard Aria reading this page aloud to Liam, who started doing some machine sewing this weekend. She has the teaching gene. Don't know where she gets that.

Third, the projects. Oh, my, totally adorable! There are things here that I want to make, like these necklaces. The book's 28 projects are rated by difficulty levels, spanning really easy peasy beginner stuff to skill-building projects using fusible web, zippers and elastic. This book is definitely a next step after Sewing School, which is just perfect for us!

Ok, do you want to know what Aria said? This is actually her first book report. She's into creative writing, but this - this was just about fulfilling her side of the bargain. She brought me a 5-sentence paragraph because Mrs. Herskind (her homeschool co-op teacher) says 5 sentences are "appropriate for kids my age." I didn't ask her to double-check her spelling, opting instead to preserve her writing, this time, with spelling and punctuation fully intact:

"The "we love to sew" book has easy to fallow drektions. If you have sewn a lot like me you don't even need t pay attintion to the levalls! I realy like how easy it is to do the prjects. I'm going to do the Raise the flag Quilt next. Mom's giving me the fabric."

And, done.

Which means she can get back to sewing, or in this case cutting out a bunch of felt stars. Can you blame her?

I let her pick out fabrics for her Raise the Flag quilt with access to my entire stash. It was quite interesting to see her pull things out, try them together and put them back, reaching for another. She settled on these fabrics for her stripes, noting that they all had white in common.

Grin. For the record, I think they look great.

Psst, notice the photographic step by step directions in the book above? Good stuff.