inspired sewing

i had a fabulous opportunity to get lots of project time this weekend: general conference. twice a year instead of regular sunday worship sessions, our church's worldwide leadership broadcasts four two-hour sessions of inspirational talks over the course of the weekend. our family watches from home via the internet.

to keep little hands busy and mouths quiet while we watch, i allow the children to pull out their sewing boxes and create. even the four-year old got to stitch this time. i gave her a small hoop with some muslin in it, some inexpensive embroidery thread, and a tapestry needle. (normally i use burlap because the large, loose weave is easy for little hands to navigate - but i couldn't find my surplus.) she was happily occupied for most of the conference with selecting colors and simply putting the needle in and out where ever she pleased. a few times she flipped the hoop and the thread got wrapped around from front to back, but it was easily fixed. after the first time or two she quickly recognized what she had done, making it easier for me to unpick. love to see them progress in understanding like that. just look at that big smile on her face (which looked a lot bigger as it scrunched into her eyes before i had to crop half her face for privacy reasons.)

the two oldest girls dove into churning out felt pastries for the play kitchen's food collection.

then the oldest daughter picked up some of the cutting scraps and turned them into this cute little scrap bug, purely from her imagination.

i felt like i had project ADD as i jumped from one project to the next, doing a bit of this one and some more of that one as i had the chance over the two days. lots to report for my wip this week!

my favorite talks heard while doing all this crafty goodness?

importance of family to the fabric of society, m. russel ballard (here)
how trials help us grow, henry b. eyring (here)
the race of life, thomas s. monson (here)