small design

It was raining over the weekend so I gave the children a big square of linen each and told them they could design their own cushions to put on their beds- which was very exciting, for the first hour, at least.

I gave Keira a paintbrush and a selection of fabric paints, and let her paint directly on the surface of the fabric (the linen was a thick, close-weave type, which was good for this purpose.)  Arlo wanted to paint a train on his piece, so I found a piece of freezer paper, and he drew his design on that first. I cut it out for him (a bit frustrating- it took ages and I didn't include all his detail, and he lost a bit of interest in the project while I was doing this), and then he filled in the gaps with fabric paint:

After the paint had dried, I ironed the backs of the fabric to heat-set the designs, let the kids choose backing fabric to match (blue wool and some geometric barkcloth), and then sewed them up into covers.

K calls this 'clouds and grass' :