Up and away *

We have reached a milestone of sorts. Matthew has been invited to birthday party by a school friend for the second year in a row. Which in friendship terms is a good thing, but in present giving terms is a bit more challenging. Up until now Matthew has given his friends drawstring back packs, but Kyle already has one, so I had to think again…


This Christmas I made pencil cases for each of my children, so Robert suggested I carry that forward. However I didn’t have any stash fabric which seemed right for this project – sturdy enough for a pencil case, or boyish enough for a 7 year old boy. However, with the use of another remnant of calico, a recycled zip, my trusty fabric paints and a wooden stamp I bought at last year’s Knitting and Stitching Show I made this…


The kites on their own seemed a little random to me, so I worked in the idea of a simplistic skyline over which the kites would fly. Slightly rustic, but definitely an idea I want to take further. To make it a more complete present I have  (obviously) filled the case with pencils, and printed out  a couple of pages of the Paper City Road Trip from Made by Joel to create a whole activity set. 

*(Title courtesy of Robin who was very taken with the colourful kites and spent the morning dancing around singing “up and away”.)