Craft Out

June 18, 2010

My pre-teen gal Lucy has been pondering lately what to call play dates with her mates. You see, she doesn’t really want to call them play dates anymore. And I admit, I never really liked the term all that much anyway. She decided recently, as she was planning some long awaited hang time with her dear friend Lilah, that she would call them hang outs.

Only problem being, she and her friend Lilah really didn’t want to spend time just hanging out either. They weren’t up for playing but the idea of just hanging made them both a little anxious. Too much pressure to just be. And to figure out what to do with their conversations and their hands and their hearts too.

As they got together this week, they decided they would each bring their sewing machines, pick a project, and get busy. They pondered all kinds of great patterns and projects out there – including a few sneak previews they got from our upcoming Future Craft Collective book Make Stuff Together. They strolled through One Yard Wonders which has lots of great small projects to peruse.They poured over Lotta Jansdotter’s Simple Sewing book too which we all love to drool over.

Finally, they decided they’d create their own. And, rather than each work on their own project, they would work together on a strip quilt lap blanket so that they could each have one on their respective summer airplane trips.They’d make one this week and then another next week (thereby guaranteeing some more time together too!)

Craft Out!!

They had a great time, as you can plainly see. And they made a beautiful blanket too that each one will have to always remind each other of their friendship – even when they’re traveling in opposite directions.

What we saw as mothers, were two girls seguing into the next portion of their developmental selves and their friendship too. The girls were both able to see how they are moving into that land that rests squarely between being little and being big. And they came up with a perfect new term for the kind of plan-oriented time they want to have with each other while they live in this land they’re in: A Craft Out.Not a play date. Not a hang out. But a Craft Out.

So, if you’ve got a pre-teen in the house and she’s trying to ease into this new life of hers, maybe she’d want to plan such time with a friend too. They can get together not to play, not to hang out, but to craft out. Together.

Posted in Family Projects