Apple Art and Lucas' Cat

Today there was no school . . . yet again! We had a very small group--Lucas and Holger most of the day, and then Ria and Iain for part of the day (and, as always, Josephine the whole day!).

After Ria arrived, knowing that she loves stuffed toy animals, the kids piled them up in front of her, much to her delight.

For a snack, we had apples, but to literally add a twist, we used my grandmother's apple peeler and this time, instead of just peeling, we sliced as well. Lucas referred to this as apple art, and it certainly turned out fun . . . and yummy!

Jo slices her apple . . .

Holger's apple . . .


For weeks Lucas has been asking me if we can make stuffed toy animals. There has never been a good time for this, but with a very LONG day and only a few kids, today was perfect. I showed Lucas a pattern to a stuffed frog I'd made years ago and explained how he'd have to create a pattern where all the parts are separate. He did so, and then we scanned and resized the parts on the computer. Here is his cat in pattern form:


Each color represented a different fabric, which the chart below explained.

The next step then was to cut out all the pieces, sew them together, and then Lucas stuffed them with fiberfill.

The various pieces were then all sewn together. Here is the creator with his finished cat:

It turned out really cute. Lucas definitely had a vision and gave me many instructions along the way as to where the legs should be sewn, how the head should be attached, etc.

The tail was fantastic, made up of many different fabrics. It sort of looks like that of a ring-tailed lemur.

Such a sweet face!