Last year, when we went to Michigan near Traverse City for the first time, I had no idea that it was the cherry capital of the Midwest. Cherries are used in everything: salsa, barbecue sauce, ice cream, wine, coffee…the list goes on. They even had cherry-flavored dog treats at the Cherry Republic where I couldn’t resist a jar of cherry preserves.
A few days ago, I had the best cherry pie I’ve ever tasted, and I’m not usually a big fan of cherry pies. Anyway, all these fruit-infused products reminded me of this fabric that’s been sitting in my stash and then I saw the apple+pear fabric and the fruit theme emerged.
To be honest, I’m a little cherried-out. So rather than trying to figure out what to do with these sweet fabrics, I thought you might like them?
The cherry print is Robert Kaufman’s Metro Market, and I have about a yard of it. The apples and pears have “Timeless Treasures” on the selvedge, but I can’t for the life of me remember where I got it. There’s at least a yard and a half, it looks like. They both appear to be quilting cotton but would make excellent pinafores, pillows, lunch bags – the options are limitless.
To enter the giveaway, I was thinking about all the kid-friendly summertime activities we so enjoyed during our Michigan vacation. This reminded me of the quote from Joseph Campbell: “What did you do as a child that made the hours pass like minutes? Herein lies the key to your worldly pursuits”. Perhaps this generation of kids will all pursue ipad/device-oriented careers, but when I was a kid, I lived largely in my imagination, drawing and writing and reading. What about you? What was your favorite childhood pastime?
The giveaway will be open until Thursday, July 11th, 5pm. I will announce the winner the next day, and as always, I am happy to ship internationally. Good luck!
The hours passed like minutes when I was reading as a child. They still do!
We’re packing up for a trip to Traverse City right now! (Or I should be instead of on the computer, actually.) My favorite thing to bring back is dried cherries. Mmmmmmmm!
As a child, I spent a lot of time reading. That, and playing “Xena, Warrior Princess” with my little brother. Hehe.
For me it was reading Donald Duck and Doraemon. Heehee!
We were always in cubbies. Cubbies up trees, cubbies made in long grass, cubbies dug underground behind the chicken pen at school. And on a rainy day we’d make cubbies out of blankets and the kitchen stools.
Reading, and roller-skating on the street with the type of skates that strap on to your sandals. (It was the 80s and roller skating was all the rage. I miss it!) And playing in the front yard with kids from the street.
I was very dreamy and liked to hide in the vegetable patch- pretending it was a magic forest. Also- during the summer i was hungry for learning and doing academic type things (!) and would write book reports and have my parents grade them. those fabrics are sweet, btw! i’m seeing a very fun apron for me- my old one has holes in it and i’m a slob in the kitchen.
Oh, Gita, you must be my long-lost imaginary friend!!
Riding our bikes, and following the trails in the woods behind our house made the summer FLY past!
As a child during the summer, I’d take a raft into my family’s tiny backyard swimming pool with a pile of books. I’d float around and read for as long as my mom let me stay out in the sun. 🙂
Paper dolls were the thing that kept me busy for days. I would create entire wardrobes with accessories and hats! Oh how I love paper dolls.
Definitely playing the A Team up the hill behind my house with my best friend. I was always Murdoch and she was Face!
Here I am from Michigan, and have never even made it to the Traverse City Cherry Festival! Part of that would be my aversion to crowds . . .:) Fun fact – last year we had a very warm spring and then a late freeze that killed all the cherry blossoms in TC, and therefore all the cherries. But the festival must go on so they imported all the cherries from other places! I’m assuming this year you enjoyed the bona fide TC cherries:)
As for my favorite summer pastime as a child – reading, biking to the library, reading some more. Could not get enough.
We lived on a big ranch in the mountains when i was a kid, i spent countless hours running outside, catching fish, climbing trees, riding bikes. We would be outside all day, it felt like no time had passed before we were being called in for lunch or dinner…The best memories!
As a child, I spent most of my time reading, and drawing …
And eating lol, I remember I was a very fat child, it did not help that I was very short too … I remember wanting to grow up so much so I could do as I want and don’t have to do as my parents say … I thought being a grown up would be so cool, lol, now I think I’ve made a mistake, I should stay a child forever where my biggest problem was running out of candy … :p
Anyway, thanks so much for the chance 🙂
I had a strong imagination as a child and spent hours reading in my room or daydreaming. And I just remembered, that I used to make lots of dresses out of my father´s handkerchiefs for my barbie dolls. Future dressmaker! 😉
Thank you so much for the chance to win!
I grew up with 4 siblings so my childhood was very fun. We would always sing into the fan because it sounded like a microphone a little bit. We loved playing in the huge tree outside and in the backyard. Sigh…those were good simple times.
Building forts and little hide aways with my brother. In fact, today I spent all afternoon building forts with my kids…guess I still love it! (We also did a lot of Miami Vice re-enactments…not pretty!).
Reading, I could read for hours and hours, and apart from that, playing in our garden with my little brother, playing soccer or badminton, riding bikes…we never seemed to be bored..we were just too busy being happy I suppose!
We always played house–building our houses out of pine boughs, rocks, old shower curtains… and anything else we could sneak out of the house!
I can tell you my summer activities. I remember riding downhill on a bike with my friends Esther and Sharon, it was so steep that we felt like we were flying. We’d pump back up and fly down over and over again. Sharon used to joke that she had “dead legs” afterward (I can still hear her voice saying that, in my mind).
My sister and I used to go to the community pool almost every afternoon from 3:30 to 5:00. I couldn’t swim until I was 8 or so, but I still loved going to the pool and goofing around. I taught myself to float one year by practicing daily – enough that when I finally got the hang of it, another mom, who had (unknown to me) watched my efforts throughout the summer, praised my persistence.
Reading, reading and reading!!!! Agatha christie and Stephen King where my favourites and i used to read before going to sleep liying in my bed so i ended up with los of neck-ache and back-ache….. Cos at 3 am i was still reading most of nights.
Making pretend worlds under the huge canopy of my parents’ big leaf maple tree. The moss was carpet, the root knobs chairs…I loved it!
Those fabrics are so cute! I read a lot as a kid but I also loved building forts with my brother and cousins.
I grew up in government housing, so lots and lots of neighbours kids. We would go ride our bikes or roller skates aorund the neighbourhood. At the gardens not too far away, we would go climb trees and play hide and seek. Its where good frineds aremade as I have kept in contact with so many and we are all arond the world now!
Reading, reading, reading. I remember arguing with my dad about wanting to walk to my favorite used bookstore by myself when I was 10 or 11.
My favorite summer memory is climbing the dogwood tree in our yard with a bag fun of books and candy 🙂 That and playing manhunt with all the kids in the neighborhood. I’m trying this summer to create great memories for my own kids with lots of fun at the lake. So far they are having a blast!
Reading and cross-stitching! Oh, and daydreaming too!
I loved reading as a kid. I carried a book everywhere. Even in the bathtub.
Another great memory is playing “mailbox” with my friend. We would use bandaid boxes as mailboxes. Then we spent hours creating mini catalogs for the other to order items from and filling the orders.
In the winter I read a lot, but summer found me outside playing on my swingset and playing the in the playhouse my dad built for me.
What I remember doing the most as a child to pass the time was build over the top Lego cities with my little brother. We would block off the whole family room and fill it with shops, fire stations, houses, hotels, and lots of other buildings. I really cherish all those memories with my brother. We are super close and I really believe it was all our imaginative playing that heavily influenced this outcome of hilarious friendship.
Mostly spent either holed up reading, or outside exploring. If we were inside we were made to do jobs! So outside was preferable! 🙂
I remember holed up reading Enid Blyton books. Otherwise, it is simple games of classic old maid, donkeys with siblings.
Wow so pretty!! Crafting!! I loved it and have fallen in love with it again! Nothing passes the time like it or makes me more happy. Crafted with homemade play-dough, beads, friendship bracelets, paper baskets, weaving with some sort of wood (don’t remember), embroidery, cross stitch, sewing, baking, and knitting. My mom was obviously very crafty and she passed it onto me. She even came to my school and taught each classroom crafts for holidays and such. Great times! I love that quote!!
Thank you for the chance 🙂
Eeeeeee!!! Cutest fabrics!!!
Definitely melted many hours away with my nose in a book…that and probably crafting (paper crafts and sewing). Ask my mom, though, and she’ll probably say climbing walls and going to the emergency room.
Fun give-away! Thanks for doing this.
I passed so much time reading and reading some more… oh and playing outside with my brother when my mom wouldn’t let me read anymore! 🙂
Hi
First of all, o loved your blog. During my childhood summer, our most cherished memories was that of family visits, and endless playtime with our cousins, shopping back in our native, etc. All that has come to pass now!!!
beautiful fabric! thank you for the chance to win!
i played playmobil all the time. i invented the funnest stories 🙂 and i also loved to draw and play in the backyard. i truly had a fantastic childhood 🙂
I was very lucky and grew up on a farm. One of my favourite memories is going for picnics on the island in the river (it wasn’t actually an island but I had a child’s imagination back then! ) and then going for a swim in the only stretch of the river that was deep enough.
I was like you – drawing and painting, but I also read a lot. I would go under the bed with a flashlight and read all day if it was raining, or go under a shady tree, a beach chair, wherever with a book. I also loved swimming, and still do, so much of my childhood summers was spent at the beach or in pools.
Thank you very much for this giveaway.
I think there are a lot of good things with such technologic orientated kids, but i also think we should try to balance and instigate them to try other things. I kept my childhood traveling wherever my imagination lead me. I was really creative with the kind of game i made up and the stories i imagined. I spent a lot of time alone, so i guess this was a normal thing for me. I also spent my days drawing and reading, and even alone i din’t felt the absence and i had a pretty happy childhood 🙂
As a child I spent hours drawing pictures with my grandma, she’d challenge me with ideas to draw and I would create them – I lived it.
I spent a lot of time reading. But I also made things. I would sew clothes and things for dolls. Sewing is a relative term here, a lot of my creations were tied on, not a stitch on it. But starting 6-7 I also used a sewing machine. My mom had a hand crank machine that also had a motor. I was allowed to use it as hand crank. And I did. I was often the only one inside the house, sewing some tiny crooked things. Right now, looking back, I am really grateful that my mom just showed me how to use it and then didn’t hover. In fact, a couple years ago, when my daughter was 5, I bought her a 3/4 size machine for her own (mine is a bit sensitive machine and I don’t quite feel comfortable with her using it alone). And she has occasionally sewn on it with no assistance whatsoever, I always try to stay away and let her figure out her own creative thingamabobs.
Actually, my daughter does exactly what I did at her age. She creates (though she favors tape and paper) and reads. And as soon as we get to grandma’s place (in Estonia) she will roam the village with her friends coming home when it gets dark 🙂
Climbing trees! Though I don’t see myself doing anything like that as a career… Crafting, reading and dancing are still favourite pastimes, maybe even necessities, as a child and nowadays!
As a child I loved to read, make beaded hair things, knit, cross stitch, and journal. I didn’t get into sewing until after my daughter was born – now I sew her clothing all the time! She would love this fabric and is only 4, so one yard could make her a dress. Thanks for having a giveaway!
beautiful fabrics! would love to make a reversible pinafore with them. two things i loved to do as a kid: reading until i fell asleep in the wee hours, and singing over and over along with my favorite whitney houston songs until i could synchronize with her every breath. 🙂
I loved to read and play with my dolls. I adored fair tails with handsome princes and beautiful maidens. Now a mother of 8 who still loves romantic books and films. Things haven’t changed much!
Sorry Sanae, the link for Bola Bekel should be this one:
http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/bola%20bekel
I spent hours outside with my sisters — sometimes working, sometimes playing, and lots of exploring.
Hi, I’m a reader from New Zealand. When I was a kid, my thing was making houses. I’d make them anywhere … fairy houses in the garden with found materials, townhouses with wooden blocks, little-set-ups in random corners. I also had very elaborate model making books, of the cut and glue variety, and when I was about 13 I started designing and making my own model houses. Thank you for asking that question, it has taken me on a real nostalgic trip.
I spent long summer afternoons high up in the branches of trees where I was living in other worlds, talking with imaginary friends, and daydreaming.
When I was a kid, my background play structure became a ship and we would sail around and meet/be mermaids, swim with dolphins and generally explore the world.
My sister and i would play outside in the yard until it was time for dinner. We used our imagination and our bikes and enjoyed the outdoors.
As I kid I mostly passed the hours playing with my 3 sisters. Sometkmes we would take out all our stuffed animals and divide them into 3 classes and teach them. My youngest sister would be a student. 🙂 sometimes we’d tell each other stories. Other times we’d do craft projects for my Mom which would then become a long clean up. 🙂 Keeping my fingers crossed.
As a child I spent a LOT of time climbing trees and playing in them. :o). My mom always has cherry pie for her birthday instead of cake.
I used to love to play journalist. I would nag my family for the latest “scoop” and then painstakingly type a newspaper (on a typewriter!) about happenings in our house and neighborhood. One headline I remember was “dad loses car keys before he goes to work!”. They were recovered eventually. I believe my brother buried them in the sandbox.
Left to my own devices I would read and read and read. Occasionally my mother would throw me out of the house so I’d wander off to the local fields or park with the dog and a picnic and….a book! I mourn the passing of a time when you could happily let your child do that.
Oh I loved making dens, but if the weather was not so good I spent hours making cardboard dolls houses with flour and water glue! Not always a success!
Hey I live in traverse city. We enjoy the cherry festival every summer. It is a lot of fun with the kids. I am also glad its over.
Now that it has w as warmed up we can spend our days at the beach.
reading reading reading! that’s what I wanted to do when I was a kid. I mourn for the days when I could just read for as long as I wanted to without the distractions of life and technology.
I also spent a good bit of my childhood reading. It is still my favorite way to unwind and my favorite books are still the Anne of Green Gables series.
My favorite pass time was taking pictures so much fun. Use to take pictures all around the area where I lived.
When I was a kid, we spent hours and hours playing games outside. Tag, spud, hide and seek, move trees move, Johnny cross my ocean, Mother may I, Red light Green light, and a host of others. I don’t remember watching much television or any video games. We also played softball and football. Great memories!
My mother was born in Michigan. I’ve not been to the Traverse City area. I do have a cousin in Sault Ste Marie who is 107 years old! 🙂
Thank you for offering such pretty fabrics. I have some young granddaughters who would look very nice in them!
I love Traverse City! We have a summer cabin just north in Lake Leelanau. Most beautiful place on earth I think. Oh and how I wish I could have some cherries right now.
As a child I spent many hours playing with femo, legoes, building forts and teepees, swimming, and climbing trees. Those were the days…
am I too late?? My favourite pasttime was drawing cut out dolls and dressing them up in self drawn outfits.