Tops to Treasures – On the Road Again Cartoon Towels
This post is part of the A Season by Hand series. Find the schedule here.
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Today we’re welcoming Cindy from Tops to Treasures! Cindy has a fun blog where she shares her beautiful quilts {and lots of free patterns she’s designed for the Moda Bake Shop!}. She also has a long arm quilting service that is ever growing. Cindy has done a lot of traveling herself, so she’s sharing some travel tips as well as a great project to make by hand for you or your children! Enjoy.
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Hello, this is Cindy Sharp from Tops to Treasures  taking a turn at the wheel of Clover & Violet while they are busy moving across our great country.
Road trips are some of my favorite memories…it is a great time to sit back, enjoy the view, and torment your brother I mean get to know your family better. I am the only girl in a family of six. I have two brothers older, and one younger. Every August my folks would pack up the station wagon and we would head out on an adventure.
My folks learned early on that the best way to keep little hands from poking one another is to keep them busy doing something else. They had several strategies, each unique to their own personalities.
Dad’s started with packing the car the evening before we left. He would pack our gear with the care that my grandfather packed china. Every bag, pack, and trunk was positioned to make the most of the space…and to create pockets for his 4 children and the dog.  Back then we didn’t have seat belts and car seats – we had pallets, and our folks pulled over to the side of the road when we felt the need to pitch a fit.
Leaving at o’dark-thirty insured that we slept half of the morning away.
Mom’s plans were a little more creative.  They started with “ditty bags”. I loved my bag. It only came out when we were traveling. I remember a simple sack with a draw string. It held about 1 cubic foot of whatever Mom thought to put in it. There was always a new toy – think Hot Wheel cars for my brothers, and a small doll for me.
There might be a coloring book with a tiny set of coloring pencils (crayons are not good in a hot summer car….they melt!) or some hard candies like Life Savers or Dum-Dums Lollipops. My favorite was the “Yes and No Magic Books” – puzzle books with a “magic” pen that made the answers appear.
As wonderful as driving in the dark, new toys, and candy are they still left a little to be desired after the 6th or 7th hour of driving. My mom and her friend (also a mother of 4 – boys) were talking about this one day as the friend left her boys at our house for the day.  You are not going to believe what Mom did….I have 3 boys. There is no way this was ever going to happen in my household. Well, maybe if we didn’t have Nintendo and movies on disc it might have happened. I guess I will never know. I’ve always thought it was brilliant…so I am going to share it with you today.
It starts with a coloring book.
SUPPLY LIST:
- coloring book, or coloring image grabbed from the web
- fine line pigma pen,
- light box – or a sunny window and some masking tape
- plain white dish towel (you could also use a plain pillow case or a piece of plastic needle point canvas)
- blunt embroidery needles
- selection of floss, or pearl cotton
- small zip lock sandwich bag
- embroidery scissors
- small embroidery hoop
TO DO BEFORE YOU LEAVE:
Teach them some very basic sewing skills. They do not have to be world class sewists for this project. All they have to do is stab and poke. They need to be able to sew well enough to stab and poke their way across a line you drew for them, nothing more.
Have your kids pick out one picture from their favorite book. I have two books on my desk – one with Tom and Jerry; the other with Looney Tunes.
Using the light box (window and tape), and the pigma pen trace the coloring book image onto your towel (pillow case, or canvas).
Pack a small zip lock sandwich bag with a supply of threads that could be used to color in the picture.
Pack a separate bag for yourself that contains extra needles, the scissors, and a needle threader if you need one.
TO DO ON THE ROAD:
Hand each kid their picture, and bag of colors and let them at it.
Honestly – my Mom taught her friend’s boys how to “sew”. They spent the grizzly part of their road trip peacefully filling in their pictures. All their mom heard was “Will you thread my needle?!”
A few years ago I pulled this idea out to make dish towels for my brother-in-law. He is a Foghorn Leghorn fan! I had a great time coloring, and sent him a very fun gift when I was done.
Donald Duck!:) i used to read the comic all the time:D
such a great idea. I think I might take some sewing on holidays for my boys – they really enjoy it.
oh my gosh! great ideas! our next camping trip is in 3 weeks! i need to start collecting for dtty bags now
Wow! What adventurous parents and creative ones, too. I love the idea of the towels to embroider. Embroidery was definitely a past-time when I was growing up. Girls and boys learned alike; wonderful for motor skills.
aaaah yes, my Mom kept me busy with embroidery,! And that was the start of my life long love of sewing, stitchery, knitting and crochet. Thanks for sharing, brought back memories!
Dad’s started with packing the car the evening before we left. He would pack our gear with the care that my grandfather packed china. Every bag, pack, and trunk was positioned to make the most of the space…and to create pockets for his 4 children and the dog. Back then we didn’t have seat belts and car seats – we had pallets, and our folks pulled over to the side of the road when we felt the need to pitch a fit.
What a great idea! I love the idea of the ditty bags too. I don’t remember what we used to do on long journeys, probably just argue with my brother, moan about the heat and say we were bored! Although it was never so hot that wax crayons would melt, yikes!
What a great idea!
Oh, that “Will you thread my needle?” really gets old, though! I suppose it is better than fighting or “Are we there yet?” on a road trip, though. I taught my oldest daughter to embroider, but she constantly pulls the thread all the way through.
Coloring books used to be my favorite way to get patterns! This is a great way to have something that kids are interested in to sew. I love the ditty bag idea was well.
Your mom was a genius! I will definitely remember this for future road trips!
Great idea! I’ll gave to remember tgis for when my girl is older!
I love this, but I’m not quite sure my son would go for it. (But then, he’s twelve. Nothing mom suggests is cool when you’re twelve.) Maybe I’ll try one myself on our next road trip… Mickey Mouse hand towels for our Mickey Mouse bathroom… hmm…
This is how I taught my granddaughter to embroider. I hope to do more this summer.
We didn’t take many trips when I was a kiddo, but hubby and I made up for that with our kids! I always took a little bag for each too. They liked to rug hook and make little potholders with the looms. I never thought to have them embroider~ very fun idea!
Love your ideas, and your projects are great!!
Our moms thought alike! I had the same fun stuff in my travel bag! I used to have my students 1st-3rd draw picturs and then embroider them. My favorite was a 2nd graders red bass boat!
You may not live in the area, but this is a great place encouraging the reuse of "Stuff". Stuff is very broadly defined as just about anything. The owner strives to pass along anything which might end up in a landfill, including potato chip bags or yogurt tubs. She posts lots of information on up use and nontoxic ideas for cleaning, beauty and health. This might inspire you to do something similar in your area.
Oh, I so enjoyed reading your post. Just delightful!
What a fun idea! I grew up with three brothers–no sisters, despite my begging my parents to trade in my older brother for one–and I’ll be honest… our game on long car rides to Vermont (10+ hours north) was to see how much skin we could scrape off our sibling when we scratched them. We grew up & none of us have had stints in the mental hospital, believe it or not. I think the coloring book embroidery would have been a much better use of our time. 😉
I love your mom’s ditty bags! And that coloring book embroidery is such a good idea for road trips! 🙂
I have a long road trip coming up soon. Shame my daughter is just too young to be trusted with a needle in a moving car! 🙂 Love the ditty bag though, will have to do that for sure.
This tutorial is fantastic. It is a very useful tutorial and a beautiful finished project. I started a new “favorite tutorials” folder on my browser and this is the first one in it.
loved this post Cindy! Thanks for sharing your fun traveling memories. I can’t wait to try this with my kiddos!!!
Such a great idea! I remember doing a long-stitch in the car one roadtrip. It was great fun! Luckily I never got carsick though, lol.
This is really awesome idea diffidently will try this one .
single duvet cover
Dad’s started with packing the car the evening before we left. He would pack our gear with the care that my grandfather packed china. Every bag, pack, and trunk was positioned to make the most of the space…and to create pockets for his 4 children and the dog. Back then we didn’t have seat belts and car seats – we had pallets, and our folks pulled over to the side of the road when we felt the need to pitch a fit.
Dad’s started with packing the car the evening before we left. He would pack our gear with the care that my grandfather packed china. Every bag, pack, and trunk was positioned to make the most of the space…and to create pockets for his 4 children and the dog. Back then we didn’t have seat belts and car seats – we had pallets, and our folks pulled over to the side of the road when we felt the need to pitch a fit.