Nature Play Mat.

I have a hard fast rule that I won't spend more than $10 out of pocket on a friends birthday gift.  DD has a dear, sweet friends Birthday to go to tomorrow and we just finished the gift.  I SWEAR I only spent $10....I just happened to add to it with some busy sewing fingers and my scrap bag and supplies on hand!

I made two more of my  little travel dolls, a picnic blanket and a play mat from discounted fabric at Walmart
:o( sadly, we too are loosing our fabric department ) and purchased a small set of doll house dishes and a draw string bag at the Dollar Store.  I also made a tiny frog for friends little brother to play along with. The joy of this mat, is that it is also a tied blanket quilt with batting in it, and a game!
(DD doesn't know it, but she's getting one of these for Christmas! )


When I can figure out a better way to link PDF's I intend to post all these as  patterns.  But for now, I hope you find it an inspiration in these pictures!

I purchased 1 m of green and 0.8m of blue soft suede velvet and 1 m of quilt batting.

I trimmed 3 inches off of the width of the blue fabric and cut the batting to fit.  I layed down the green and then the batting and then the blue and cut the green  2 inches larger all around than the blue to become the binding.

I had a handful of polyester felt squares and gold embroidery thread on hand.  The Flowers are silk flowers removed from the plastic stems and a yellow circle of felt was sewn into each one. Each lily pad and flower has a letter of the alphabet embroidered in the center, (The flowers are the vowels).  I sewed them onto the blue and then I folded the green up double over the blue and pinned into place. I sewd it by hand onto the blue and went around a second time, hand quilting through all layers.

Each lily pad used two strands of yarn to tie the quilt for the quilting. I frayed them to make them look like flowers.n On the back, they look like little "Forget- me- nots" where the dolls can have a picnic together on their picnic blanket

Nature Play Mat/ Blanket

Enjoy a picnic with your dolls on one side and a swim in the lake on the other.  Or wrap it around tight to keep warm on a cold day.  But this is not only a fun play mat and a blanket, but it is a game as well! On the pond, you will see each lily pad has a letter of the Alphabet.  The set of dolls or frogs become your playing pieces and the lily pads and flowers become your squares.

 

How to use the triangle die

Roll the triangle dice and then pick it up from the point on the top. Tip it over and look at the number that is on the flat bottom and that is the number of spaces you jump.

Games to Play

Depending how old you are, you can play the alphabet game in so many ways.

If you are just learning your letters,  roll the die and jump the number of squares. Name the letter you land on correctly! If you don’t name it correctly the first time, you miss a turn.

If you are learning your letter sounds,  roll the die and jump the number of squares. Name the letter and it’s sound.

 For example:  The Letter  (S) says “sssss”.

If you are wrong, you will miss a turn though. And remember, if you land on a vowel, it has two sounds.  If you get both sounds right you may take a second turn!

If you are reading, roll the die and jump the number of squares.  Name a word that starts with that letter. If you are spelling, spell that word correctly. If you are wrong you miss a turn. At your next turn, spell the word correctly before you move the dice to move on.

The first person in any game to reach the letter “Z” wins the game!

 Beanbag Toss Game

Decide how many tosses each person gets. Toss a doll, and which ever letter the doll lands on, follow the directions in one of the games above minus the die.

Make a point system if you wish:

1 point if you land in water but name a letter close by and follow directions,

2 points for landing on a lily pad and following directions

3 points for landing on a flower and following directions

Keep score on a chalkboard or paper, and at the end of the tosses, add up the score to see who has the most points

Cleaning Instructions.

Dolls and Frogs are made of Flannel and filled with rice. Wash surface with a damp cloth if needed

Mat/ Blanket is made of plush fabrics and should be surface wiped with a damp cloth, or immersed in a tub of luke-warm water and a mild detergent and hung to dry to be freshened. Do not iron.