The joys of found objects

Twice now, when out and about with the grandkids, we have found handmade objects people left behind to be discovered by a stranger. At each discovery, the immediate joy was the find itself—how odd! Later, it was fun to find out who made and left them, and to dream up our own similar projects.

The first find was on a short family hike near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northern Minnesota. Wanting to get our dog a drink, the pup and I ducked down a slope by a little bridge—and under the bridge was a hand-thrown green mug with a tag saying something like “keep me!” We were in treasure hunt mode on the hike anyway, as a way of encouraging the young ones along (more on that in a future post!), and this find added to the excitement. Even more exciting, the eldest grandchild, then age 7, found another mug not too far down the path—a blue one, his favorite color. 

The second find was in a park close to home. One of the four-year-old grandchildren spotted a cloth heart hanging in a tree. Its tag read, “I need a home,” and directed us to I Found a Quilted Heart,  a loose group that says its goal is “to keep the project simple, grow organically, remain anonymous, focus on the heart finder and always adhere to being neutral, with no hidden agenda.”

The quilted hearts inspired the grandkids to want to make their own version. With their vision set on a heart like the one we found—made of cloth, sewed not glued, stuffed, decorated—the envisioned project was beyond their coordination at the time. But because they were so eager, we made simple, sorta-quilted hearts together (see photo). That is, I mostly did the project while they excitedly watched. 

But because of their interest in my primitive quilted heart, I figured they would enjoy learning to sew. So I bought an inexpensive kit to make small avocado backpack clips/stuffies (this option because the results would match a stuffed avocado one of them already had). The kit was well-designed for little ones—the felt pieces were cut to shape and punched with holes for the stitches, and it included big, blunt-ended, plastic needles and yarn rather than thread. So itnwas safe, and easier for little fingers. 

This was a fun riff—at ages 4 and 5, the kids were able to follow along with the instructions and do the stitching, stuffing, and other steps needed. And they were very proud of their results.

We haven’t yet riffed thrown our own mugs—but there’s an activity to look forward to! 

Repay kindness—someday

I had hoped to follow up on another inspiration from these finds: I wanted to work with them to return the kindness behind the found-object gestures. For starters, we connected with the potter, Eric Brgant, who enjoyed the story of our find. 

We couldn’t directly repay the anonymous quilters, but one of the reasons I made the hearts with the grandkids was the hope that we could leave them outside, as the anonymous quilters do, maybe with a little tag saying “This is for you.” And the grandkids and I could talk about why. But…kids are, developmentally, kids! And the grandkids flatly refused to release our handmade hearts, instead bringing them home. I figured there was no point in forcing it—the idea of making something and then leaving it, never knowing whether it will bring joy or just end up trampled, is pretty abstract for preschoolers. Especially for preschoolers who love quilted hearts. 

Now, a year later, thanks to the quilter and the potter, maybe we’re ready to try again. Maybe we could make and leave quilted hearts, our own handmade pottery, or something the grandkids come up with…

But maybe you and your grandchildren will beat us to it!