Montessori Puzzle Ball

When I was 39 weeks pregnant I found myself at a loose end, too pregnant to either sit still for long periods or get up and run about, faced with this dilemma I turned to sewing! I needed a simple project because I have no natural abilities in this area and it couldn't be anything fiddly because my poor carpel tunnel cursed fingers weren't up to much fiddling. Lo! I present to you...The Montessori Puzzle Ball!

In reality this took an awful lot longer than I thought it would but it's a very straight forward project and looks seriously impressive, though I would think that wouldn't I! 

There's a good tutorial here with straight forward instructions. They also explain the benefits of the puzzle ball; namely that the 12 'handles' make it very easy for a young child to grab, it is light but still has enough weight to require some concentration when playing with it, it rolls but only far enough to encourage an infant to shuffle after it and the odd shapes encourage hand and wrist flexibility. And its pretty. 

It will be quite a while before the little one will be strong enough to play with it but I really enjoyed making it and once again am nursing dreams of The Great British Sewing Bee!