August 2008

I just finished Bug's and Fairy's treasure pouches. The kids love them. It was fun creating designs to match their personal tastes and they really were quick to throw together. I will now work on a tutorial and will hopefully get it posted soon!

These will definitely be useful on their next walkabout!

Today I was making a quick trip to my local craft store to buy crafting glue. I swear that is all I planned to buy. My pile of to do, already started, and near completion projects is stack precariously high in my sewing room. I’m well aware that one more project could topple the already shaky edifice. So, you have to believe that there were circumstances beyond my control, like a table of absolutely gorgeous prints that unfairly beckoned to me, causing my self control to vanish! I came home with corduroy and fabulous prints that will be made up into jumpers for Fairy and Pixie! Given everything else I have to do, I figure I’ll have to make these in my 1 a.m. to 4 a.m. time slot. Who needs sleep when there’s sewing to be done!

Material for Fairy's new fall jumper.

Material for Pixie's new Fall jumper.

So, I told myself I wasn’t going to start a new project until I finished a few ongoing ones. I didn’t listen. The new fabric I bought for the girls’ jumpers called to me. I got Fairy’s made up last night using Simplicity pattern 5936. Looking at it today I decided it needed a little panache. I loved the rolled roses I had seen on Portabellopixie’s website. I went to her tutorial and ta dah! Perfect! I’m going to have to wait a few days to get to Pixie’s, because we have a weekend guest that’s calling the sewing room home! Have to remember to warn him about wayward straight pins!

          Our house guest has gone so I was able to get back in the sewing room and make Pixie's jumper. I made just a little change on the border location on the skirt, but I'm pleased with both of them! Unfortunately, this is doing nothing to squelch my anxiousness for Fall! It's still a tad bit warm for the girls to don corduroy, so I'll have to be patient for a few more weeks!

Last week we had a few days that gave us a taste of fall. They were cool days requiring long sleeves. The air was damp and in general I got the feeling that a hearty meal of Vegetable Beef Stew, Corn Bread and Hot Cider would soon be our meal of choice over our current Lite Grilled Chicken and Steamed Veggies from the garden.

The kids must have had the same feeling. As we entered the craft store their eyes lite up with excitement. HALLOWEEN was everywhere. The warm colors, the spicey scents and the "little bit spooky" fun.

I'm trying not to cross over yet. My October Project cd is still safely tucked away. I know we still have several more weeks of serious summer left. But just as the yard is looking spent, so was my Nature Wreath that hangs above the kids Nature Table. It needed some attention and so I gave in. A little splash of fall that makes me smile. I still have my summer Stars and Stripes up most places but the Nature Table is ready for the warmth of fall colors.

Not familiar with October Project? Something about their haunting music seems to make the perfect companion to a cool, damp fall night with a fire in the fire place.

Pixie has her second birthday coming up in September. She loves domestic play. Dolls are her life! She also loves tea parties, her kitchen set, playing in her doll house and Gammy’s gnome house. For her birthday, Tim and I bought her The Child’s Cleaning Set from Magic Cabin. So, naturally, I figured she needed an apron to enhance play. From my stash I pulled out some vintage fabric I’ve been waiting to use, and made her an apron any homemaker would be proud to wear! (BTW Fairy saw the completed apron and requested one for her birthday in October. Shocker!) Since I can’t have Pixie model the apron for me until her birthday, I found a tree that was willing to help me out! I believe the tree to be a little wider around the middle than Pixie, but you get the idea. Next up, a matching bandana! Hopefully, this evening, or certainly by Monday, I’ll include a free pattern. If you whip one up, be sure to share your finished product with us! 

This week's Unplugged Challenge theme was Trees. I had been wanting to try the Freezer Paper Stencil T-shirts for awhile now and leaves seemed like a fun inspiration for the design.

We started by going on a leaf scavenger hunt. Each of the kids gathered 5 leaves with completely different shapes. Once we had all our leaves we compared their shapes and colors. They each picked one leaf for their shirt design. I cut the freezer paper into 8.5"x11" sheets to fit in our printer.

Then we photo copied each leaf onto a sheet of freezer paper. I cut out the shapes and ironed them on the tee shirts.

I helped each of the kids stencil their shirt. We used a sponge style stencil brush and it was not the best for the project. I will try something else in the future. It left a bubble like texture in the paint. But in general the kids and I were pretty happy with our results. (Remember to put a piece of card board inside the shirt so the paint doesn't bleed through).

A couple days later the kids modeled their new shirts outside under the trees. Here they are trying to do a yoga 'Tree Pose.' Very cute!

Finally had a chance to finish the vintage apron tutorial. Had a wee bit of trouble with my camera and the quality of the pictures leaves a little to be desired. I assumed my camera was broken. Tim assumed I hadn't read the manual. He was right! It's amazing the things you can learn in manuals! As it is, the pics are adequate, but the next time I make this apron, which will be for Fairy's birthday next month, I'll retake pictures. The apron can be whipped up in one child free afternoon!  

To get more information and photos of this project, click HERE.

Recently, I’ve been totally obsessed with felting, especially knit felting. I’ve been making purses, bowls and various children’s toys. Every time I finished a skein, I’d roll the left over yarn into a small ball and put it in a jar. The grandbabies were fascinated with these balls. With all the other toys available to them, they were always asking for the jar of yarn balls. Then I had a Eureka moment. Why not felt the left over yarn balls and turn them into…well, felted balls? I’ve used roving to make balls, but this just seemed an ecologically sound way of using up what might otherwise turn into trash.

The kids loved them! When I was a young girl, we use to while away summer hours playing marbles. These wool balls make great marbles if you use them on a hard floor. Check out Land of Marbles to learn different marble games

They are easy to make and children will enjoy helping out.

1. Loosely roll the yarn into a ball. Do not wind the yarn tight. It must be loose enough so there is room to agitate the fibers, causing felting. Tuck in the loose end or thread a yarn needle and weave the end into the ball. Balls should be around the size of a ping pong ball, but I’ve made smaller ones if I only had a small amount of yarn.

2. The first felted balls I made were one color. I started embellishing them with other yarns wrapped around them, or using a yarn needle to create designs. Just remember to keep the yarns loose enough so you ball contracts when you give it a squeeze.

3. The ball is now ready to felt. Thoroughly soak it in hot tap water. (The water should be hot but not too hot for your hands!) Squirt the ball with liquid dishwashing soap. This helps create the reaction that will felt the wool.

4. Now the fun part! Begin squeezing the ball to cause agitation. If you’re making more than one at a time, you can do this first step with several balls. You will be squishing the balls out of shape, but try to keep them as spherical as possible.

5. Continue agitating until the wool begins to felt. This will usually take between 5 and 10 minutes. Rewet the ball with hot water if it begins to feel like it is drying out. When the wool begins to felt, it will feel more solid. Also, when looking at the ball, the yarns will begin to have a “fuzzy” appearance. At this point you should only work one ball at a time.

6. Roll the ball between the palms of your hands applying a lot of pressure. As you are doing this pay attention to the shape of the ball. The rolling action should create a round ball, but occasionally you may need to squeeze the ball into shape. Continue rolling the ball in your palms until the yarns become rigid and there is very little “squeeze” left.

7. Rinse the ball in cold water until all the soap is removed. The cold water will help set the fibers in the yarn and maintain its felted shape.

8. Check the ball to make sure it is very round. At this stage you can still roll it in your palm or squeeze it slightly to guarantee a perfectly, well almost perfectly, round ball.

9. Allow the balls to dry completely before they are used. This will take 1 – 2 days.

10. Use the balls to play with, string together to make necklaces and bracelets, or as an intriguing decoration.

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A couple days ago Bug asked me for some fabric. His Lego Knights needed capes. So we went to the scrape pile and pulled out some natural muslin and he set to work dressing them up.

I love it when the kids come to me with their own craft in mind. He knew what he wanted and proceeded to spend the rest of the morning making capes for all of his knights. What is a Knight without a Cape and Sword?

Note: Tutorial for the peasant skirt can be found HERE.

It seems like lately everything I make for Pixie turns out too big and ends up in Fairy's possesion. I think, in part, this is a fear of making something too small with no one else to hand it down to, but it also has a lot to do with funky pattern sizing (I swear I follow the directions).

This weekend Pixie was wearing her "cutened up" jumper (mentioned previously) and multiple people commented that it looked like a potato sack. I thought it was time to try it on Fairy. Oh, the tears. I was quite literally taking the shirt off her back! I must say it did in fact fit Fairy much better... and actually looked kind of cute on her (it did look like a potato sack on Pixie), but we quickly gave it back to Pixie. Poor girl.

So yesterday I was determined to make Pixie something, anything, cute that fit! I threw aside all patterns...figuring I couldn't do any worse winging it! I rumaged around and came up with some scrapes that matched an Elf Hat I've been knitting for her.

A Peasant Skirt seemed like a great idea and definitely something I could just make on the fly. I managed to whip one up during nap time. The girls were up at the end, eagarly awaiting the finished product.

It wasn't until later that I realised all the scraps I grabbed were left over from her baby blanket. It really was the perfect fit for Pixie!

I am working on typing up the pattern. Actually, I have it typed up... I just need to test it on a couple different sizes. Look for it shortly.

I just finished one of Pixie's Birthday gifts last night, a sack full of froggies!

I fell in love with some of the cute free Amigurumi toy patterns on the Lion Brand site, namely the frog. Of course they were all crocheted so I decided it was time to embrace the hook and give it a shot. I a am knitter by 'trade' and my crocheting has been limited to attaching a decorative edging to knit items. So this was my first fully crocheted project. The first frog turned out so cute that I decided to make a whole froggie family. I can't keep the older kiddos away from them... so I'm taking that as a good sign.

It’s not a shocker that both Michelle and I would embrace the same craft at the same time. We seem to travel in pairs, so we’re exposed to the same things, at the same time. I happened to be born with a pair of knitting needles in my hand, which I’m sure made for an interesting delivery! But Grandma Pearl, my crafting muse, was a knitter, so it was a skill I learned early, and I adopted Grandma Pearl’s attitude that crocheting was a Johnny Come Lately craft that only people who couldn't handle two needles, were drawn to! (BTW...Grandma was a closet crocheter and could turn out a toilet roll cover with the best of them. She just viewed the craft as plebeian and chose not to share it with me!)