Sewing

For Christmas, Tim and I got Little Lady and Little Guy a set of 184 maple blocks. Shhh... don't tell :) Anyway... because they are so heavy, and because Drew and his family will be flying here this holiday season, we had the blocks shipped to their house. They will open them before heading to Michigan. They will be staying with us for the week. Besides the regular gift, we buy all the grandbabies Fontanini Nativity figurines. (A family tradition.) By the time they leave home, they will have a beautiful Nativity to share with their families. Lovely idea, I know, BUT it isn't always exciting for wee ones to open on Christmas morning. So, I decided I wanted to make each of them a soft, squishy dolly to open and love.

As you may have noticed, we no longer have sponsors on Wee Folk Art. However, many of the shops that were featured were favorite shops of ours that we continue to frequent. Probably my favorite shop is A Child's Dream. Debbie, the shop's owner, has always had a wonderful selection, but in the past few months she has expanded her offerings, and I have to say, I think it is the best shop around for buying natural crafting supplies. When I wanted to make dolls for the grandbabies, it is the first place I went.

I decided on these 2 dolls from the Joy's Waldorf Doll Kits collection. For Little Guy, I am making the 6" Star Doll in ever so soft cotton velour. Just perfect for wee hands!

For Little Lady, I wanted a simple doll that would travel well. I picked the 12" Velour Bright Eyes Baby. I know she'll squeal with delight when she opens it.

The kits come with most of the supplies you need including wool roving for stuffing. I had to chuckle that they included chopsticks to help you stuff the roving in little spaces :) I plan to work on them this weekend (I hope!) I'll be blogging about the process, however, there will not be a pattern. If you would like to make your own, I highly suggest you order kits from A Child's Dream. If you price out individual items, I think you'll agree that they really are a good deal :)

When I told Debbie that I was going to share these online, she agreed to offer Wee Folk Art readers a discount. So... here it is:

10% off through Monday 12/3/12 with the code WEEFOLK (for domestic and international orders)

 ~OR~

Free Standard Shipping over $75 with code 2102ACD - expires 12/31/12

One code per order please.

Well, YAY! So, if you'd like to join me in making dollies or if you need anything else from A Child's Dream, make sure you order by Monday, December 3 to get 10% off your entire order. The free shipping on orders over $75.00 runs til the end of the year. Thanks, Debbie!

Watch for our doll making blogs next week!

Photos 28-12

Yes... we realize these are rather simplistic gnomes, but that's the point. These Simple Little Gnomes are a wonderful project for beginning sewers be they six or 60! By using a running stitch to attach the face to the gnomes, and an overcast stitch to sew it all together, even wee crafters can tackle this project.

Of course, if you'd like to embellish your gnomes with a little needlework, it's a great surface for practicing some new stitches. These Simple Small Gnomes measure 3 1/4" tall, and are safe for babies with supervision. So, make a few yourself, and gather the wee ones around and let them start populating their own village. They certainly will be proud of their accomplishment.

Materials Needed:
100% wool felt or a wool blend. If they are going to be played with a lot, use 100% wool felt
Embroidery floss
Stuffing of choice - polyfil or wool roving
Pattern

Directions:
Make copy of the pattern.

Cut out the felt. Our tutorial on How to Cut Out Felt can be found HERE.

Using the pattern for placement, sew the face to the body using a running stitch and 2 strands of floss.

Note: Our Stitching Glossary can be found HERE.  Our Woven Star can be found HERE.

Optional: Add facial features. You may chose to leave the faces blank. If you do want to add facial features, using the face as a template, draw circles on a piece of paper and experiment with facial expressions. Rule of thumb: when you draw the circle, draw a line thru the center horizontally. The eyes should be placed on that line. Too often people drew eyes too high on faces :) Embroider facial features using 3 strands of floss and use a steam stitch or straight stitch.

If you'd like to add embroidery to the body, do so before you stitch the body together. I added different stitches 1/2" from the bottom of the gnome. Be creative and add as much detail as you like.

With wrong sides together, fold the gnome so the two edges match. Pin in place. Using 2 strands of floss, sew the seam using an overcast stitch.

Stuff the gnome. Do not overstuff. If you overstuff, the bottom with be distended and will not be able to stand properly. When the bottom is sewn on, it should be flat.

Lay the circle of felt on the stuffing, and sew the circle to the bottom of the gnome using an overcast stitch and 2 strands of floss.

Tah Dah. That's all there is to it. This is a fast, easy craft that wee ones will love to make. Have fun :)

Photos 10/21and10/22/12
 

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So, a couple of days ago I told everyone about the baby quilt I'm making for the Little Guy. I was so very excited, nah, I would say I was all a twitter to be using my Woodsy Wonders fabric that has been in my stash for two years. After posting the blog, I got to work. Progress was good.

Then, that evening, I got an email from my son Drew... the father of yet to be born Little Guy. The email was titled... "A Little Eerie", and the text said, "Is this based on Sweeny Todd?" He attached this photo:

Holy Schnikes! This looks bad... really, really bad. What's that frog doing? Is that a sinister look in his eyes? Sure looks like the razor Sweeny Todd used!!! No, no, no I tell myself. It's a sweet print. It's adorable. It's a butter knife used for spreading jam. Must be... has to be!

Well, one of our lovely readers, Bonney Teti, had emailed me to let me know I could still buy the fabric from Fabric Attic. http://www.fabricattic.com/store/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=159. I want to make a couple of matching things and needed more fabric. While I was at the site, I noticed a companion fabric...

So, see Drew!!! Not a Sweeny Todd reenactment... just a very hospitable frog, with a mirthful twinkle in his eyes, preparing a lovely strawberry jam sandwich for a friend.

As far as the quilt progress goes... I've finished the top of the quilt. It is a "quilt as you go" so if I wanted, I could just add the binding and be done. However, I want to do some hand stitching on the quilt, so I'll wait to bind it til I'm done.

Just a little aside... Knowing my family, this quilt will forever be known as the Sweeny Todd quilt. Thank you, Drew ;)

I must admit I've been a slacker the past few weeks enjoying some guilt free R and R. Although I'm not done slacking completely, I do need to get a few projects done and start making plans for the fall. The first order of business... make a baby quilt for the Little Guy. He is due August 31 and I have a few other projects I want to make for him (and, of course, a couple for the Little Lady so she doesn't feel left out!) so I need to get to work!

I have this wonderful piece of fabric that I bought before Little Lady was born. I was going to make her a quilt, but then Michelle did, so I've kept this fabric put away for the next baby in the family. It is a wonderful print in J. Wecker-Frisch's "Woodsy Wonders" collection. Adorable, right? Unfortunately, I don't believe it is still available. (If you know of a source, I'd love a link :)

I plan to use this fabric as the backing, and make a simple diagonal striped quilt front using these colors.

I haven't decided whether I want all the edges finished or leave one side of each strip unfinished so it will fray. I also want to add some of the Woodsy Wonder print on the front... not sure how I'm going to do that either. I'm sure it will come to me as I start working! One way or another, I'll take plenty of photos and turn this into a tutorial :) 

Actually, I made a diagonal quilt for the gnome house a few years ago :) Directions for this wee quilt can be found HERE.

Enough work for one summer evening! Off to take a dip in the pool before bed. Life is good :)
 

We've been home a few days, and I am finally starting to catch up. Before I move on to some new projects, I wanted to share some highlights of our visit. Not surprisingly, most of my photos were of the Little Lady. Here's some highlights.

First... concerning the gifts I made:

The pants were too big in the waist, so I had to pop open a seam and make the elastic smaller. Not awful, and they turned out adorable.

 

 

The hat fit her perfectly and she loved it. She wanted to put it on herself, so her flower was all over the place, but no matter where it landed, it looked cute :)

As for the crocheted kitty... well, that's a sad tale. She wanted nothing to do with it. Oh, we tried to make them bond. Once I got all excited because I saw her rocking it, but then I realized she was just trying to jettison it from her rocking chair! I even saw her backhand it once... true story :) I was telling Fairy about it when I got home. The little sage said, "Don't worry about it, Gammy. I'm sure she'll like it when she gets a little older." Perhaps.

As it turned out, her favorite thing we brought was a ginormously huge container of Duplos. (Hand-me-downs from Bug, Fairy and Pixie.) And her very favorite thing... 3 fierce and mighty dragons!

And this is what it looks like when wee ones help make brownies :) It was the first time she helped bake. Although at first she was unsure about brownie dough, but as you can see, she became a connoisseur before we were done :) 

In the past, I've shared the clouds we made for each of our grandbabies. You can read all about them HERE. Since they weren't home for Christmas this year, we took the cloud with us to Wisconsin to get her annual handprint.

As always... it was hard to say goodbye. So hard, as a matter of fact, we wound up leaving 3 times. Once, we realized we took one of their pillows with us (just blocks after leaving) and then we got a call from Meghan that I left a stack of books there. At this point, we were still in town getting coffee, so we went back yet again. I'm guessing I just wasn't ready to leave yet!

RELATED POSTS:
Frayed Flower

Reversible Pants

Sweater and Hat

Crocheted Cat

Clouds