Toys

November's Pattern of the Month is now ready! Spoon dolls, as we know them today, probably originated in Colonial America, where resourceful mothers and children, made playthings from available materials. Wooden spoons, a staple in rich and poor families alike, offered a ready made head, and their bodies could be elaborate, adorned with bits of fabric and lace, or simple, a cloth wrapped around the handle or the spoon until it was needed for the next meal! Our pattern uses a spoon for its core and with a variety of other materials.

Our Spoon Doll/Puppet pattern is available for all registered users. Registration is free. If you complete a Spoon Doll by November 30,  post a comment to THIS post and a add picture of your completed Doll/Puppet to our Flickr Group, your name will automatically be entered in a drawing for a free kit for next month's pattern! (When posting a comment here, make sure to include your Flickr user name so we know who you are!) Join the fun, and make a great doll to love or add a new puppet to your collection, and become eligible to receive next month's craft kit! What fun!

BTW...this is a great craft to get your children involved in. If children are too young to sew, try gluing or wrapping. There is no wrong way to make a spoon doll. Let your children help you create!

After I made the gnome sleeping bags I called Michelle and was telling her about them. I mentioned that Pixie was going to love them since she loves to wrap little blankies around the gnomes and take them walking. Michelle suggested turning one into a necklace so she could carry them around hands free. So I made a matching 4 strand round braid, but any braid would do, and tacked it onto the front of the sleeping bag. And viola! A gnome tote! Turns out Pixie prefers making her own bunting for the gnomes, but Fairy loved it! She was kind enough to pose for me...gingerbread lips and all!

It's lights out and time for all gnomes to dream their "gnomey" dreams! What could be more comfy than to snuggle into an autumn sleeping bag? Make 1 or 20, depending on how many gnomes reside in your house. Directions are easy as 1, 2, 3...well maybe 4, 5, 6, but they can be whipped up in about an hour. So pull out the felt scraps, embroidery floss, and the tiniest amount of stuffing, and your gnomes will be sleeping in comfort before the night is out! Check out the incredibly easy directions in our FREE Pattern section. 
 

I am making hobby horses for the grandbabies for Christmas. I'm trying very hard to make most of my gifts this year, and if I do buy, to buy American made...but this is more of a guideline than a hard and fast rule. I add a new character to each of their Nativities each year, and those are Fontaninis from Tuscany!

So here is a collection of photos from hobby horse number one. It appears to take several evenings to complete one, but the pattern will be available the first of December, so if anyone is interested in making one themselves, there should be plenty of time to get it done before Christmas. In the mean time, here's a few snippets!