Spring

Wee Folk Art, together with Prairie Point Junction's Wool Felt Central, has a wonderful give away, just in time for your Spring gift giving and decorating!

Our dear friend, Julie, owner of Prairie Point Junction, is giving away 2 FREE kits so you can make your own Spring Bouquet... enough materials to make 18 flowers!

Each kit includes:
1/3 yard EACH of 3 colors of felt (You pick the colors)
12" X 18" Pea Soup for Leaves
8 skeins of floss to match the selected felts  (2 skeins of each color)
1/2 yard of green calico for stems

Note: You will need to provide 12" pipe cleaners and large holed beads

To enter, simply visit Prairie Point Junction's Wool Felt Central, and check out all the dreamy colors. Pick 3 colors you would like to use to make your bouquet. (We used baby blue, pink grapefruit and mellow yellow for the flowers but pick out colors that make you smile :) Then come back here, give a big thank you to Julie, and tell us what 3 colors you would like if you win. Hey, even if you don't think you want to make this bouquet, who wouldn't want more felt to add to their stash?

The contest begins today, Wednesday, April 6, and runs until Sunday, April 10 at 9:00 p.m. EST. Two winners will be drawn at random and their names will be announced and an email will be sent to them. Winners have 1 week to contact us at weefolkart@yahoo.com with their snail address or a new winner will be selected.

So, head on over to Wool Felt Central and start planning! We want to give a heartfelt thank you to Julie for once again giving our readers a chance to win a wonderful kit.

And remember, the directions for making your own Spring Bouquet can be found HERE. Good luck one and all!

If you would like to give someone special a bouquet of flowers this Spring that will last forever, considering making a bunch of these flowers in a array of beautiful colors. Whether you make a single flower or 2 dozen, they are sure to please. But remember... make some for yourself... we all deserve to give ourselves flowers every once in a while :)

MATERIALS

For single flower:
2" x 28" piece of felt for each flower
Green felt for leaf
3/4" x 40" piece of calico for stem, ripped
2 copies of pattern
bead with large hole
4 12" long pipe cleaners
2 copies of pattern

For 18 flowers:
1/3 yard EACH of 3 colors of felt
12" X 18" Pea Soup for Leaves 
8 skeins of floss to match the selected felts (2 skeins of each color)
1/2 yard of green calico for stems
18 beads with large hole
72 12" long pipe cleaners
2 copies of pattern

DIRECTIONS
Preparing pattern pieces:
The pattern piece for the flower will require taping together 3 pieces. Make 2 copies of the pattern. Cut out the 2 end pieces. Cut out 1 center piece.  Tape the 2 end pieces to the center piece, matching the 3 inch sides. You should now have 1 long piece, measuring 3" x 25", with both ends pointy.



Cut the leaf out of the 2nd center piece adding a tab 5/8" x 1". You only need to cut 1 leaf per flower. (Pattern says 2)

Preparing stem:
Using the Ripe and Tear method described HERE, for each flower ripe a strip of fabric 3/4" x 40" from the green woven fabric. Also, cut one square 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" for each flower.

Place a bead on the end of 4 pipe cleaners, and bend the pipe cleaner about 1" down. Twist the end of the pipe cleaners around the long piece of pipe cleaner so the bead is secured. Slightly twist the rest of the length of the pipe cleaners together.





Lay the pipe cleaner on the backside of the square of fabric with the bead in the center.

Wrap the fabric around the bead. Using 2 strands of matching floss, wrap the thread firmly around the bead 2 or 3 times, then tack in place. Holding the remainder of the fabric against the pipe cleaner, tightly wrap the fabric against the pipe cleaner in a spiral fashion. Tack at the bottom of the fabric.


Preparing petal:
Cut out pieces.


Using a running stitch and 3 strands of contrasting floss, blanket stitch the flat edge of the flower.

Mark a 1/4" seam allowance along the curved edge of the flower using a fading or washable marker.

Using 2 strands of floss, sew a close running stitch along the 1/4" line. Leave a long tail.Sew a 2nd running stitch an 1/8" below the first line of stitching. (It will be between the line of stitching and the raw edge.) Leave a long tail.

Holding both tails, gather the flower until it measures 8” - 9". Secure the end so the gathering does not come loose.

Preparing leaf:
Using a running stitch and 2 strands of matching floss, sew around the stem and leaf, gathering SLIGHTLY.

Using a running stitch and 2 strands of matching floss, sew a stem down the middle of the leaf, gathering SLIGHTLY. Note: You just want to give slight contours to the leaf.

Assembly:
Begin rolling the flower around the bead, tacking it with matching thread every 1/2". As you roll and tack, slightly angle the rolled flower down the stem. Continue until the flower piece is completely wrapped around the bead. Secure thread. NOTE: The angling should be slight. Before tacking the petal, practice rolling the flower around the stem, until you find the desired look. Think of a rose.




Wrap the green strip around the base of the flower. Make sure the top of the strip covers the gathering line. Stitch around the flower every 1/4" - 1/2". After the first round is complete, angle the strip so it overlaps the strip above it by half.



After you have gone around the stem a second time, add your leaf. To do this, lay the leaf against the flower, and pin the leaf tab against the pipe cleaners.

Continue wrapping the stem, catching the leaf tab as you go.

Tack about every 1/2", going through the pipe cleaner on an angle downward. At the end, leave a 1" tail that you wrap around the bottom edge and tack in place.

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It seems like in the Spring there are so many occasions when a lovely bouquet of flowers is the perfect gift. Whether it's Easter, Passover, Mother's Day, Graduation or a Dance Recital, the perfect gift is often flowers. The only problem with flowers is that their beauty is fleeting. This year, consider spending the time, making a bouquet that will last forever!

This week we are excited to share our Spring Bouquet. Although they are easy to make, I must admit it is rather time consuming to make a full bouquet, but the end results are so beautiful, trust me... it IS worth the time.

So, here is a peek at our Spring Bouquet. Tomorrow, we will post the directions on how to make your own, AND Wednesday, we will be hosting a very special give away with one of our awesome sponsors!

So come back all week, and think about the person in your life most deserving of this beautiful bouquet. (And, yes, it is perfectly permissible to make them for yourself!)

Yesterday I went to Wee Folk Art's Applique Blocks to get a pattern for a butterfly. What? I never designed a butterfly? That's crazy! I thought for sure I had. I know I designed a butterfly for another project, but with butterfly season upon us, I decided I needed to rectify this situation and add the butterfly to our collection of other insects... a Firefly and a Grasshopper. So... here is a sweet little butterfly that can be appliqued to just about anything, right? As always, I designed the butterfly to fit on a 6" x 6" block but it can be enlarged or reduced to meet your needs. The pattern for the Butterfly Applique Block can be found HERE or with our FREE Applique Blocks. Enjoy!

If you haven't done it already, it's time to get your gnome home ready for the warm days of spring and summer. Below are some of our past gnomey spring things. Just click on the picture to take you to the tutorials. I have a few other warm weather accents I'll be adding soon!

Felt Flower Garland

Flower Fairies

Flower Fairy Carpet

Spring Gnome Sleeping Bag

Spring Rag Rug

Waldorf Style Gnomes

Wooden Apple Orchard

Crocheted Rugs