Summer

Life moves pretty fast. You don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. Ferris Bueller's Day Off. 

Yes, life moves pretty fast, so when I get a chance to slow down, I relish EVERY minute. Tim was busy finishing our new deck, but we managed to slip away Saturday morning to have breakfast at one of our town's many outdoor cafes, then wandered our Farmer's Market. We discovered a vendor selling THE BEST homemade granola made with Michigan maple syrup and pecans... yum... and bought 7, yep, 7 new birdhouses. (More about THAT another time!)

Probably my favorite part of the whole weekend was my quiet, out-of-door, morning knitting sessions. Although the days were incredibly hot, each morning was refreshing, with a lovely breeze, birds singing, and, of course, the plethora of canines! I'm coming close to finishing another project for the Little Lady, which I'll be sharing soon. Leonard was very helpful, and I made sure to include ample dog fur in this swaddling!

Hope everyone had a safe and peaceful 4th! 

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!

You've just made of quart of lemonade, and you are headed outside to garden. It's hot, and those first few drinks of lemonade are so refreshing. But because of the heat, before long, the ice is melted, and your ice cold lemonade is now a tepid liquid. What you need is an insulated jar to keep your cold drink, well... colder... longer! Making a thermal cover for your jar is easy peasy with some wool roving or batting and a bit of embroidery thread. Not only will this cover keep your drink cold longer, but the lid will keep bugs and flying garden debris out of your glass.

But why stop there? Not only does this make a great insulator for a beverage, it also makes a beautiful jar for storing buttons and beads. It can also be used as a vase. Or... have a friend with a summer birthday? Craft one of these Mason Jar Covers, drop a lemon inside, print off the directions for lemonade, and Wah Lah... a perfect and unique gift! 

I covered a quart sized Mason jar because I get mighty thirsty working in the garden, but obviously you can cover any size jar. If the wool gets dirty, simply rinse it off, roll it tightly in a towel to absorb extra moisture, and allow to air dry. Kids will definitely want to get in on the fun. Enjoy!

Materials:
Mason jar (I used a quart size)
Wool roving or batting
Embroidery floss
cheese cloth

Gather your supplies together.

Cover you Mason jar in a crisscross fashion. Bring the batting up and tuck the edges into the jar's neck. Add more roving around the jar. Make sure that the roving has the same depth all over the jar.

Add pieces of colored roving or wool yarns in a pleasing pattern. Because the roving will shrink, and the felting process may shift the design, it works the best with free form abstract designs. (If you want a more detailed design, wait until after the jar has been felted, then apply design by needle felting.)

Cut a piece of cheese cloth the height of your jar, and wrap around the jar, being careful not to overlap the roving beneath the cheese cloth. As the roving begins to shrink and felt, remove the cheese cloth and rewrap tighter. You may need to rewrap the jar several times. NOTE: I use cheese cloth because it holds the roving together while it is being agitated. You can rub the jar without free of loosening the roving... especially the small embellishments.

Dip your jar into warm water. Add some liquid soap. Begin rolling the jar on a rack or bamboo placemat. You are looking for a surface that will agitate the fibers. You can roll the jar between your hands, slide your hands up and down the jar, turn the jar over and rub the bottom. As the roving begins to shrink and the fibers felt, take the cheese cloth off and reroll, tightening the cloth. When the felting is near complete, remove the cheese cloth, and do the final felting until the fibers are dense and tight. 

Rinse in cool water, removing all the soap, and roll tightly in a towel to remove excess moisture. Allow to dry completely.

If you want to be able to screw on a lid or use the jar for drinking, you will need to cut away the extra roving at the neck. You want to cut it just below the threads on the jar at the thinnest part of the neck. If you cut it too far down, the jar can slide out of the insulator when you go to drink.

Using 6 strands of embroidery floss, blanket stitch around the cut edge. Make the blanket stitch tight. The idea is to make the top edge snug around the jar. NOTE: To start and the thread, I begin by inserting my needle an inch or 2 away from the area where I will begin stitching. I slide the needle under the roving, and bring it up to the desired area. I make a very small tack stitch to hold it in place, then I begin stitching. I do the same thing to finish stitching. I then cut the loose tails off.

If you would like, you can use 6 strands of embroidery floss to add other embellishments. I found areas on the jar where the roving had not felted well, and I embroidered over them using a stem stitch and lazy daisies. I free handed the design as I went along. 

Now, fill your jar up with lemonade, take it in the garden, and enjoy your refreshing drink as you go along. HINT: If you keep your jar in the shade, your beverage will stay cold even longer. Yum!

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

Three selfish frogs learn a valuable lesson about sharing from a toad and a very scary thunderstorm in Leo Lionni's It's Mine. I created the pattern for the Water Lily and the Lily Pads to extend the story but you can certainly use these for decorating or adding to a nature table. I made 3 lily pads and 1 water lily and laid them on a blue play silk, but you can make enough lily pads to cover an entire pond :) These have become a favorite with the grandbabies. Enjoy! 

LILY PADS

Materials:
green felt
embroidery floss
It's Mine Pattern (pattern includes lily pads for felt and  frog and toad for wood)

Directions:
1] Print the It's Mine Pattern.

2] Cut out 2 pieces for each lily pad. I made 3 lily pads using 2 different greens. (How to Cut Out Felt)

3] Using a blanket stitch, sew the 2 pieces of lily pads together using a blanket stitch.

WATER LILIES

Materials:
white/off white roving
embroidery floss
balls for wrapping 2", 3", 4"

NOTE: I planned to make 3 layers of petals, thus I used 3 balls. When I was done, I felt the water lily was too big for my project, so I wound up using only 2 balls; the 2" and the 3". The more you use though, the fuller the flower will be.

1] Choose the balls you are going to felt over. Think graduated sizes.

2] Follow steps 1 - 10 of our Felted Eggs for general directions on how to felt around a form. Note: I LOVE to hand felt in water. If you prefer, you can felt in the washing machine.

3] Using string or yarn, wrap the string around the ball, dividing it into 8 equal sections.

4] Using a disappearing marker, mark along each string from the top down about 2/3 the way.

5] Remove the string.

6] Using very sharp scissors, cut along each mark. Remember, do not cut the bottom third of the flower.

7] Using a fingertip or thin rag, dip in water and gently tap petal edges removing disappearing ink.

8] When you have cut your petals, place the smaller one inside of the larger one. (If using 3 sizes, place the small and medium petal in the large petal.)

9] French knot the 2 or 3 petals together using 6 strands of floss. Make one French Knot in the middle of the bottom, and 6 more knots circling the center knot.

To display:
Arrange the 3 lily pads in a circle and place the water lily in the middle.

This isn't exactly the time of year I'd feel inspired to design a Firefly Applique Block, BUT we got a request from one of our readers. Seems her wee one LOVES fireflies and she wanted to craft something using a firefly applique pattern, and since we didn't have one... well, let's just say we do now :) So... although there isn't a single bug to be found now in our neck of the woods as the days are short and cold, there's at least one little firefly flitting about!

As with all applique blocks, this one was designed to fit a 6" x 6" block, but can be enlarged or reduced to meet your needs. The directions for our Firefly Applique Block can be found HERE or with our FREE Applique Patterns. Enjoy! 

It's summer. Ever since I was a child summer equalled excessive reading! My tastes in reading ran the gamut of literary genres, BUT the one commonality amongst all my summer books I read was my ability to chose them for myself. These were not books selected by my teachers, although I often read books that would have pleased them, nor did they need to be books off anyone's reading list. The freedom was exhilarating! As an adult I can now chose any book I want to read at anytime, HOWEVER, there is something so sweet and self indulgent about a summer read. We take books to the beach, on vacation, and out to the hammock under the trees. I have many nooks and crannies where I can be found reading on a summer's afternoon. As a parent I enjoyed sharing summer reading with my children, and now, as a Gammy, with my grandbabies.

The picture above is a special area in our green belt at the back of our property. We refer to this area as our Serenity Garden, for obvious reasons. Although the bench is cement and does not have back support, it is still a wonderful spot to read for a while, especially if reading short stories or poetry.

And although summer reading is indulgent and fun, having a special bookmark accompany you on your literary journey just makes it that much more enjoyable! Today I'm sharing a pattern for a sweet little mouse bookmark, donning a very long and useful tail. This bookmark could easily be made by even young children if you glued it together instead of sewing it together and you could use paper instead of felt. Directions and patterns for the Mouse Bookmark can be found HERE or in our FREE Pattern Section. Enjoy!

BTW... Do you have a favorite animal you would like a bookmark pattern for? If so, leave a comment and we'll pick at least one other animal to turn into a bookmark! 

Here is a sweet little mouse bookmark with a long and useful tail! This one is made out of felt and sewn, but if you're doing the project with young children, you can glue the felt pieces together or use card stock or construction paper. Whichever way you make him, I'm sure you'll find he'll fast become an indispensable friend!

Materials:
felt
embroidery floss
yarn
black glass seed beads (optional)
pattern

1] Make copy of pattern.

2] Cut out materials as follows:
2 body pieces in gray or tan felt
2 ears in pink
3 pieces of yarn 24" long (I used 2 tan and 1 pink)

3] Transfer face markings and embroider face as follows:
Nose: satin stitch using 3 strands floss
Eyes: French knot using 3 strands of floss (optional: instead of French knot add 2 black seed beads)

4] Using pattern as a guide place the 2 ears on the mouse. Using 2 strands of floss, attach to mouse using a running stitch.

5] To make the tail, knot the 3 pieces of yarn together 1” from an end. Braid the 3 pieces until you are 6” from the end. Knot the tail close to the end of the braiding section. Cut the extra yarn leaving 1” beyond the knot.


6] Position the tale on the back of the front body piece. Place it so 1/2" of the braid will be inside the mouse. Tack it in place being careful not to go all the way through the felt.( If you are using paper, glue it in place and let it dry before proceeding.)

7] Pin the mouse together with wrong sides touching. Using 2 strands of embroidery floss, attach the 2 pieces using a running stitch.

8] Knot the end of 6 strands of black floss leaving a 2" tail. Referring to the pattern for placement, slide the needle between the front and back section of the mouse. Make a small knot on the other side of the nose. Clip the whiskers so they are 1/2" long.


9] Find a book you want to read, and slip your little mouse's tail in the book to mark your place!

 

Note about patterns: We are sharing patterns we have designed and made for our own children, families and friends. Every effort is made to share information in a clear and accurate manner. We offer preemptive apologies for any mistakes that may be made. Please let us know via comments or emails if you stumble upon a mistake or if you encounter directions that leave you scratching your head! We will rectify the situation as soon as humanly possible!

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It's summertime. Time to head outside and find a shady patch of grass to stretch out on. It's also a great time to grab your crafting supplies and "while away the hours" drawing birds and butterflies, clouds and clover. Although I like the roll-up colored pencil holders, I personally am too impatient to take the pencils in and out of their snug little niches. If you look at my own crafting table, pencils and pens, rulers and scissors, are all sticking out of containers making easy access and storage. 

So, I wanted to create a very simple, but organized, take-along craft basket that was sturdy, easy to use, and earthy. I began by finding a cute basket at Joann's. I was looking for a small basket, that was sturdy and deep enough to stop crafting supplies from spilling out if being carried by a wee one. I only buy baskets when they are 50% off, and I got this beauty for $4.00. I was pleased!

To make the pencil holders, I hit my toilet paper roll stash, slathered them with crafting glue, and wrapped twine around them. For a more detailed and pictorial view of wrapping the pencil holders, check out our tutorial HERE. After the toilet paper rolls were dried, I threaded the twine into a yarn needle, and simply tied them to the side of the basket.

Now, load the craft basket up with your favorite supplies, and hit the great out-of-doors. Enjoy!  

Beginning tomorrow I will be "off" for the next 2 weeks. Tim is on vacation and we are excited about spending the next couple of weeks AT HOME. Now, this may not be exotic, but we are so looking forward to it. We are locking up the cell phones (mostly) and using the net for pleasure, not work (mostly). We plan to do some relaxing in the gardens, see a couple of movies, and track down a couple of new organic farms in the area. We will both be in the gardens, but Tim plans to devote most of his time to working on our kitchen renovating. We are about a year and a half into the project, and oh, I'd say about 1/3 of the way done. He assures me, given this time at home, he plans to get another 1/3 done. Very exciting stuff!

As for me... I have been gnawing at the bit to get my sewing room and adjacent attic closet under control. If all goes well I plan to share my work space with our readers after the break. Although I will not be blogging at Wee Folk Art, I will be active on Wee Folk Garden. Since that blog is primarily meant to be a record keeping device for our garden, I'm hoping I'll have lots to blog about. So, if you're into that kind of thing, and find yourself missing me, hehe, stop on by!

Michelle will be at the helm here. We have the Sew, Mama, Sew May Giveaway coming up on the 27th that she'll be running, and she tells me she is using this time to give Wee Folk Art a bit of a face lift. I also think she has a couple other things to share. And although I won't be blogging, we will both be checking emails and comments for questions. So, I hope everyone has a lovely holiday weekend (for our State friends) and I look forward to returning refreshed and rejuvenated in a couple of weeks. Stay safe all, and I'll see everyone back here soon!