Clothing, Household, Organization, Closet, Cleaning

Here are the Pup Birthday Bandannas promised earlier in the week. BUT these aren't just for pups. A bandanna is a bandanna whether wrapped around your doggie's neck or for keeping the hair out your eyes!

Truly, the hardest part of making this bandanna is deciding on the size. Here is the standard sizes when purchasing bandanna's for dogs.

Dog Sizes
14" - small
18" - medium
22" - large
26" - extra large

Our dogs are 34 pounds. They are considered medium dogs. I made 17" bandannas and they fit perfect.

Another technique is to take the measurement of their neck (or your head) and add 6". My pup's necks are 11". Adding 6" to the 11" is 17". My finished bandannas have 17" sides.

To be on the safe side I suggest you could cut a square from muslin or rag to make sure it fits.

Also, if making a bandanna for a human head, and you would like to use elastic in the back instead of a bulking tie, read over the directions for our Handkerchief Bandanna found HERE.

Materials:
Light to medium weight cotton fabric cut into 3" strips (I had a stack left over from a quilting project... YAY!) I used 3 different colors for each bandanna.
Light to medium gray sewing thread. HINT: When sewing different colorings together in a project, using a gray thread seams to blend the best with most colors and is the least visible.

Cut your strips 2" larger than the finished size you want. I wanted 17" bandannas so I cut my strips 19". The number of strips can vary depending on the size you are making. I needed 9 strips for my pup's bandannas.



Sew the long side of all the strips together using 1/2" seam allowance. 


Press seams. NOTE: When piecing for a quilt top, which is basically what you are doing, it is a good idea to iron your seams to one side INSTEAD of ironing open. This makes the seams sturdier and less likely to come apart.

Trim the piece so it is 1" larger than the desired end size. I wanted 17" bandannas. I need an 18" square. So I need to cut approximately 1/2" off all sides. When sewing strips together, the ends can become uneven. By making it slightly bigger and then cutting it down to size, you ensure that your edges are even and your corners are perfect 90 degree angles. Make sure you cut a little away from all 4 sides so all sides are even.

If you plan to embroider or applique something to the bandanna that will be permanent, now is the time to do it. This way all stitching will be hidden in the bandanna. When placing an applique or embroider on the front of the bandanna, remember there will be a 1/2" seam allowance all the way around. (Because I am changing the number on the bandanna each year, I am waiting until I'm done to apply the applique.)

Fold the bandanna in half diagonally, with right sides together. (Making a triangle.) Pin in place.

Sew the 2 unfinished sides together using a 1/2" seam allowance. Leave an opening (3 fingers wide) in the middle of one side.

Trim the three corners to remove bulk. Be careful not to cut too close to the stitching line.


Turn right side out.


Press flat.

Slip stitch the opening closed using a ladder stitch found in Stitch Glossary.

If adding a temporary applique, sew it on now using a running stitch. To find the right location for placement, fold the bandanna in half and "finger press" the fold, making a slight fold line. Place the applique centered on the fold, about 1" from the sides. The Bone Number Appliques can be found HERE.



Your bandanna is now ready to adorn your favorite canine friend!

Several years ago Michelle encouraged me to start a blog. Actually, encouraged is a very nice way of saying she was hounding me to start writing. "Mom, I know you'll love it. It will get you writing on a regular basis, and besides, I want you to write stories about us growing up so they aren't forgotten, and we can share them with our children." That was how my original blog One Generation to Another was started. And BTW, thank you Michelle. As always, you were right. I have LOVED blogging :) ANYWAY... with all the household projects we are both busy with right now, it reminded me of this blog... MY VERY FIRST blog entry ever! First published October of 2007. Hope you enjoy and have a lovely weekend!  

When you opened the front door of our house, you stepped into the foyer. To the right was our living room, which I always TRIED to keep company ready, (okay, frequently the overflow from the rest of the house osmosed into it) a hallway that lead to the kitchen, and the stairs that lead to our bedrooms.

One morning I had a scathingly brilliant idea. (By the way, my life is littered with almost as many scathingly brilliant mistakes!) I decided to remove the wall-to-wall carpeting that ran up the stairs and into the hallway. There was a rational thought process involved here. Since cleaning is not high on my list of favorite pastimes, and vacuuming the stairs involved precariously balancing the vacuum cleaner while I tried to clean the 13 steps, it seldom was done. The corners of the steps became low rent housing for domestic spiders, carelessly dropped “O”s, and vintage dust. The plan: remove the carpeting allowing me to simply sweep the steps whenever necessary, and tah-dah, efficiency in housekeeping. (My parents didn’t waste money on MY home economics degree!)

Okay, I wasn’t imagining anything quite as grand as the stairway in Gone with the Wind, but I was more than a little surprised at what I did discover. After cutting the carpet away, and giving a mighty pull, I was staring down at what I realized was construction grade stairs. It was painfully apparent that these steps were never meant to be viewed and the obvious intent was to keep them well hidden under wall-to-wall carpeting. The stairs were made of bonfire worthy wood. You could see the footprints of construction workers that must have made a point of stepping in all sorts of gooey substances before walking up and down the steps, thus leaving their mark for posterity, which rivaled the opulence of Grauman's Chinese Theatre. And, surprisingly, at least to me, very little thought was given to precise measurements…obviously stair building is an “ish” thing. I could see my basement through gaping cracks, tack less installation strips were firmly attached to each step, and gobs of hardened, aforementioned, gooey substances poxed the surface. General housekeeping note: Once you cut and rip carpeting off your steps, you can never put it back and expect it to look like anything other than a haphazardly laid drop cloth…kinda the same premise as refolding a map. Since the cost of recarpeting the stairs wouldn’t be in our budget, for, say, hmmmm, months, if not years, I had to think fast.

Fortunately, I’ve always been a rather make-do-with decorator so I rolled up my sleeves, gave an exasperated sigh, but was sufficiently delusional to be optimistic. It did take the rest of the day to remove the tack less installation strips and scrap off the larger gobs of stuff that I thought might actually trip us. With demolition complete I began to think about what I wanted to do with the stairs. That evening when my husband came home from work, I was in the kitchen cooking. He always wore shoes with hard heels, and I realized as he ascended the stairs that they had become bongo drums, amplifying each step he took. Probably as a penance for my impulsiveness, for the next several years, I was awaken each and every morning to the sound of those shoes hitting those stairs, mocking me, as if to say, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb. To his credit he said nothing about this new household development, which I think said more about the frequency of these types of decorating debacles than personal restraint on his part.

The next morning, with a vision firmly fashioned, I was good to go. I painted the risers of the stairs the same cream color I had throughout my house and then the steps my comfy colonial blue. I did need to install some moldings to close off the gaps to the basement, but all-in-all, it turned out to be a relatively simple project. I was quite pleased with the results, although when standing back and looking at the steps, I did feel that something was missing. Another idea! Thank God I have a million of them. I asked myself, what do I want my foyer to say to people? We’re talking first impressions here. I wanted my foyer to say, “Welcome, come on in, relax, stay awhile, and make yourself at home”. How to do that? I simply stenciled the word “Welcome” on the riser of every step. I tried stenciling every other step but you kinda got the feeling some of the steps were being antisocial, so I stenciled them all.

The effect was perfect. When someone came over, not only were they greeted by a friendly face, they were extended a personal welcome from the house. Frequently, when my children’s friends came over, I’d listen to them read the stairs out loud, using a rhythmic head bob, “Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome”, and they were!

Your foyer is your house’s first impression. What does yours say? Look around your entry. Does it say “welcome” to visitors? What can you do that will make people feel comfortable and welcome?

We get tons of emails from our readers. Sometimes they have questions, sometimes their kind words make us blush, and sometimes they simply WOW us! This falls into the category of WOWing us!

I got this email from Jane:

I thought you might be interested in the blanket I made as a Christmas present for my eight year old granddaughter. I made it with your free appliques on fleece. It turned out beautifully, and have had rave reviews. I'm very proud of it!

I used one block for my "personal signature". I took a piece of my daughter's wedding dress lining material, cut it into the shape of an unrolled scroll, sewed it onto the blanket, then used a permanent marker to write a personal message, write the year, and signature from Oma & Opa.

For fun, I also put a "secret code" in the blanket from me to my granddaughter:

Cupcake = You add sweetness to my life

Stars = You brighten my life

The last row, I sewed together person/heart/person and then the scroll. The person/heart/person stood for "Oma loves Mikayla". She seemed to enjoy the idea.

And after we asked for permission to share this on the blog, we got this response:

After all the months I worked on this blanket, I would be honored to have you share it with your readers! I'm so pleased you think it worthy. There is one hitch, though. I'd like you to tell me when you have it posted so I can see it "on the web!" and read any comments you receive. No, I don't have a blog.

By the way, I had never appliqued or embroidered before. Nor had I ever made a quilt. This was all new to me. The computer was my teacher.

If the blanket wasn't impressive enough, the fact that Jane has NEVER appliqued, embroidered OR made a quilt before should be sufficient incentive for any beginning crafters that are apprehensive of tackling big projects!

We are very grateful that Jane took the time to share her project. We get so many emails from people saying they love our appliques but are looking for ideas on how to use them. Well, if you are ambitious enough, here is a lovely idea. A beautiful, heirloom quilt, filled with love, and sure to be treasured by one lucky little lady for a lifetime! 

If you have any comments or questions for Jane, please feel free to leave them. I'm sure she would enjoy hearing from you!  

My mom made a request, actually it was more of a passing comment... she wanted a Wee Folk Art tote bag to carry around some of her crafty supplies. So I went off and designed a logo to have printed on a tote bag for her. Before ordering the bag I ran it past her just to make sure it was what she had had in mind. Well she loved it and also needed a coffee mug and a mouse pad and a sticker for her guitar case... see where this is going. LOL. No problem, I can do that!

So with that in mind I set up a Cafe Press Shop: Wee Folk Art Gnomes featuring our "Gnome Love" banner on a variety of gift items including tote bags, coffee mugs, SIGG water bottles and a variety of organic t-shirts. If you share our love for all things Gnome we thought you might like some Gnome Love too.

Please note, we have not received our order yet... so we have not yet seen the finished product in person but (we just got the stuff and it looks great... photos to come) we wanted to make sure we shared the link in time for anyone who wanted Gnome Gear for Christmas. We will share photos once we get our items.

{Look at how those adorable cheeks are filling in! I'm going back for a visit next week... can barely wait!}

A couple of weeks ago I shared a pattern on Facebook that I fell in love with from Never Not Knitting. Then, I did something I very seldom do... I actually bought the pattern. There are so many lovely free patterns online BUT this sweater was too sweet, too adorable to pass up.

I made it in a size 3 months for Lady. I used Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino in off white, spring green and pink. I then found the most adorable heart shaped buttons and started knitting. It was pure joy to work with the Cashmerino. So very, very soft. And, the pattern from Never Not Knitting was easy to follow. I will definitely make it again. And, let's face it, when you are knitting a size 3 months, it goes pretty fast, even if you are using size 3 needles!

I mailed the sweater to Lady on Friday, and she received it on Monday. I talked to her on the phone. Judging by all the cooing she did while in the sweater, I'm guessing she LOVED it, too!