My “Felt Smack Down” Entry…

Well, here's my entry for the "Felt Smack Down" contest! I really enjoyed making this. I have loved working with felt now for quite a while and have been inspired by Salley Mavor for years.

It was a learning experience for me as well as a fun project to make. I tried some techniques on this piece that I haven't employed before as described below. My piece is a wall hanging that is 8" x 9", mounted to foam core board and finished along the edges with ribbon and pearl headed pins.

My “Little” (doll), as I call them, measures 1 3/4", including the little tip on her cap. I painted her face (no easy feat being as she is so small!) and embroidered her tunic and skirt. Her hair is made from yarn.
The pot of hydrangeas measures just over 3/4" and is sculpted and then painted using watercolors for extra dimension. Each flower was made individually with a single strand of embroidery floss worked in colonial knots, gathered and then sewn in place.

The apple tree measures 3" and is sculpted and painted using watercolors as well for extra dimension.

I needle felted the clouds then stitched them down to the sky.
The wisteria vine is actually a couple of different colors of floss that I dipped in a 50-50 mixture of white glue and water, then wrapped around a paintbrush to dry before stitching in place with some silk fleurette's. The clouds ended up being my least favorite part of the project. I need to experiment more and come up with something more satisfactory and realistic.

Overall, I am pleased with my end result. There were times that I was feeling dissatisfied with it, but as I added more detail, the picture started to match what I had in my head. I can see making more along these lines in the future.

Kohl’s…

is a really cool company.  Usually I keep my blog fairly impersonal.  Don’t want to bore you all with my everyday boo-hoo-ing. 

I have to tell you about this though.

Recently, we have been having some problems with having enough money for everything.  Same story that’s going on all over the country.  Everything is more expensive, no raises for the Husband and I can’t get anyone to hire me, yadda, yadda, yadda.  Every month I have to decide what gets paid off, what gets paid on and what gets held on to.  Our biggest problem has been medical bills.  Well, this last month I decided I needed to pay on some of them as they are seriously past due.  As a result, I have gotten behind on my Kohl’s charge (which I did not use during Christmas, I was so good, I didn’t use any credit!).

Today, in the mail, I got a notice that they would do something they call their “match a payment program.” If I would make the minimum payment due, once it clears, they will credit my existing balance by $50.00.  Folks, that isn’t a typo.  I said $50.00.  Their exact word were “We want to help you bring your account to a current status.” How cool is that!  I tell you, I had tears in my eyes when I read it because it means so much to us.  I spoke with someone on the phone and explained that I wouldn’t be able to pay on the account until the last day of the  month (payday), so she took my information and they are post dating my payment  until February 1st. 

I don’t know too many companies in this economic atmosphere who are really concerned about their patron’s financial situation.  Most companies are all about the bottom line, the big bucks, the fiscal report.  Not Kohl’s.  They actually care about us and that is HUGE in my book. 

So, as a final word on the issue…go shop at Kohl’s… they are good people!

Dust In the Wind…

All we are is dust in the wiiiiiinnnndddd….

Do you remember that song by Kansas?  It came out in 1977.  When I was in 7th grade. A lifetime ago.

Anyways, so I’m thinking about dust.  “Dust?” you say.  Yes. Dust.  For the most part, I like to think of myself as a fairly clean person.  Like I have a somewhat clean house.  Wrong.  I found this great little pattern for a broom handle corner duster to crochet.  I made it up while watching UP with the family tonight.  First I used it to get the cobwebs (yuck) lurking in the corners of the family room. Next, I thought, cool, I can actually get the top of my doorbell thingy-muhjig (technical term)…eww.  It gets better though, I ran it along the top of my door trim down the hallway leading to our garage…in a word…NASTY!!!

So, I’m going to share the link with you so you can see how disgusting you are too…come on, don’t be shy…tell me…please…I don’t want to be the one admitting to being gross!

You can find this wonder at Suzies Stuff (found via craftgossip.com)

I made mine out of beige (so it wouldn’t show the dirt – ha!) acrylic yarn.  I would have used cotton, but I was afraid it would end up shrinking and not fit my broom handle anymore.  Have fun!

Doughn’t Blame Me, I Couldn’t Help Myself…

Please join me in remembering a great icon of the entertainment community. The Pillsbury Doughboy died yesterday of a yeast infection and trauma complications from repeated pokes in the belly. He was 71.
Doughboy was buried in a lightly greased coffin. Dozens of celebrities turned out to pay their respects, including Mrs. Butterworth, Hungry Jack, the California Raisins, Betty Crocker, the Hostess Twinkies, and Captain Crunch. The grave site was piled high with flours.
Aunt Jemima delivered the eulogy and lovingly described Doughboy as a man who never knew how much he was kneaded. Doughboy rose quickly in show business, but his later life was filled with turnovers.. He was considered a very smart cookie, but wasted much of his dough on half-baked schemes. Despite being a little flaky at times, he still was a crusty old man and was considered a positive roll model for millions.
Doughboy is survived by his wife Play dough, three children: John Dough, Jane Dough and Dosey Dough, plus they had a bun in the oven, Sour Dough (that’s what you get at 71). He is also survived by his elderly father, Pop Tart.
The funeral was held at 3:50 for about 20 minutes.

(reposted from Sew Many Memories)

A "Little" Break and Some Other Stuff...

So I took a break from working on my “little” project for the “Felt Smack Down” contest.

My Daughter has needed a new dance bag for a while now.  She is in more dance classes and has 3 pair of shoes now so needed a larger bag.  I finally got around to making what I wanted for her.   So first the happy part: I made her a drawstring bag with one outside pocket and four inside pockets for her shoes and what not.  Looks cute doesn’t it?

I love the fabric.  I bought it like a year ago meaning to use it for something like this and me being me, just “re-discovered” it.Now the sad part:  I designed it myself.  Great you say…not so much I say.  I didn’t allow for enough width so it’s just a tiny bit too narrow.  I didn’t allow enough length on the tabs on the sides so I couldn’t thread the strings through and had to jury rig it with elastic bands.  The biggest mistake I made was that I didn’t allow enough room at the top for the cord channel. So as a result, the top won’t close down snuggly. Typical me.  I added Velcro in the top so that it will stay closed.

On a positive note, and most importantly, my Daughter loves it! 

A Couple “Little’s” and a Smack Down…

I have a new felt brooch to share with you. I used my tiny heart sizzix paddle punch that I got from my Mom for Christmas last year for the flower, some seed beads, rick rack and some new felt I got for Christmas this year (thanks Mom!). I think it turned out pretty cute!

Have you heard about this?

Over at My Life Under the Bus they are having a contest. It is based on this terrific book by Salley Mavor:

Well, I couldn’t help myself…I signed up. I’ve already made a sketch of what I want to do. I’ve also made the main “little” that will be in my piece. She’s tiny. I mean TINY! Her head is 10mm. Other than my beadwork, this is the smallest scale I have ever done! I loved making the clothes for her, very delicate and tiny embroidery! I used a very small applique needle and a single strand of embroidery floss for the embellishments. I’m not going to show the whole project until I get it all done, but I wanted to show my “little” off…so here she is:

She’s very sweet and oh so tiny! I’m looking forward the rest of the project!

Gorgeous Pictures from the UK…

The lady that runs the "Needleprint” blog takes the most gorgeous pictures of different historical textiles. She sells needle work patterns and frequently offers old patterns for free.  Her site is worth a look just for the historical aspect alone!  Recently she has posted the most picturesque winter pictures from her home town this winter.  Here are a few of my favorites:

Aren’t they charming?  Stop by her blog and check out her other lovely photographs and offerings!

Baby It’s Cold outside…

Well, it’s January.  What can I say about January?  To me, it has always been the bleakest month of the year.  It’s cold.  It’s barren.  It’s depressing.  Even though mid-way through is one of my children’s birthday’s, January has always seemed to be a long road to haul. 

To help me pass the winter doldrums, I have decided to try to fill it with as much handmade beauty as possible.  My first finish of the year is a flower pincushion.  I have decided I want a different pincushion for each of my different pins and one for my sewing needles.  The flower for this pincushion is based on the flower from the snow mum pillow pattern by Amy Butler.

I half sized the pattern for the flower and added another row of petals. The whole thing is in a ramekin that my Son brought home from a restaurant one time.  It was a bit of work to sew all the petals properly, but totally worth the effort!

I have a couple more projects in the works that I will hopefully be able to share in the next few days.

If you notice, in my sidebar, I have done a little house cleaning (too bad it’s not in my REAL house!).  The top two buttons are links to a couple of the new free block-of-the-month’s I am collecting and hopefully making this year, we’ll see how well that goes for me!  I will be adding at least one more in there, just have to grab the image and throw it up there.

Thank you to everyone for your well wishes and prayers for my Dad.  He is doing much better now and it looks like surgery is not necessary for now.  It was very stressful for my whole family and all of your prayers really meant a lot to  us!