Are You Clean or Dirty?

We recently (FINALLY!!!) got a new dishwasher.  It is absolutely wonderful! No more tea stains! Everything is sterilized again! I am a VERY happy camper!!! I only have one gripe. Since the dishwasher is super energy efficient…it doesn’t have an indicator of whether the dishes are clean or dirty…not a light to be seen!!! So, being the crafty diva that I am…I just had to make a clean/dirty indicator for the front!  I looked at a few different ones that I thought were pretty cute (click picture to got to site):

There’s crafty girl’s:

On Home Made Simple, Cascade offers some graphics you can print out and put on a magnet…super simple!:

 

I finally decided I liked the look of crafty goat’s polymer clay magnet. She has a great tutorial on her site if you want to make one in polymer clay:

I ended up doing mine in wool felt.

Not quite as crisp as my inspiration, but it makes me happy! It’s two sided with magnets sandwiched in between. It definitely let’s us know whether the dishes are clean or not…now if I can get the kid’s to remember to flip it when appropriate!

A Strawberry Tutorial for You…

		Felt Strawberries VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Supplies:  wool felt in green, white and red; white beads; yellow beads; beading thread or very strong sewing thread; green yarn or embroidery floss.

1. Start with a circle shape, I used three sizes (2 3/4”, 3 1/2” & 4 1/4” across) cut it in half.  I like to use freezer paper with the felt as you can iron it onto your felt and then cut your shape…makes life much easier.

2. sew straight edges together, turn right side out.

3. sew a gathering stitch around the top and stuff with fiberfill. Really stuff that little sucker good!!!  You’ll be amazed by how much fiberfill you can get in there! You could stuff it with a little sand or bb’s for weight but make sure to have fiberfill in the top portion to hold it all in.  Pull gathering stitches tight and tie off.

4. take a length of your yarn (about 7-8”) and tie a knot in the end. Poke knot into top hole. Using the thread that is left on your needle, pulling tightly, sew back and forth across the hole and occasionally going through the yarn until the hole is completely closed.

5. sew white beads randomly around the berry pulling tightly so you create a divot where the “seed” is. Knot off in the top of the berry by doing a few backstitches.

6. for the leaves, cut out two starfish like shapes, one slightly smaller than the other.  cut a hole in the center and pull yarn through the larger one.  sew leaf down by coming out near the juncture of two “leaflets” and back out the center.  repeat around the whole leaf cap.  repeat with the smaller leaf cap.

7. cut out a 5 petal flower or two for the top. sew to top and add yellow beads to the center.

There you go! Hope you find my instructions clear enough.

I “Felt” Like Showing You Something…

I know I haven’t been blogging much lately. I just haven’t really been in the mood. I have been crafting though. I thought I would show you my newest finish. It’s a wool felt lamp penny rug. I love the way it turned out. I used beads to accent the middle and sort of “made up” the stitch I used with them. I’m sure I didn’t really make it up…there’s nothing new under the sun! :-)

I also wanted to tell you about a wonderful week long giveaway over at Jane’s Fabric’s and Quilts. Jane is such a nice lady and having a wonderful celebration, why not pop over there and sign up!

See you soon!

Finish #1...

I have been busy sewing...hand sewing that is. I have a few finishes to share with you, but I am going to dole them out one at a time. Give me more to blog about. Today I'm showing you my "Wonky House" that is an embroidery freebie from Jenny over at Elefantz. There are supposed to be more coming too!



"Wait," you say, "I thought you said embroidery freebie." You say. Well, it is. I just decided to do it a little differently. Instead of embroidery, I got the great idea to do it in needle turn applique. Something that I have never done before. I made the image bigger (since I'm not completely insane enough to make it so small!) and used it as a pattern for my material pieces. I also challenged myself as far as the material choices. As you can see, the "grass" and the "hill" are pretty traditional materials...what I'm most comfortable with. I chose what, to me, looks like a night sky with it's swirlies and "star lights." Where I really jumped out of my comfort zone is in the main house material. I love it, it just isn't something I would normally choose to make something out of. I used wool felt for the windows, doors, tree, sign and mail box. I'm very pleased with the way it turned out and I am really looking forward to the others that Jenny will be sharing. I hope she likes what I did with her pattern.l

A Mushroom, A Couple of Birds and A Hairy Finish!

I take bad pictures since I still haven't figured out how to use my digital camera to its best advantage, so, I played with my new images in my PaintShop Pro program (that I love!) and made them all look fancier!

First I have a darling little wool felt mushroom house that I finished a couple of weeks ago. I got the pattern from the little house by the sea. I love the way it turned out! If you like to work with felt you should really check out her wonderful pattern! I took a series of pictures of the embroidery I did on it. We start at the front door and work our way clockwise around the "house."


Next up I have the second completed applique block from the BOM offered over at Bunny Hill Designs. I think it turned out really cute! I fused the applique's on then did a blanked stitch in coordinating floss around them. But where is the first block you say? ('cause I know you totally noticed that I haven't posted the first one yet) Well, I haven't quite made that one yet. No one ever said I liked to do things in the proper order!!

(lace was just added in my photo editing program)

Last, but not least, are a couple more pictures of Baby Girls hair. The first one I did yesterday. Just kinda "made it up" on the fly (not that anyone ever makes up anything new!). I was doing her hair the way I usually do it, just pulling the front back in a band, when I decided to put it in a twisted pony. Why stop there I thought, so I kept gathering new sections and twisting them through until we had a complete pony tail/twisted braid thingy. (Just in case you didn't know, "thingy" is a technical term that I frequently use)


Today I went here and used a modified version of her heart ponytail. I like Baby Girl's hair down and softer around her face so that is what prompted me to do it this way. I think it turned out really cute! In case you can't tell, my Daughter is loving all the new do's! 'Course, what girl doesn't!!

Matryoshka Doll

Create Your Own


This is my latest completed project, matryoshka dolls! They turned out so sweet! I got the pattern from Maisy Hutton's site and you can get it here too! It's a pdf that she has generously made available to all who want to try it!

I made mine completely from felt. I just love working with felt! It's so forgiving and you can do just about anything with it. I prefer to use a wool felt blend as I just hate the craft felt! I have a bunch of it from before I became a felt snob. It makes a great material for my 7yr old Daughter to play with - and I don't care what she does with it!!

There are lots of great places to buy felt from online. I just happen to buy from Wool Felt Central. I was very happy with their speed and service.

I also love to do little embroidery projects so these little darlings satisfied me on two fronts! There are lots of ideas out there (online) for ways to embellish if you need some inspiration. Just google the dolls and hit images!