Do you participate in ornament exchanges? Or do you have people on your list that you need to make an ornament for? I usually have a dozen or so ornaments to make for people outside our immediate family. The challenge seems to be making them similar enough so I can work them up quickly, but different enough to show that I care. Here's what I came up with this year....mittens! I started out by drawing a simple mitten shape on a scrap of paper. I cut it out and sprayed the back with temporary spray adhesive. I pressed it on to the colorful felt scraps I had and carefully cut out 12 mittens. Since felt is reversible, I flipped some over so they wouldn't all have the thumbs facing the same direction. After all there have to be right and left mittens! :) Then I threaded a needle with some white crochet cotton and hand stitched a simple snowflake motif. I used large straight stitches and then french knots for the end points. I knew I wanted to cover up the stitching on the back of each mitten and give them a little more heft, so I decided to sew them on to white felt. To make this easier, I laid out six mittens on a 9 x 12" piece of felt, allowing some space in between. I used white thread in top and bobbin and sewed them in place. I repeated the process with the other six mittens. Next, I cut approximately 1/8" around each mitten so that each would have a white edge. (No need to measure, I just eye-balled it!) For the finishing touch, I took scraps from the white felt sheets and sewed on "cuffs" to each mitten. Depending on the colors of thread I had, some were sewn on using thread that matched the colored felt, while on others I had to use white. Cute either way! The final step? Thread another piece of crochet cotton (about 6" long) and go through the entire mitten about 1/4" down from the top of the cuff. Tie a knot and that's all there is to it! Have anyone on your list you'd like to make a mitten for? I'd be happy to give this fun and simple little pattern in PDF format to anyone who emails me. Happy Stitching! :)
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Have you noticed the plethora of hedgehog items in the stores these days? It seems like they are everywhere! Well, I have a confession to make.... I too, am a hedgehog fan! As a disclaimer, I have actually liked them for a long time, so this isn't me jumping on the trend band wagon or something. It's just that they are easier to find now. :) As a matter of fact, I almost got one as a pet! Quite a few years ago, our family went in to the local pet store and found one. I was smitten by the cute little guy and my husband even was on board with it UNTIL.....our son screamed. Yes, you read that right. He screamed when he saw the adorable critter in my hand and refused to hold him. So right then and there, I knew it was a "no go". :( Well, fast forward to the present. As with most family stories, we now laugh about the "hedgehog incident". :) Over the last few days, I have been in a drawing and painting mood, and I found myself drawing.... you guessed it...... a hedgehog! I decided to have some fun and recreated Herbert with felt and some hand stitching. I traced the different body pieces on to scrap pieces of paper and used temporary spray adhesive to bond the pattern pieces to the felt. After I cut each piece out, I removed the paper and used some craft glue to secure them in place. Herbert has hand stitched details and beads for his eye and nose. I used the seed stitch to give his spines some visual texture. I added the layered felt rectangles and wooden buttons to pull it together with the other items in the room. (Sorry for the picture quality. Hopefully you will still get the idea. The glare on the glass and my camera didn't get along too well on this cloudy day!) I didn't spend a lot of time on this project, maybe two hours total, but I think it shows we don't need a ton of time to be creative. We just need a little nudge. :)
Another great thing about this project? I had everything on hand, even the shadowbox frame! Do you ever have that happen? Doesn't it feel great to use up scraps and tidbits to create something? What are you making today? |
About MeFiber artist, wife to a wonderful husband and mom to 2 awesome, grown kids Archives
July 2023
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