Kleas

sweet felt bunny

Last summer I was the lucky winner of a give-away Louise was having on her blog.  She had started selling kits of her darling wool bunny in her etsy shop and was willing to give two away.  I was the fortunate recipient of one of those kits and just couldn't wait for a quiet moment to stitch it up.  Last night, I got that chance to sit down and make this adorable little bunny.

 
The kit is so well put together, the instructions are clear, the pattern well written and it included the best materials.  It was so fun to have all the pieces right there so I could use my time doing the sewing that I love.

Bu that was not all!  Louise also send me this sweet guy (the boys named him Opus).  I've long admired her beautiful hand work so I will always treasure this piece she made.

And how darling is this mini garland?  I just love it!

So much fun.  A huge thank you to Louise!!

 

friday

I made this sweet pooch after I first saw the vintage pattern posted on Bethany's blog.

(You can find it here.)

 
And just because I like to make things small, I reduced the pattern and made some more.  I played with the pattern a bit, adding a gusset to the pink one.  I also cut the under belly piece to include the legs, instead of stitching on all four legs separately.  That part worked well, I'm not convinced about the head gusset though.  I could play with it a little more and see what I come up with.

 
Such a colorful little family.

 
   
A big thank you to Cassi for posting about my lanterns today.  It's always nice to get new visitor's here!! 

the art of canning, or canning as art

Earlier this year a dear friend of mine who had recently graduated from college took part in an art exhibit.  She had spent the summer working on an organic farm and learned all she could about canning.  Her focus was the beauty in the process of canning and to explore how food and art are related.  She reflects on the growing, harvesting, processing, cooking, and eating of food as a part of a long creative process.

 
Her canning was pure beauty.  She took great care in every detail to ensure a good balance of color, texture and variety.

 
 
I love that her grandfather helped built the display shelf.  And that she also included the stained towel she used in the process (like an artists rag for wiping the brush).

Let those December winds bellow 'n' blow
I'm as warm as a July tomato.

Peaches on the shelf
Potatoes in the bin
Supper's ready, everybody come on in
Taste a little of the summer,
Taste a little of the summer,
You can taste a little of the summer
my grandma's put it all in jars.

-Greg Brown, Canned Goods from "One Night"

More beauty in canning:

• Ali's crab apple and chili jelly
• From the Library of Congress, this lovely sampling of vegetables from the 1940's
• this gorgeous pantry 
• andsweet pickled golden beets

I usually freeze all my autumn's harvest, but I'm inspired to give canning a try.

zero landfill

This is what the back of my car looked like after Julen and I made a trip out to the ZeroLandfill program pick up site.

 
The good people there (all volunteers) met me with smiles and were so happy to see an eager preschool teacher in search of classroom supplies.

I went with a single modest shopping bag in search of fabric and somehow left with boxes and bags full of all sorts of different materials...

...like these sample bricks...I'm thinking, for painting on, to use for printing projects, maybe even to use to built a little play scene for the kids.

...and these wallpaper samples...so textured, they'd be great for crayon rubbings, to use for book covers, and in collage.

...and then there is the fabric.  At the pick up site two men in ties instantly filled two boxes to the brim full of fabric samples for me.  I was all too happy to take it off their hands.

The boys and I went straight to the preschool to take inventory.  It was fun sorting all the pieces by fiber content.

There were a lot more fabrics that were all natural fibers than I had expected.  Like silks, cottons, wool, mohair and linens.  I have so many ideas for projects...from nature bags, to dress up play clothes, to simple stitching projects.

I also came home with tile pieces, wood and carpet samples and bits of concrete counter top.  I'd love any suggestions for projects if anyone has any ideas.  They run a local website that is full of inspirational projects others have made.  Check it out here.  I'm especially fond of the scrap chairs and Maharam sample pillow found here (and the quilt is lovely too).

Not every community has this wonderful program, but wouldn't it be great if they did?  Check out the project site list to see if there is one in your neighborhood. 

(Thanks go to my beautiful sister for sending me the information on ZeroLandfill.)

a true sign of fall

Autumn and knitting just go hand-in-hand for me.  Maybe it's the cooler weather.  More likely it's because it's football season and I love to keep my hands busy while I cheer on the Vikings. 

Here are a few washcloths I've recently finished.  All free patterns were found online.

heart

spring flowers

fish

And by far my most favorite ones and the most fun to knit were these house helpers.

and of course I couldn't stop at just one

 

 With so many different patterns to choose from I just may end up with quite a collection. 

Monarch Festival

Saturday was the perfect day for the Monarch Festival, a day to release the monarch butterflies and learn about the journey they were about to embark on from Minnesota to Mexico.

It was a beautifully organized and well run event held at the lake near my house.  Great music, dances and food.  Lots of educational activities and projects for the kids...I'm pretty sure we didn't miss a single one.  We made butterfly garden seed balls, went on a mock journey following the trail the monarchs will take, played monarch bingo, made torn paper postcards, contributed to the making of the butterfly kites, and ran the obstacle course.  But by far the most exciting event for the boys was steamroller printing put together by the wonderful people at art org.

It starts by the cutting out of your design on a sticky backed material and pressing it down on to your cardboard.

 
walking it over to the table to get the ink applied

Then the absolute best part...watching the steam roller, pass over your block transferring the image onto paper.

They even had the kids sign and number their work and they got to stamp an official seal into the corner.

I found these adorable pictures of the boys and their artwork here and here

For great educational information and plenty of ideas for activities you can do with your kids, check out the Monarch Watch website.
 
Wishing all the butterflies a safe journey to Mexico!

a new friend for Julen

It was love at first sight

 

Happy Friday!!

more gnome knitting

I posted this knitting wip photo last month.  These are parts of gnome dolls I knit up over the summer.  When it was time to sort them out, I found I didn't have enough matching pieces and for whatever reason I felt I really needed the colors to be the same or at least similar.

I ended up knitting more and more pieces to create dolls that came together in a matching color scheme.  Finally I started the slow process of stitching up the dolls. 

The pattern comes from The Gnome Craft Book.  I love using self striping sock yarn just because they come out so colorful.  I also made a few more of these (pattern found here).

Instead of stuffing and stitching up the body, I left it open so they could be used as puppets.

 
I worry that I may be having more fun with these than I should.

the great mn get together

Last week was State Fair time for me.  I do this annual event much differently than anyone I know.  At a time when most people look forward to eating traditional fair food, I always pack a lunch.  (check out Red Ravine's post on the 71 food items you can get on a stick!  I heard there was even deep-fried butter on a stick but did not personally see it or hear of anyone eating it)  With one boy at school and the other at Grandma's I zoomed off to the fair to do and see as much as possible in 3-4 hours.  I have a system, it usually goes like this...

First stop...see what sculpture was made from the garbage that had been pulled out of the Mississippi River.

Second stop...a peek at handwork.

from quilting

to tons of creative knitting projects

odd collections

a sculpture made from spoons

more crazy knitting

and even projects on sticks

there is the annual collaborative project (could NOT get a decent photo of the artwork))

and even a doll made from friend Mimi's pattern

and of course, canned goods.

Third stop

 

 

the knit wire and wax dolls made me think of sonya

And final stop

Love this scarecrow knit entirely out of plastic bags.

 
  Haven't had enough?  Feel free to look at my previous State Fair posts...they really aren't that different.

2006, 2007, 2008, 2009

I'm back to teaching later today, and we have a full house this year.  It is all very exciting how quickly we have grown. 

mobiles

Last weekend Jen hosted another pARTy.  This time we wet-felted wool into balls and then I had the opportunity to teach the group how to make wet-felted beads (I have a tutorial here.) which we then made into colorful mobiles.  As all of Jen's pARTy's are, it was friendly, relaxing and I went home with a finished project.  Here is my mobile.

Why is it such a challenge to take a decent photo of a mobile?  Is it the wool?  It took me much longer than I care to admit to take this shot.  I had better luck using a mirror.

(no shadows)

I love when making the wool beads you never know exactly how they will look on the inside until you cut them open. 
 
I was so happy to finally meet Jess at the party.  We've been blog friends for a while and I was thrilled to put a face to the name.  See her mobile here, and Jen's, and Jenn's and I hope Anna will post her's soon.  And here's a cute one I spotted on etsy.

Another way to use the wet felted beads is to make tree ornaments.  My boys and I made these last year and they gave them as gifts (again...horrible photos, but you get the idea?)  We simply strung the beads on fish line, mixed it up a bit by adding glass beads, I crimped a spacer on the top to loop the fish line for hanging and that was it!  Even if you run into trouble wet felting the "snakes" like Sara did, because the fish line passes through the wool, it will hold it together just fine.