Felt Picture

We made this a few weeks ago - I did the cutting under direction from T - he drew shapes on paper which I used as templates for the felt. Then he did arranging and glueing. There was some overly enthusiastic use of glue.

This was the first thing we made with our craft felt pack from Ebay. I will definitely used craft felt again as I love the bright colours and it is so simple and easy to use. T enjoyed it so much that two more are under construction....I am trying to persuade him it would be a good idea to give one to Grandma for Christmas - he doesn't like to part with his masterpieces! Cue the conversation about how Christmas is about giving to others, thinking of others not just ourselves.... One great thing though , while making it he uttered the amazing words, "This is better than playing on the computer" Hallelujah!!

Christmas Cards

I set those children to work...inspired by the Kids Craft Newletter http://http://kidscraftweekly.com/simple_cards_issue.html. We bought a pack of craft felt on Ebay and it is really gorgeous stuff. I cut and stuck the tree shapes, then T decorated them with shapes we already had in the craft box. This was the first batch, I was mean enought to make him do it all again! I really like the simplicity of these and the brightness!

Then little sister had a go, her cards were made with some craft punches. One has a label shape and then we have a small Christmas tree shape and lots of pearlescent white glitter. She enjoyed using the craft punch, we used it on sugar paper and then on some of her gold and red finger paintings.

Apple day

We went to the Annual Apple Day at the Greenwood trust in early October- loads for kids and a celebration of apples...

There was a local potter there and kids could throw a pot on the wheel. They also made dragonflies from sticks and UHT paper coloured in with felt tips. These can be seen in an earlier post surrounding my Amy Butler top. They hang in our hallway brightening it up. There was the giant Millenium apple press in action making juice and we came away with our 4 litres. We had taken in bags of apples earlier in the week and so got free juice! It was so nice to have day when we could be outside doing things.

slack blogger

I feel so slack - it is almost a month since the last post. I have THOUGHT about posts a lot butnot got round to actual posting - in my defence we have had half term holiday which necessitated a trip down to the south west to visit family, then on our return I had a throat infection which slowed us down. Now I am gearing up to get ready for December and Christmas...feeling virtous having just stitched some bags for presents for some of T's friends...just need to finish them. I planned to put in some art materials and some paper dolls from here (http://chezbeeperbebe.blogspot.com/). I love paper dolls and always had some in my stocking every Christmas as a child.

It took so long....Simplicity 2599

This top has taken me almost two months to sew - not because it is esepcially tricky but because it was so hard to find the time. I made it as a birthday gift for my friend and so worked to a higher standard of finish than I probably would have done if it was for me!
I bought the Amy Butler fabric at the Quilts UK expo at the NEC in August. All I can say now is."Phew..."

Next challenge is to post it before the postal strike. This is more of a challenge as my daughter currently refuses her pram and insists on walking to the local post office. She also refuses hand holding. Problem is we have a major building site at the end of our road and a burgeoning tesco store with heavy traffic. I have to bribe her into the pram with food. She can (and does) climb out once strapped in - when the food runs out!

The surrounding dragonflies were made by the kids at Apple Day(http://greenwoodcentre.org.uk/). More on that later.

A bad pic of a good cushion

I made this initial cushion for my friend's daughter's 2nd birthday. I used Bondaweb and zig-zagged the cushion onto a blue cotton. Very simple to do. I am planning on some more for Christmas presents... but have been very busy making two tunic tops recently and must finish them before anything else is started. I haven't blogged recently with the return to school. My son has started at a new school and I now have to drive down country lanes, avoiding tractors. I am finding it very tiring, especially as my two year old keeps starting the day at 4 or 5am.

papermaking

I tried papermaking with T and I. Here is T mixing up the pulp. His little sister aged 2 helped too. They both formed sheets. We all ended up soaked! But we have made some nice sheets of paper to use in collages.

Interesting to find that a two years and 4 month old can make paper sheets just fine - her main issue was taking turns with the frame. We used dyed bamboo based pulp from Papershed and mixed it with some white linters. We piled the wet sheets onto wet cloths lying in a large baking tray. When finished I took the pile of wet cloths and placed them between two sheets of hardboard in the garden and stood on it to squeeze out excess water. I did this bit without kids! We were able to then peg the couching cloths up on a clothes rack and the paper dried overnight.