Guest Blogger & Wool Flower Tutorial

I am honored to have Lori Campbell here today as my guest blogger!  You all may know Lori from her awesome shop and blog, Beneath the Rowan Tree.  Time to get out those wool yarn scraps, Lori has a lovely project in mind for them.

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Beneath the Rowan Tree has been making hand dyed and handmade children's toys since 2007. Artisan Lori Campbell has recently quit her 20 year career to focus on BTRT full time (along with parenting and homeschooling).  To bring this dream to full life BTRT has launched a Kickstarter campaign to create a line of hand dyed wool yarns and a studio.  Please visit the Kickstarter at 
http://tinyurl.com/Kickin-itBTRT -- and consider becoming part of the project as a backer, receiving some wonderful hand dyed rewards and sharing the link with others. They have until March 5th to meet their funding goal.  This tutorial comes from the Beneath the Rowan Tree blog.

This is a perfect project for using up pretty bits of yarn.

I love to make them with handspun and/or single ply, but they would work well with plied wool yarn as well.
Attach a bobby pin or hair elastic for a one of a kind hair decoration.  Or add a brooch pin, even stitch them right to your finished garment for a sweet embellishment.  Stitch a piece of wool felt to the back for stability and you have a pretty button!

Materials:

• Various scraps of WOOL yarn in desired colours
• Scissors
• Felting needle (any size, I prefer 38 stars)
• Hair elastics, bobby pins, brooch pins or button shafts as you choose
• embroidery floss or thread for finishing
• green roving and felting mat if you intend to make leaves OR green commercial felt

Instructions :
1) Choose a length of yarn (length will depend on size of blossom in mind).
18" will make a quarter sized blossom.
Start a spiral, keeping the yarn flat as you wind.

2) Using your felting needle, slide it carefully into the side of your spiral.
Take care not to bend your needle, as it may snap.
Also, mind your fingers!  This craft is sure to give you at least a couple of good pokes!

Sliding it carefully in and out at various points around your spiral, you should hear and feel the "shh" sound of fibers locking as you withdraw your needle.  At this point you simple need to tack the spiral together well enough to enable you to continue to wind it while maintaining a flat plane. (pardon my dye stained fingers!)

3) Continue to wind and tack until your spiral reaches the desired size.

4) When you have your blossom at the size you need, use your needle in the same manner as above, this time going carefully and intentionally around the whole spiral with firm stabs that reach to the center to stabilize the piece.
Avoid stabbing the needle right through and out the other side, as this will leave 'tufts' of fiber on your finished piece.
The tail is best slipped behind the piece and carefully felted down against the back (stabbing at a perpendicular angle to the piece in this case, careful not to go through the front).
Use your needle to tidy up the shape and any errant tufts.
When you are finished you should have a spiral that holds together like one solid piece.

5) Finishing: 

• for hair pretties, stitch the spiral securely to the hair elastic
• for a bobby pin, use a strong adhesive and place a dab on the back of the spiral, 'smoosh' this in to the fibers and let dry.  You will use this 'pad' you have created to adhere the spiral to the bobby pin plate so that you are attaching adhesive to adhesive.
• for a brooch, stitch the spiral to a locking bar pin or other
• for a pendant, either stitch or adhere to a bail (use adhesion suggestion as above)
• for a button, stitch a piece of commercial felt to the back t ensure the spiral functions as one solid piece for buttoning.  Stitch to garment or button shank.
• make leaves with roving and needlefelting, felt to the back, OR cutout leaves from commercial felt and stitch to back.

Have fun!
This tutorial is provided freely, but it does represent hard work on the part of the designer and author. No part of it may be reproduced without the author's permission.
It may not be reprinted or reproduced for commercial purposes or for profit.
If you use items created from this tutorial for commercial purposes, credit to the designer would be appreciated! 
Copyright, Lori Campbell/ Beneath the Rowan Tree, 2010 ©

Strawberry Boy Birthday Party!

Thank you for your condolences about my Gram everyone.  She was/ is a special lady.  ( I say is because I know she still exists somewhere.  Death is not an ending to me.  I know in my heart these loved ones live on.) Her passing was expected yet I was surprised at how much I grieved for my time with her as a child.  She was/is a pretty fun Grandma.

Anyway, on to Owen's Birthday party!  We decided to make Owen's 4th birthday a strawberry party because when we bake or even talk about baking he always asks for a strawberry cake.  I have never made one, so he was thrilled at the suggestion of a strawberry party!

I made all of his Birthday ring decorations except for the two snails, which are from Armadillo Dreams.  The snails are for play not decoration, but they still looked pretty darn cute on Owen's birthday ring,  Here is his happy storm gnome because he arrived during a thunder storm.  His strawberry, the number four, a moon because we sing, "I see the moon and the moon sees me...", a sunshine because he is a summer babe.  And a star because his favorite song when he was just learning to talk was, "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star". 

My dear friend had this vintage strawberry fabric in her stash.  I fell in love with its quirkiness.  My husband says is looks like a "70's acid trip".  To which I replied, "but it's so ugly, it's cool, it's vintage."  And he said "yah, leprosy has been around for awhile too but you don't want that."  He's going to just love it when I haul out this table runner and eight napkins every summer season!  What do you think?  Quirky vintage or "leprosy"? 

A little felt strawberry mobile.  I love that we can keep all of these things for next summer's seasonal decorations. 



An easy strawberry burlap banner.  My friend just happened to have this strawberry stencil lying about.  The burlap coffee sack material was left over from my covered studio boxes.  Miniature clothespins hold them to a hemp string with curly green hemp string tied between. 

We had five boys at the party and boy were they thrilled with the balloons.  We had a few easy and fun activities planned.  They sailed ice boats on the hot sidewalk.  Inside the ice were little frogs to play a leap frog game.  After that they made wire bubble wands and bubbles with homemade solution.  Then out came the sidewalk chalk.  Lastly I had coloring pages printed and a new box of crayons for them to take home. I printed cute Jan Brett cursive letter practice sheets in the boys initials amongst other Jan Brett color pages.

I baked two cakes.  The first was a strawerry flavored cake that came out disgustingly sweet with an odd texture.  I know this because one of the cakes fell out of the pan in a crumble. This was a really fun way to spend the evening before a party, let me tell you!  The above was my second attempt, this time a yellow cake with yummy chocolate icing and strawberries on top. My friend also brought a strawberry pie.

We had hamburgers, brats, olive & sweet pepper pasta salad, asparagus potato salad,  cilantro pesto pasta, chips and salsa verde, strawberry spinach salad, fruit and veggies.  The kiddos ate well on brats, veggies and fruit, strawberries in dirt chocolate pudding & yummy cake.

Strawberry spinach salad. I took this photo early I guess because it was so colorful.  Later I added feta cheese and almonds. 

Owen loves his new mama made strawberry boy crown.  And yes he was fully dressed when everyone arrived and somewhere along the way both of my boys lost their shirts. It has been about 106 degrees outside so who can blame them, right?

Owen told his friend he loved him & gave many hugs and kisses to everyone. He was very excited about all of the presents, a play doh truck, a wooden semi truck, a wooden tool set and work bench.

A bow and arrow & quiver set by Backyard Ballistics on etsy. 

A pair of wings was the last present to open.  He asked, "Can I fly with these!?!" and went racing out the door to test them.

 

My Dad sent him this Superman cape which he slept in the first night.  We had a bonfire at the end of our party for about 5 minutes before a huge wind and rain storm came up.  Yes, it stormed and poured rain on Owen's birthday, just like when he was born.  A fitting end to our evening. 

Until next time...

Strawberry Party Preparations...

Serious party prep is under way for Owen's strawberry themed birthday party. I'm a little nervous I'll never get it all done.  The crafty stuff I always enjoy but the cleaning, cooking & baking often sends me to Frazzleville!  Praying for peace & harmony & a hefty sized dose of energy.  Can't wait to show you it all completed, in my head it looks beautiful. 

Shout out to Felt Path for the inspiration behind the above crown.  She made a lovely crown that is on my Pinterest party board, "A Shindig, a Hoopla".  Her little boy fairy is much cuter.  I made the toadstool cap into a strawberry cap, (hmmm, messy cap, right?)  and added my strawberries and greenery. I kind of find this crown funny because snails like to eat strawberries so I think this little Berry fairy is saying "Ok, eat a little and then move off, Mr. Snail".  He has to protect the berries, right?  Or perhaps he says, "Eat away friend, these are abundant for your use". I digress, clearly needle felting for hours has addled my brain.

What are you working on lately?

Strawberry Birthday Ring Dolls

After making my strawberry felt decoration for our Birthday Ring, it made me want to make more strawberries! Tis, the season, right!?

I immediately thought of Strawberry Birthday dolls for my shop! 

I've actually been making quite a few Birthday Ring dolls after a customer request.  It's been so fun!   I love customer requests, they always push me in a direction I might not have gone without them.  So far I've made lots of princesses, ladybugs, bumblebees, butterflies and strawberries! You can check them all out here, at my MamaWestWind shop. 

There are times as a toy maker when I just can't stand the cuteness, & this is one of those times.  The strawberries are my favorite Birthday Ring dolls so far!  Visit them, here, at my shop. 

Until next time...

a little bunny rhyme...

 

One bunny, two bunnies,

 

 three bunnies, four

five bunnies, six bunnies, 

seven bunnies, more! 

Actually, I've made ten bunnies so far.  They are so fun and a little addicting as you can see.   And I have two more already cut out and waiting to be dressed.  Can you believe Easter is March 31st this year?  You would think I would be up on these things but it took me by surprise.  I haven't given a thought to what the Easter bunny might bring my boys.  Other than the obligatory Elsa Beskow books!  How about you?  What are your plans?

Visit most of these bunnies at my MamaWestWind shop.  There is a very special one front and center in the above photo that is set aside for a giveaway!  At SouleMama, (squeal) !!! Details to come. 

MamaWestWind on etsy.
MamaWestWind on Facebook.

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And speaking of peg dolls, please don't forget to enter my giveaway of a very special book, Making Peg Dolls, by Margaret Bloom.  The giveaway ends tomorrow!  I will close comments at 12 noon, (eastern time zone) 2 pm my time (mountain).  So please enter and pass the word!

Toadstool Ornaments, Woodland Ornament Craft Along

So we've crafted our toadstool ornaments!  I think we're definitely going to need to craft some more because I'd love to see the tree filled with these! Oh and when I say we, I suppose I mean me, because Michael opted out of this one.  I don't blame him as they are small and I stabbed myself a few times.  

I made the fully, needle felted variety, above.

 

 

The twig stemmed variety. 

And Michael's smart idea, the bead stemmed variety.

 

My favorite is the twig stemmed.  

 

As I was making them I put them on our pine cone garland to keep them safe and out of the way. 

And lo and behold I made something I LOVE!  Sorry the pics aren't better.  I can't seem to take a decent picture of it. So here's our pretty woodland garland.  Made with plain wooden ornaments found at the hobby store, beeswax dipped pine cones and needle felted toadstools all strung on hemp string. 

Yes, I'm definitely going to need some more...

 

Thank you to Donni of Magic Onions for your awesome toadstool tutorial!

So, we are well on our way to our goal of a handmade woodland tree! We have beeswax dipped pinecones, toadstools & pinecone fairies.  Next up are Christine Clemmensen's : Pipe Cleaner Elves.  Check out my Pinterest Handmade Christmas board to see them & more ornament ideas. I'm not sure how elves fit in my woodland theme but they are too cute not to include!

 Ok, I know you all are making beautiful things this season.  Leave your links in the comments below.  We would love to see!