Sewing with ♥ : :

This weekend was another busy one spent making mostly etsy orders during my sewing time, but we did find a little stint both on Saturday and Sunday for some handmade holiday sewing. Valentine's Day has always been a favorite in our house and here on my blog for crafting. My celery stamping project remains in my top ten most popular posts! But really we all just want a reason to keep the house looking festive after the Christmas tree comes down and these slow, cold winter days present lots of time for creating!

First, we made a few Valentine's Day versions of my crown of flowers. I have enough flowers made to offer a few for sale later in the week! If you happen to have a Valentine that you think might like one, feel free to put an order in!



I'm very happy to have decided on a final special use for what's left of these spools of recycled rope I purchased from Anthropologie a couple of years ago. I love how it finishes off these crowns!



There were a few fox pillow orders made as well! I especially like this one with the burgundy bow and Daisy Janie's Tilly Mumsy in Dusk for the backing!





On Sunday Haila and I had a sewing session date, this time she made a quick heart felt garland! My boys and I have made this garland before, first discovered on Betz's wonderful blog two years ago, oh my! You can find her tutorial here on Craftzine, it's so quick & fun! I knew it would make the perfect decor sewing project for a newbie to tackle!



We started with just one 9" x 12" piece of wool blend felt, a spool of red Aurifil, some red & white Divine Twine, and our cutting tools!



Two quick stitches later, a little measuring & cutting, and she had made a dozen hearts!



I love, LOVE this photo! We had some fun with black & white focal editing and I had to share it!



In just a matter of minutes, after carefully threading her hearts onto the twine, she had made her very first strand of garland! Yes!



Making this for yourself or with a little one eager to start sewing, will surely start you're February off right! We highly recommend it!

Happy sewing!  ♥ Maureen

Scrappy Garland -- Fab Felt Holiday Crafts : :

Have you seen Betz White's new online workshop, Fab Felt Holiday Crafts on Craftsy? Well if not, I am here today to introduce you! I have both of Betz's books and was overjoyed when she asked me to be a part of her new holiday workshop blog tour! I chose to make the "Scrappy Garland" to share here today. If you visit me often, you already know I love me some garland! Really, who doesn't?



This one includes so much handmade goodness and so many things we all love --
felt (scraps - yes!), handmade pom poms, wool felt balls, jingle bells, and lots of COLOR!!



To make for easy garland picture taking, I hung my lovely finished strand from our fireplace mantle. Come Christmas decorating time (that's the weekend right after Thanksgiving in our house) the plan is to hang this in the doorway that connects our kitchen to our dining room, I'm already excited!



My favorite thing about this garland are the fun felt scrap pom poms that Betz teaches you how to make, as well as being able to add in our own handmade touches like these snowflake felted balls.



I also enjoy that with this workshop, once logged on, I am able to skip around from project to project, pausing when needed, and even am able to take notes on the screen. It's so user friendly, the kids were able to join in, were such a huge help, and loved the workshop, too!



My readers are invited to click right here to preview Betz's course and register for $10 off the course price! These online courses never expire and you can access your course anytime you want, for as long as you want. I plan on making a few more of these Fab Felt projects in the upcoming weeks and I'll certainly be sharing the end product here with all of you and on my own Craftsy page.

Be sure to check out projects made by the rest of the blog tour! Here is the schedule with a link to each project past and present : : 

Week of September 26th:  Wisecraft
Week of October 3rd: A Sewing Journal
Week of October 10th: House on Hill Road
Week of October 31st: Maureen Cracknell Handmade
Week of November 7th and 14th: Stumbles & Stitches
Week of November 21st: Elsie Marley

 Thanks so much for stopping by!!!

A Felt Leaf Garland Tutorial : :

Fall is the perfect time to get out and get creative by doing nature-inspired art projects with your children. Today's project is all about using the natural beauty in the colored leaves of this season to create and inspire an art project for the kids and you to do, together!



What you'll need : :

• A variety of wool blend felt pieces in Fall colors
• A variety of Fall leaves for color and shape inspiration
• Card Stock for making the leaf shape templates
• Markers
• Glue Stick
• Scissors
• Double Folded Bias Tape
• Sewing Machine
• Thread 
• Pins

 *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Gathering Leaves and Inspiration : :

While most of the leaves around the house are still green, we were able to find all that we needed to guide us in our color choices and leaf shapes for this project.



1. Trace a variety of the leaves onto a heavy paper such as card stock, and cut those out to make the leaf pattern templates 2. Trace the leaf templates onto the felt (this is the perfect job for kiddos) 3. Cut out the felt leaf shapes (This might be a job just for the adults, depending on how old, and handy with scissors, the children are.)



4. Keep tracing those leaves. I left the more simple shapes for my youngest. They each ended up picking a favorite 5. Using just a little bit of glue, have your little one attach the cut out leaf to another piece of felt of a different color 6. Cut away the felt again, until you have have a double-sided leaf



7. Continue until you have a nice variety of shapes and colors. Seventeen was the perfect amount of leaves for a standard package of double sided bias tape. You can use less or more depending on how full you want your garland to be.



8. Now it's time to sew! I let the kids help with adding a simple, straight stitch to a few of the leaves (pic 1), then I showed them how to do both a straight stitch up the center with stitches coming out from that center line (pic 2), and a few with free motion quilting (pic 3).



Continue until you've added the stitching to each of the felt leaves.



Assembling The Garland : : 



9. Create a loop at the end and pin, this is for hanging the garland 10. About every 2 1/2" or so, open the double-sided bias tape and insert a leaf 11. close bias tape and pin leaf in place



12. Continue repeating this step until all the leaves are pinned to the bias tape, alternating leaf colors and shapes, spacing them out evening.



13. Begin sewing with a thread that matches the bias tape color, starting at the loop, back-stitching when you begin 14. Make your way down the bias tape, removing pins as you go, keeping your seam close to the edge. Make sure to catch the leaf end with your needle 15. Finish by back-stitching at the end loop



You're finished!  

Wishing a wonderful Fall Season to all!!! 

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Heart Felt Garland : :

This might just be the best Valentine's Day decoration ever! I love, love, LOVE it!


I had just showed my six year old how to make yarn pom poms the other day, I actually have him hooked -- he loves making them!



So, when I came across this Felt Heart Garland I had to try it out and add the pom poms we had worked so hard on.



Betz White's felt hearts are completely genius and yet so simple to do -- I'll warn you now,  making these is completely addictive! And so, a second...



and then a third strand of garland was made...



You can see the full tutorial here, along with several different variations.

p.s. ♥ Our Warm Heart tutorial was shared over at Craft Gossip and our Celery Stamped Valentine at Homemade serenity on Friday, please visit them and have a look! ♥

Felt Leaf Garland -- A Picture Tutorial : :

Since the leaves have all fallen of the trees and there is still some Fall Season left to celebrate before we wish for Christmas snow -- we decided to bring some of those autumn colors we love so much indoors, with this simple Felt Leaf Garland.

Besides basic sewing supplies you will need:

• scraps of felt in autumn colors -- reds, greens, oranges, golden yellow, brown, etc.
• bias tape -- extra wide, double fold (in a coordinating color)
• sharp scissors
• pins
• leaf shape templates(optional)

First : : Gather your felt -- with the harvest colors in mind, of course. You can make several leaf templates using card stock for uniformity and trace your shapes onto your felt with a fabric marker, but I chose to do ours free form, cutting what I could from my scraps of felt. I had a stack of 21, which worked perfectly with the 3 yard strand of bias tape.

Second : : Arrange your leaves in the order you'll want them to hang in your garland.

Third : : Make sure you have extra wide, double folded bias tape and your pins handy.

Forth : : Now take your bias tape, which is folded in half and slide the stem of your leaf in-between the fold, close, and then pin in place. Leave about 6" on each end to use as a knot or loop for hanging. Repeat with all of your leaves, leaving a 1 - 1.5 inch space between each leaf. I used the entire length of the standard 3 yards package of bias tape to make my garland, it can easily be made longer or shorter by omitting or adding leaves.

Fifth : : Using thread that matches the color of your bias tape (recommended) start sewing along the bias tape, removing pins as you go. Continue sewing until you get about 6" from the end, making sure you've left that length for making your hanging knot or loop. Example of knotting the end : :

Now, that's it! Your Felt Leaf Garland is ready to hang!

A photo of the one I made for Cynthia

Super easy, eco-friendly, and such a great way to use up some scraps! And don't limit yourself to just this leaf garland, if you just change the theme, this idea works with any holiday or celebration garland -- really the options are endless!

I hope you have enjoyed this project. Create on! ~ Maureen