Celebrate Color { Voting! }: :

Today marks the end of the Celebrate Color event hosted by Rachel of Stitched in Color, along with Emma Lamb, Mollie of Wild Olive, and Shannon of LuvintheMommyhood. As promised it was packed full of color and crafting inspiration, tutorials, and of course, contests and prizes during these past three months. I loved it for many reasons, but mostly for bringing fiber artists of all kinds, be it embroidery, crochet, knitting, quilting, home decor, and clothing all together to share and inspire each other.

I was thrilled when Rachel asked me to put together a little tutorial for a project geared towards little helping hands. As a family, we spent a weekend back in late September, just as the leaves here were turning, putting this Felt Leaf Garland Tutorial together to share here and as a guest post for Celebrate Color.



Throughout September, October, and November I made sure to have at least one item to enter. Carefully choosing what would fit the theme of celebrating with projects in full color.

In September, I chose to add both my Simple Children's Scarf (tutorial here) and my Fall Fox Pillow. I was overjoyed to learn that my Innocent Crush Fox had been chosen as a finalists and ended up winning second place in the Home Decor category that month!



In October, I entered two different items in the Wearable category. Which I truly couldn't believe myself. I am not a garment sewists at all! My only explanation would be that after Rachel's Bloggers Pillow Party, I just felt like I needed to do more than to keep making pillows. I entered my Fall Owl Tote, which I love using, and of course, My Little Red Riding Hood costume. Little Red made the finials in October, and again I took home second!! I let my daughter, Haila pick out her own flannels as our prize for some new pj's!



Now here we are at the end of November, the third final month of what turned out to be such a wonderful event to follow and join in. This month I entered my new Half Dresden Pillows in the Home Dec category and My Little Apron in the Wearables. To my complete shock and amazement, my apron was chosen as a finalist again this month!!!



I am feeling a bit of blissful deja vu, as I was a three time finalists in the Pillow Party, as well. I can not tell you how much this means to me!!! You can all vote for your favorites in all four categories until midnight tonight. Truly, I feel like I have already won!!

Thank you Rachel, Emma, Mollie, and Shannon, for creating such a wonderful event and for all the hard work and time you put into organizing the fun! And, Thank You for voting, friends! ~ Maureen

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!!! 

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

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