Giant Bearded Irises

They say that April showers bring May flowers.  Although most of April was pretty dry this year, we did have our fair share of rainy days towards the end.  Here are some of the beautiful May flowers that have come forth.   These are all pictures of the annuals growing our yard.  An added bonus is that the chive flowers make a spicy, but tasty, addition to a salad.

Snow Drops

Chives

Azalea

Purple Cups

Violets - Rhode Island State Flower

Bleeding Hearts

Red Tulip

White Phlox

Lily of the Valley

Blue Bells

Irises

Lunchbags in Batik, Green Stripe, and Brown

I am teaching my daughter Deirdre to sew, and I wanted to come up with a project that was simple to make, but something that we would use.  So, we came up with these easy-to-make lunch bags made out of washable, cotton fabric.  The secret is that we used enclosed seams (A.K.A French seams) so that they won’t fray in the wash.  The bags don’t use much fabric, so they are a great project if you pick up some colorful, inexpensive remnants at your local fabric store.  The three bags in the picture will be a gift for Daddy’s birthday from Deirdre.  If you’d like to make your own, just follow these simple instructions!

1. Cut a piece of fabric measuring 28″ by 9″ (if your remnant is not long enough, cut 2 pieces 14 1/2″ by 9″, and sew an extra seem in the middle)
2. Cut 2 pieces of fabric about 1″ by 10″ for the ties.
3. To make the enclosed seam, fold fabric in half with wrong sides together and stitch sides with 1/4″ seam allowance.  Trim seams to 1/8″
4. Turn inside out and press (now right sides are together).
5. To enclose seams, sew another seam with 1/4 seam allowance.
6. Fold down top 1/4″; turn down a second time 1/4″; press and sew.
7. Turn right-side out and press
8. For the ties, fold edges into center and press; fold in half and press again (tie is now about 1/4″ wide); sew down the middle
9. Fold top of bag down 1 1/2″ twice (like a lunch bag); position ties and stitch in place.
10. Press bag, and you are ready to pack your lunch!

Cut Fabric

Stitch Sides - Wrong Sides Together

Clip Seams, Turn Inside Out

Sew Side Seams, Fold Down Top Hem and Stitch

Fold Ties and Press

Assorted Finished Ties

Turn Right-side Out, Fold Down Top, Pin Ties and Stitch Into Place

Here are some variations  – Make your bag bigger or smaller; add a pocket for your water bottle; use velcro to close instead of ties; decorate your bag with ribbon, ric-rac, or a fun applique; use two different fabrics for front and back.

1st Grade Art - Inspired by Kandinsky

My daughter’s school will be holding it’s annual “Arts Night” later this year.  As part of the event, each class will create a painting to be auctioned off to raise money for the school’s arts program.  The 1st grade classes used the artwork of Kandinsky as their inspiration and created these wonderful “Squared Circles” paintings.  I was so thrilled with how the paintings turned out, I thought I would do a quick “how to” post with instructions to make your own.  This is a great project to do with an entire class or at home with your own family.

First, a little background on Kandinsky — the most interesting aspect of Kandinsky is that he experienced a neurological condition called “synesthesia” whereby colors evoked sounds and sounds evoked colors.  Perhaps because of this condition, music played an important role in his life and greatly influenced his works.   In order to help the kids understand this concept, we played music (Brand New Heavies) while they worked on their project.

Materials Needed:

• Stretched canvas
• Acrylic paints (we divided the classes up by warm colors/cool colors/mixed colors
• Ruler
• Pencil
• Different size cups/glasses

To begin, determine how many square you will need in your painting.  We found that the following ratios worked best: 3 rows by 4 columns;  4 rows by 5 columns; 4 rows by 6 columns.  Using your ruler and pencil divide the painting up into a grid.  Using the different size cups/glasses, trace 3 concentric circles inside each block. Let 2-3 kids work on the painting at a time.  Give each child a palette with 4 colors.  Beginning with the center circle, have them fill in the circles with the paint, ending with the outside square.  It is not necessary to tape off the squares because you do not want crisp edges.  The paintings will look best when the edges are slightly blurred.

Tips for using acrylic paints with kids:

• Be sure to put smocks on the kids and a drop cloth or newspaper under your work space
• Wash the paint off the brush between colors by swishing the brush in a cup of water and then wiping dry with a paper towel.  Refill with clean water, as needed. This will keep the colors from getting muddy looking
• Although acrylic paint is permanent, if you get paint on clothing, wash with soap and water immediately.  There is still a small chance you can get it off if it hasn’t begun to dry

Totally off the topic note – if you watch the show Weeds, remember when Doug said he saw numbers in colors.  It sounds like synesthesia to me!

1st Grade Artwork - Cool Colors

Hello!

Yes, I realize it has been more than 52 weeks since we started this project, but we (being Deirdre, Jonah, and myself) have magnanimously granted ourselves an extension.

Our latest virtual trip has been to the nation of Japan, home of everyone’s favorite anime character – Hello Kitty.  We began our adventure by reading a great book from our library which described in  detail the various types of clothing, customs and housing in Japan over the past several hundred years.  The kids were particularly fascinated with how typical dress varied depending upon one’s occupation or station in life.  Really, who wouldn’t be fascinated by a gorgeous silk kimono and obi?

Vegetable Sushi - Yum!!!

For the culinary part of the adventure, we made homemade sushi, teriyaki salmon & veggies, miso soup and rice.  I found a really neat little sushi kit by Annie Chun which made it so easy to roll the sushi.   Honestly, I thought the kids would be a little bit more excited about making sushi rolls, but apparently, I was wrong.   However, they did down their bowls of miso in a matter of minutes.

Maneki Neko Cat - Spread The Luck

One of the highlights of this lesson was learning about the Maneki Neko welcoming cat.  This kitty has his paw raised to let people know that they are welcome into your home or shop.  You can read the legend of Maneki Neko at ActionCat. The good people at Action Cat suggested adding a link to an animal rescue group to continue the gift of the welcoming cat.  I suggest you check out Best Friends Animal Society.  You can also color your own Maneki  the Coloring Castle.

Finally, for our craft, we were inspired by Japanese woodblock prints and decorative fans.  We decided to use stamps and water color paints to decorate plain paper with vines, flowers, and even a few dinosaur pictures!  We intended to fold the paper into fans and tie the bottom with a ribbon.  But, since they didn’t come out as we expected, we ended up cutting our decorated paper into strips and making these cool book marks!

Next trip, we will venture to Kenya!

Many thanks to my aunt, Carole Hamilton, for solving the mystery of the feral squash.  As it turns out, I was on the right path from the get-go.  My mysterious vegetable was, in fact, a pumpkin  — a Long Island Cheese Pumpkin to be exact.  Carole sent me a link to this great site which identifies late season squash so you can see for yourself.  I’m thrilled to actually know what I’ve been eating.  These guys were so good, we are going to save the seeds and try to grow some more Long Island Cheese Pumpkins next year.  If all works out, I’ll send the first ripe one up to Carole!  Time to start making room in the fridge!

With two of the remaining segments, I’m making “Roasted Winter Root Vegetables”  with dinner tonight.  I tweaked the recipe a bit, and this is what I’ve come up with:

Roasted Winter Root Vegetables

• 2 cups winter squash cut into 1″ cubes
• 2 large carrots cut into 1/2″ segments
• 2 red potatoes cut into 1″ cubes
• 3-4 sprigs of fresh rosemary
• 4 tablespoons of olive oil
• salt & pepper to taste

Heat oven to 450 degrees.  Mix all ingredients in a casserole dish.  Cover dish.  Bake until vegetables are tender.  Remove cover for last 10 minutes.  Approx. 35 minutes total cook time.

Mystery Squash

If you read my Feral Pumpkin post, you know that I was convinced that I had giant pumpkins growing out of my compost.  Well, now that fall is here, nature has proven me wrong.   What I thought were pumpkins turned out to be some type of huge, unidentified winter squash.  We ended up with four of these beauties.  They are about 12-15 inches across, kind of squatty, and have the same beige color as a butternut squash.  Honestly, I can’t figure out what they are.  I described them to one of the farmers at the Farmer’s Market, but she wasn’t quite sure either, although she was quite certain that they would be good eatin’!  If you have ANY idea what kind of squash these are, please let me know!

Identified or not, we are planning on eating them all.  Here are a few of the yummy recipes I plan to check out:

• Squash Pie
• Squash Soup
• Roasted Winter Vegetables

!!!!UPDATE!!!!

Here is a photo of what one of the super-squash looks like after being opened up.  So far, I’ve made enough soup for three meals, made 2 pies, and froze enough boiled squash for 2 more pies.  Oh, yeah, that only accounts for 1/2 of one squash.  We still have the other 1/2 in the fridge and one more waiting to be eaten.  We gave the others away to be enjoyed by others.  Not too bad for something that spontaneously came out of the compost bin!!!

Cross Section of Our Super-Squash

Here are some more pics of Deirdre and Jonah enjoying their harvest:

Deirdre's Feat of Strength

Jonah Just Hanging Out

Felted Sweater Jacket - Just in Time for Fall!

For those of you who’ve read my blog before, you probably know I have a penchant for making cool, new things out of upcycled, felted wool sweaters.  As a back-to-school gift to my daughter, I made her this fun felted jacket out of pieces left over from several felted sweater projects.  Of course, its just my luck that we’ve been enjoying 80 degree weather for the past few weeks, but I’m sure she’ll get a chance to wear it sometime before Thanksgiving!  I’ll admit, I did pack her into it one morning  on the way to bus, only to have her come home with it stuffed into the bottom of backpack, pink and sweating from another sweltering day.

Unfortunately, I didn’t put together a complete tutorial for this project, but I can give some pointers in case you are interested in trying something similar.  Here we go:

• Decide what sweater to use for the bodice AFTER you felt it.  I felted about a dozen sweaters to use for various projects.  As luck would have it, a women’ size L yellow sweater felted perfectly to fit a 6 year-old girl.    Since you never know how a sweater is going to felt, it is much easier to make ‘wardrobing’ decisions after they have been felted.
• Seams were sewn holding the pieces edge-to-edge and stitched with a zig-zag stitch.  Since the felted material doesn’t fray, there is no need to place the pieces wrong side together and make a folded seam.
• The flare around the bottom and the cuffs were made by cutting long, semi-circles of felted fabric.  Think of a really fat letter “C”.   When the center of the “C” is stitched to the bottom of the sweater, the outside of the “C” falls to form ruffled flare.
• This project works up fairly quickly, especially since felted material doesn’t fray, you don’t have to hem anything.
• The tulips are simply semi-circles of felted material with a long strip for a stem.  The button were hand-stitched on afterwards.
• The button loops are just small strips of felted sweater, fold in half, and machine stitched onto the front of the jacket.
• Don’t forget to take advantage of existing features of your sweater.  For example, the collar and front pocket were part of the original sweater.

Pieces from the sweater used in this jacket have also gone to make:

• 1 full size blanket (If I can take some pics, I’ll do a post!)
• 1 woman’s sweater tunic
• 1 woman’s bolero/shrug
• 6 small stuffed kitties (I hope to post a tutorial for these soon!)
• many, many hair accessories and brooches

Close-up of the Tulip Detail

Another View of my Upcycled Sweater Jacket

If you are looking for more upcycled sweater inspiration, check out Sweater Surgery by Stephanie Girard.  I love some of the ideas the book has to offer!

The Feral Pumpkin

Since I was laid up for a good part of the spring with Lyme Disease, I really didn’t put that much effort into our vegetable garden this year.  We threw in some peas, beans, tomatoes, potatoes,  various squashes, and a variety of herbs, but no one bothered much to weed, or even water, for that matter, early in the season.  Once I had the energy to actually give my plants a helping hand, I noticed a thick, green vine with huge leaves creeping out of the compost bin.  Actually, it was more like charging out of the bin, at full force.  I knew it was some type of squash plant by the leaves, but wasn’t exactly sure what kind of squash it might be.  As the summer went on, this plant (well, two plants to be completely accurate) took over an entire corner of the yard.  In fact, one of the tendrils even managed to rip off a side of the compost bin!

This Voracious Vine Tore Off the Compost Bin Door

Jack and his Beanstalk be damned, here comes my feral pumpkin!  The leaves were about 4 times the size of the leaves on my zucchini, summer squash and spaghetti squash.  But, for all the effort it was putting into its amazonian foliage, there was no fruit to be seen.  Finally, a couple of weeks ago, I spotted a small squash that has turned out to be a pumpkin.  Its now about the size of a soccer ball, and still going strong.  And, this morning, I noticed another little pumkin-let growing on another tendril.  I’m crossing my fingers that by Halloween, we have a nice crop of feral pumpkins to carve into Jack-o-lanterns!  I will certainly post a picture, if we do!

Twenty Five Feet of Pumpkin Vines

The Sweetest Little Owl Visting My Yard

I participated in my first amigurumi swap on Ravelry this month.  What is an amigurumi swap, you ask?  Basically, it is a way to trade handmade amis with other crocheters.  You receive the name and address of another participant and make an ami for that person, i.e. your ’swappy’.   Someone else gets your name and makes one for you.  The catch is that you don’t know who has your name until you receive your gift in the mail.  Since this was in international swap, the participants also included little gifts from their home country.  Very cute!   I was thrilled when I received this adorable owl, as well as a whole bunch of other goodies, from Mia (a fellow swappy!).  Isn’t he sweet?  I tried to photograph him in his ‘natural environment’.

On a sadder note, the little puppy that I sent to my swappy in Turkey has gotten hopelessly lost in the mail.  But, I’m working hard on another cutie to send her way.  This time — FedEx!

Puppy In A Basket

If you are interested in a swap, you should check out the communities on Ravelry.  They have all kinds of swaps, and not just limited to amis.  Happy crocheting!

Upcycled Cashmere Sweater

This adorable bolero-style felted shrug began its life as one of my husband’s cashmere-wool sweaters.  After an unfortunate run-in with a naughty moth, it ended up in my recycle pile.  Since the moth holes were mostly in the body of the sweater, I though I could leave most of the upper section in tact and make a shrug.  I added a flower using a leftover piece of the sweater and scraps from two other sweaters.

Upcycled Fashion

Here’s what you need to to to make your own:

Materials

• Recycled wool sweater
• Wool yarn
• Large Needle
• Toggle Button
• Small Button (for flower center)
• Felt Scraps (for flower)

Directions

• Felt the wool sweater by putting through a cycle in the washing machine on hot.  Dry it in the dryer
• Turn the sweater inside out and try it on (this is so all your markings will be on the inside of the sweater and won’t be visible when you wear your finished shrug)
• Determine how long you want your shrug to be and mark the length
• Following the cutting lines in Figure 1, cut the sweater to the desired length and then cut straight up the middle (Use a ruler to make an even line before cutting)
• Draw a curve on one inner front of the sweater.  Cut one side.  Use a piece of paper to trace the curve.  Now copy the curve onto the other side.  This ensures that you have matching curves on both sides.  See Figure 2
• Using the blanket stitch, decoratively stitch around the raw edges of your sweater.  Threads magazine has good instructions on how to do a blanket stitch.
• You can now attach a toggle button and loop, if you’d like.  I think it would look nice without a button, too.
• Using the flower design in Figure 3 as a sample, cut out 3 different size 4 petal flowers out of felt scraps.  Set them on top of each other  with the largest on the bottom; stitch through all 3 layers; stitch on a decorative button and sew onto sweater.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Enjoy!

My Lovely Shrug!