We all scream for ice-cream!

My husband finally arrived (we haven't seen each other in 2 months!) and I was SO excited to see him. I was even more excited that he brought my giant bag of felt.

*Kidding, I was happier to see him...but I won't deny that I squealed in delight when I saw the felt*

Turns out my imagination had trippled the amount of felt I actually have, so I definitely won't be able to finish The List with what I've got. But happily, my husband also brought his wallet, and therefore I can buy more felt! :)

Yesterday, I began work on the vanilla scoop for the Ice-Cream Shoppe set, and also went ahead and made cones.

You know the drill by now...

I love the little sprinkles on the vanilla scoop. I think they turned out very sweet. If you look closely, you can see the multicoloured threads through the white felt. I probably should have used a second piece of white in that area, to make it more opaque, but I didn't think of it at the time, and my daughter loves it regardless.





Originally, I had planned to make 3 different scoops, and then two different kinds of cones, and you could put whatever scoops on whichever cones - mix & match. But I just didn't like the way the cones were turning out, and I didn't like how the scoops sat on top of them. So rather than stressing out about it, I just decided to keep it simple.

In the end, I just sewed plain "cone coloured" felt cones to the bottom of the scoops. I started with the vanilla, and just stitched it to the scoop as is.  But I didn't like the way the "drips" lay against the cone. So with the strawberry scoop, I pulled the drips off the scoop and stitched them directly to the cone, and then stitched the scoop on top of all that. Still didn't love the way it looked. I finally got it right with the chocolate scoop. I pulled the drips off the scoop and stitched the scoop to the cone, and then the drips around the scoop AND the cone. This produced the cleanest lines - not as much bunching. If I were to do it again, I'd do them all that way.

They're a bit small, but they're perfect for little hands. My daughter has been playing non-stop Ice-Cream Shoppe, asking everyone which flavour they want. And that's what makes it all worth it.

I still have to make a cute container for all of the ice cream and popsicles to go into, but I need some additional supplies for that. Almost finished though!

Popsicle Time!

 I'm learning that when it comes to eyeballing patterns for these felt toys, that it really helps to be a spatial thinker. You really have to be able to look at a shape from a picture, and be able to see what every dimension of it would be piece by piece. Going from a picture of a 3D object, to 2D pieces, and back to a real 3D object can be tricky. Thankfully, I've always been good at spatial visualization. You'd think I would have been better at Geometry. (Contrary to what my math teachers always told me, I have never needed to use algebra or any more advanced maths since I left school...which is good, since my math skills are roughly that of a 10 year old.)

Yesterday I made the cherry and orange popsicles from the Ice-Cream Shoppe set. As I was making them, members of the peanut-gallery asked if I was making a shoe, a boat, a purse, etc...but in the end they finished up looking like popsicles. 

I worked at a leisurely pace - stopping for various activities with my munchkin, making lunch, going to the park. Even so it only took me about half a day to make these. I'd say about 2 hours work from start to finish, if I'd worked right through.

If I'd had any real popsicle sticks, I would sewn the felt handles around them for added stability. As it was, I didn't have any, and decided to do without. The cherry popsicle just has a felt handle, and unfortunately it came out very floppy. Not a huge deal though since my daughter just holds her hand around it, and it holds the popsicle upright. The orange popsicle has a stick from outside in the handle - not ideal since it's not flat, but it holds the popsicle up, no floppy-pop.


All in all, a cute addition to the Ice-Cream Shoppe set. The only things I have left for that set are a vanilla scoop, 2 cones, and some soft serve ice-cream. I also want to make a cute box to hold it in...maybe something that looks the cardboard cylinder containers that you get ice-cream from at the store...I think I'll do pink and white stripes for that. :)

New Blog = Motivation!

One thing about me that drives hubby nuts is that I tend to lack stick-to-it-ive-ness. (Yes, that's a real word.) I get really excited about a project, spend $$$ on supplies, work on my project for 1-2 days, and then get bored. Its a pretty big fault, and I'm working on fixing that about myself - that is, if I don't get bored and move on to something else ;)

For now at least though, having a shiny new blog has motivated me to actually work on my Felt Project . So! One more item, albeit a small one, crossed off the list! Today I made another component to the Ice-Cream Shoppe - the strawberry scoop. It was a lot quicker going this time than with the chocolate scoop. In fact, it only took me 15-20 minutes. I took a bunch of really terrible pictures so you can see the process. I apologize for the quality, it'll be another few weeks before I have a "real" camera. Right now I'm just using my webcam. It can take still photos, but man do they suck. Anyhoo...

It was beautiful out, so I decided to sit on the patio and sew.

A pale pink felt circle and ice-cream "drips"

Super-blurry running stitch...holy moly, that hurts my eyes. Sorry!

Looks like a shower cap!  Pull on the thread to tighten, stuff before pulling completely closed.

And now you have a pink ball.

Sew the ''drips'' to the bottom of the ball

It looked a little plain so I added irregular bits of red scrap felt. Et voila! Strawberry scoop with strawberry topping!

So that's that.

As I said in my last post, my felt supply is running low. I have 1 full sheet of red and 1 full sheet of orange, and pieces of red, pink, and brown left. I'm thinking I'll do the popsicles next. Cherry and Orange flavours!

And sew it begins...

A few weeks ago I was inspired by tons of super-cute handmade felt toys that I found on Etsy. The problem was that the seller wanted $6 apiece for the patterns. Well that's not gonna happen! I figured I could probably make most of them myself just by eyeballing it and a little trial and error! So, I made myself a very ambitious list of projects that I wanted to make. Here it is...The Felt Project

I told you it was ambitious! Granted, I may only finish 1/4 of them - or less - but it definitely gives me something to strive for and keep busy with!

I decided to start towards the top of the list with the Ice Cream Shop set. I made one scoop of chocolate ice-cream, and I really liked the way it turned out. 

Mmm...chocolate sprinkles...

However, my plan was quickly derailed when I got to the waffle-cone. I stitched and un-stitched the darn thing 4 times, but I'm just not happy with the way the waffle pattern is turning out. I really need a sewing machine to do it the way I envision, but unfortunately I sold mine in preparation for the move. I know this is going to be an ongoing issue, so maybe I can sweet-talk Santa into bringing me a new sewing machine a few (six) months early. Doesn't do me any good at the moment though...I may just have to settle for less than perfect with the waffle cone.

I kind of lost my steam after the waffle-cone episode, and put my sewing basket away for a couple of weeks. Today I decided to move on and pick a different project, and this is what I made...

Background story time! Every year for Christmas, since hubby and I first started dating, it's been our tradition to get at least one new Christmas ornament. Usually something that has special meaning for that year. For instance, last year my daughter picked out a pretty pair of ballet slippers on a pink ribbon since it was her first year taking dance, and we've got another that's a little potted cactus plant covered in Christmas lights, that we got in Jerome on our honeymoon. I love unpacking our special ornaments every year when we dress the tree, and remembering all those happy times.

So this year, I thought, "What could be more momentous than our family moving to a new country?" The best way for me to recognize that, was with a red maple leaf. I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out! I started to stitch the word "Canada" on it with white thread, but then thought that was a bit obvious and ripped it out. Keep it simple, keep it sweet. I'm really looking forward to hanging it on the tree this year.

I have a very limited quantity of felt (in fact, only 3 full sheets left) and won't be able to get more until hubby('s wallet) arrives. I'll pick through my project list and see what I can do with the felt that I've got, but don't expect too many more felt-related posts for the next few weeks!