Picnic Food Complete

It's a small picnic. Watermelon, a PB&J sandwich, and added today...

A bag of potato chips and a juice-box. I really like the way these turned out, I think they're very cute. My little munchkin is getting super excited about the number of felt toys she's collected.

Next, I'll start work on the woven picnic basket I have planned to complete this set. I still need to finish the container for the Ice-Cream Shoppe set, but I haven't been able to find some of the supplies I've been looking for. I've been to a few smaller craft stores, with a pretty piddly selection of felt, so I need to take a drive over to the big Michael's craft store since I know they have what I need.

Peanut-Butter Jelly Time!

Today I finished the second toy from the Picnic set... peanut-butter & jelly sandwich! mmmm...

 This project conveniently coincided with day 3 of being on a diet, and I ALWAYS crave peanut-butter & jelly sandwiches when I'm dieting. It's carbs, sugar, salt and fat all in one dish. And now I'm hungry. Oh well, distracting myself with more felting!

My goofy husband enjoys my projects

Summertime = Watermelon

In my mind, that first slice of watermelon signals the start of summer. Sure, you can get it other times of the year, but it's not the same.  Slicing into a big crisp watermelon, and then going outside and taking that first bite...THAT is summer. Heat, sweet, vacation, lazy, juicy, delicious, watermelon. 

I haven't made it to a craft store yet to pick up the supplies I need to finish up the Ice-Cream Shoppe set, so I moved on to the Picnic set. I completely forgot to take pictures while I was making it, but here is the finished product. 1 slice of watermelon, that looks good enough to eat!

I'll admit, I cheated a bit and used fabric glue for the seeds instead of stitching them on. And I'll admit, it's because I forgot to add them until after the rest of the watermelon was finished, and it's difficult to stitch things to the outside once it's finished.

And yes, I am a bit of a dork.  Nom, nom, nom....watermelon!

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!

Going off-List

Call me a rouge felt-er. My daughter was playing with Leslie the pink Leopard, and asked me to make a pair of ballet slippers for her. Whipped these out in about 5 minutes (considering they'll probably be lost before tomorrow, I didn't want to spend a ton of time making the perfect miniature ballet slippers).

Not my best work, but quick and cute, and they make my munchkin happy.

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. :)

Passing on the passion

Today I sat down to start crafting the cherry and orange popsicles (post on those to come!) and my daughter sat next to me and asked if she could watch. She's never shown that much interest in my felt projects, she prefers to just play with the finished product. After a few minutes of avidly watching me stitch, she asked if she could try.

Now, my first instinct was to say, "No, I'm sorry hunny, needles are too sharp." And then I realized, that was silly. If she's sitting right next to me, what's the worst that can happen? She might prick her finger, which is hardly the end of the world. I'm not condoning 4 year old children running rampant with sharp objects. Obviously, use your best judgment here. Don't let your child play with needles when you're not around. (Duh.)  But in a controlled, supervised environment, learning to stitch can be great for gaining dexterity in little fingers, and is a skill she can use for her entire life. Not to mention the bonding between mommy and munchkin as we sit and sew together. :)

Side note - our music of choice while sewing is opera. I LOVE that my 4 year old daughter loves opera. Her favourite seems to be Carmen...she always bounces in her seat and gets a big grin on her face when the overture comes on.

In her first attempt, I gave her a bit of green thread and a scrap of orange felt, which ended up covered in stitches and bunched in a ball. She said it looked like a pumpkin, and it sort of did. And to be fair, I really didn't give her any instruction, she just copied my movements. The second attempt, I gave her two scraps of red felt and some blue thread and said, "This time, try to stitch in a straight line." I did two simple running stitches to show her what I meant, and let her give it a try. This was the result. 

Now, I'm pretty pleased at that! And surprised - I honestly didn't think she would do nearly so well. At that point, she was ready to move on to her next project.

"Mommy, I want to make a pillow for Leslie!" (Leslie is a tiny pink leopard plushy, that I think came from a Happy Meal a few years ago...No idea where she she got the name.)  So, I got a small piece of pink felt for her, folded it in half, and told her to stitch around the edge. That's pretty much all I said to her, and this is what she came up with.

We stuffed it with a cotton ball

It was so great to watch her sewing. Such concentration...towards the end she was very aware of where the needle was coming through on the other side, and if she didn't like it, she'd pull it out and change the placement.

I'm so excited that my daughter has shown interest in crafting with me. It's a wonderful to spend the time together, and to see her learning and growing.