Felted Birdhouse #3

When I first took the Felted Birdhouse workshop taught online by Betz White, I designed 4 birdhouses.  About a month ago I had finished 2 birdhouses and one bird.  Originally, I had designed and cut out 4 houses.  This week, with kids home sick from school, I decided to hang out with them and get another birdhouse completed.  I had to take some time from my digital scrapbook project - ongoing to get it done before my son's June HS graduation - to work on this birdhouse, but I really wanted to get it done.

Yesterday, I completed most of it, but today I stuffed it and attached the roof, getting it all stitched together just now. 

Here are the photos.

Just 1 more house and 3 more birds and I've finished all that I started - enjoy!  And Happy Crafting.

Blog Blast! Bird Rewards

So, yesterday I went for a run.  I stopped running due to plantar fasciitis problems back in November.  I just started up again about 4 weeks ago.  I used to run 3 - 4 times per week, only about 3 miles.  Now, I'm limiting myself to two to save my foot.

Well, after 4 months OFF, every running step I KNOW I took too much time off.  My foot is okay so far, but my cardiovascular abilities are not what they were.

I'm not a good runner or even a fast one, but I was (and hope to be again) pretty dedicated.  I'm also a fairly new runner having started participating in a running group in January 2010.  That said, 3 miles in 33 mins about killed me where I was at least at a 10 min mile before I took a break.

So, every day that I run, I tell myself that when I'm done I can do a craft.  Yesterday I rewarded myself with TWO crafts.  One, was to make the felted bird for one of the birdhouses I made a few weeks back.  I re-watched the training video from Betz White (the birdhouse and bird were part of an online workshop I signed up for with Betz and it was wonderful).  I made the bird to match the birdhouse.  I think I was better at making the birdhouse than the bird.  But here is the finished product.

And here are a few more bird closeups...

Running Reward Craft #2 coming up... stay posted!

Amigurumi Chicks and Felted Birdhouses

I've been absent from the blog posts but not absent from creating content to tell you about.  A few weeks ago I signed up for my first ever online craft workshop.  I am so glad I did.  The craft for the workshop is FELTED BIRDHOUSES and it's taught by craft author, Betz White - one of my favorite craft authors and bloggers.  I loved the little birdhouses she showed and I knew I had to learn to make them.  Betz's workshop is detailed, informative, easy to follow, and professional.  It's awesome!

For the past couple of days, I have been knee deep in felted sweaters, wool blend felt, embroidery floss and glue.  I have completed two of the four bird houses I designed as part of the workshop.  Here they are:

When I complete all four houses (with felted birds attached) I'll post more photos.  Each side of my birdhouse is embellished in a differnt way.  The two above show the side with the "front door."   The tudor style birdhouse is fashioned after my own house and the one of the left is inspired by my vision of a classic little girl's storybook house.

Since I had my bag of fiberfill hanging around my workshop, I decided to switch over to a crochet needle and try out a little AMIGURUMI.  I'm so intrigued by this type of Japanese Crochet.  There are a lot of talented amigurumists out there - if that's not a word, well I've just invented it!  I had no idea if I had the skills to follow an amigurumi pattern.  I'm slightly challenged when it comes to following a pattern.  However, this type of crochet uses mainly single crochet so the stitches themselves are easy.  Counting is a must!  I started simple.

I used this free chick pattern in honor of the Easter season.  Today after school is officially the first day of spring break for my kids.  I'm not sure any of my kids (21, 18, 17, 15) would want a little amigurumi chick, but I'm thinking my really cute, little red-headed niece Maisie might!  So, I got out some light yellow cotton worsted weight yarn and had a go at it.

Here's what I made.

And here is the back side of the little guy.

Even though this was a really easy pattern, there were no instructions about HOW to attach the wings and tail to the body, so I used a matching piece of pearl cotton embroidery thread on a semi-large tapestry needle and I "winged" it.  It doesn't show too much and I knotted the two ends of the thread together tightly to make sure it didn't come apart.

The pattern showed a glued on beak and bead eyes but since I am giving this to an almost 2year old, I didn't want any of the pieces to come off - so I sewed down the felt after gluing it and then I stitched the eyes around a crochet stitch so they are not detachable.

Here's what's up in the next few days... I need to make the felted birds for the birdhouses, continue to work on my applique Blocks #4, 5 and 6 and I DEFINATELY need to get working on my highschool senior's photo albums -YIKES.  Oh yeah, I guess I need to fit in cleaning the bathroom, hanging the laundry, and pulling the vast amount of weeds that have begun appearing in the planting beds, etc etc... it never ends does it?

I am blogging about the graduation photo project over on my other blog, SherYourScraps.

Thats all for today - Cheers!

Second Hand Sublime

I don't know WHAT the connection is between crafty people and a passion for second hand stores, but I certainly have both of those attributes.  In my area, Wednesday is half price day at my favorite second hand stores.  I have a love for vintage hand crafted items, 100% wool sweaters for felting, cool hand made pottery pieces and other odds and ends.  Here are some of my recent finds:

Sweet needlepoint butterfly pillow

I noticed in some of the blogs that I follow, that OTHER crafters have this same second hand weakness.  If I'd been at their thrift stores, I'm sure I would have found their great bargains really hard to pass up.  Check out this groovy crocheted afghan that Betz White came up with and take a look at these awesome vintage melmac dishes.