Attack of the not so killer sweaters

Here is the much anticipated conclusion to the sweater trilogy.  Click here for part one and here for part two. 

By day three, I couldn't resist the call of the sweaters.  I took them out of storage and dumped them on the floor -- just spread them all out to see what was there.  I really didn't have any idea what was there since it had been so long since they had seen the light of day.  Then I called the kids over and asked them what they wanted.  Here were their choices:

1)  Bunny from THIS great pattern by Betz White:

My two middle children picked this option.  Here's how their bunnies turned out.  They are the two bunnies in front.  I didn't do the two tone ears.  Felted wool doesn't fray so I just used the one layer for ears.

Notice that the first thing those two silly girls of mine did was put their bunnies' ears in pony tails. 

2)  The taller bunnies came from a conglomeration of other ideas that I sketched out that the two year old HAD to have, so the baby got that kind too.

3)  The third choice was mittens from THIS great pattern from my neck of the woods.  It even has a video!

My two oldest children wanted mittens.  I messed up the lining of the first pair.  In an effort to make them smaller to go inside the outer layer, I made them too small for the child's hands.  Oops!  I just cut up the linings (it was $2/yard fleece I had laying around) and used them as stuffing.  Instead I just sewed the cuffs onto the mittens and I love the result.  Here's the picture:

So fun!  And they went together quickly too.  Just three seams each.

4)  How did this option get in there!  Kids are kids that's how.  Seems the two oldest children need to have creatures like their younger siblings.  Mittens aren't quite as fun.  I was having so much fun with the wool that I gave in.  These last two creatures are made from drawings my kids made.  One is a crocodile.  Don't know quite what the other one is -- the younger one's kept asking if it was a pillow.  So the response, "It's a pillow.  It's a pet.  It's a pillow pet."  It comes from a commercial.  If you haven't heard the commercial be glad.  If you are, hurry and sing another song you like so that one doesn't get stuck in your head.  Here's the picture of the creatures:

All of that was made in 2-3 hours.  It was fun for all of us.  I think I need to make more mittens.   I think I need more sweaters!  I think I need that wool quilt!  I think I better put the wool away and meet a few deadlines before the wool takes over!

The thing I liked about the wool (remember it had all been felted -- I had washed it on a hot/cold cycle and dryed it in my dryer) is that it was easy to work with, it didn't fray similar to fleece, but it looks so much nicer than fleece.  The stuff I put on the animals was just whipped stitched on -- quick and easy -- just enough to hold it in place.  No iron on, no fraying, just plopped it on and stitched.  I used a thin yarn with a yarn needle.  I had brown and used it for everything. 

Thinking about giving wool a try?  Go for it!  Beware, it's like a good book -- hard to put down!

Sweaters Part Two

The day after Lisa's wool presentation (click to read that story), I went to a class taught by Amy of Under the Garden Moon.  This class had been planned for quite a while and scheduled and rescheduled.  It was on wool applique and embroidery.  Here is Amy's sample:

It's a needle holder.  Please note, this is Amy's sample -- not mine.  Mine looks a little more, well, a lot more. . . what's the word. . . .  Oh yes, primitive.

Me and embroidery didn't get along too well.  I'm afraid it took some growling to get my embroidery done.  I just happened not to have taken a picture.  Oops!

While I did not get along with the embroidery, I enjoyed the wool applique.  See the spool of thread?  That's the wool applique.  It was fun!  

What does that have to do with sweaters?  Well, only that I realized that everything I had seen the day before in Lisa's demonstration was do-able!  Oh! 

That was day two.  Day three is what I did with days one and two.  Stay tuned for the attack of the not so killer sweaters!

My sweaters are trying to kill me

Okay, so they aren't.  But I do have a story about some sweaters.  A couple years ago. . .  I honestly can't remember when it was, but it wasn't last year. . . I bought some wool sweaters at the thrift shop.  My intention was to felt them, cut them into squares, and make a quilt.  I got this idea when I quilted a quilt for a lady who did this.  She might have used suits instead.  Her quilt was huge and heavy, but it was SO cool.  I loved it.  I stitched it in the ditch, and I don't like stitching in the ditch AT ALL.  For this quilt it was PERFECT!  I couldn't find enough sweaters cheap enough at my thrift shops, so I asked my mom to pick some up for me in Arizona.  She brought me a large garbage bag full of wool sweaters.  Oh yeah! 

The sweaters all got felted and then they all got put into the storage room.  They have been moved around from time to time when the storage room gets cleaned.  But that's all.  I guess they got tired of that because wool ganged up on me last week.

First, a friend of mine, Lisa, was giving a presentation at a guild I attend.  I knew Lisa liked to play with wool, so I knew her presentation would be interesting.  What an understatement that turned out to be.  It was so inspiring and so fun.  Here are some pictures:

As you can see, she showed us how to make Christmas stockings.  She also made a cupcake pincushion (on the cake platter above) in about 5 minutes -- no sewing machine, no hot glue gun -- just a little whip stitching.  So fun!  She brought a book by Betz White called Warm Fuzzies.  It is now on my wish list. 

The blog address that you may or may not be able to make out on the table above is http://blog.betzwhite.com/.  She, Betz White, must be the queen of wool.  I spent quite a bit of time looking at her blog.  

And that was day one of attack of the sweaters.  Stay tuned for day two -- after Block 2 -- which comes out tomorrow!