Thanksgiving Crafts

We've gotten a little crafty around here lately!

In our Home Ec class we made turkey pins.

(my variation on Paper Turkey Pins found at FamilyFun mag)

Instead of cereal boxes, we used magazine pages backed with a piece of card stock.

We also made turkey cookies in class.

Pillsbury Thanksgiving Turkey Cookies are a yummy way to celebrate and give thanks!

This morning we thought we get one more treat in before the big day, 

Pilgrim Hat Cookies.

You'll find different variations floating around Pinterest and the web, 

but we bought cookies that had a fancy scalloped edge 

and used other ingredients we had on hand. 

They are easy and delicious!

Taste of Home has a great recipe you can follow.

Quilt Square Project

Have you ever volunteered yourself for something that makes your heart race and you wonder why you offered your services since you KNOW you don't know what you're doing!

I seem to have a gift for doing that.

About 10 days ago a new friend from our homeschool co-op sent out an urgent email asking for help. She needed someone to create a square for her niece's high school graduation quilt. The square needed to be completed by the end of the month and sent off to CA to be added to the blanket.

So...I sent her an email stating that if NO ONE ELSE offers to help, then maybe I could come up with something. In the end, it was all mine.

I do not quilt.

I have never created a quilt square.

I just started embroidering at the beginning of the year.

"What have I done?" I wondered.

Lynn (the friend/Aunt) emailed me the text and sent over the muslin square and I started thinking about design of it all. Ahhh.

Because she chose a verse that talks about the heart, I decided to put the verse inside a heart. I looked through my embroidery patterns and found this:

I liked the heart from this Feb pattern, but not the birds.
It's also not the right size, so I had to enlarge it.

I made a copy of the pattern and fiddled around with the copier until I got the desired size.

Now I needed to find an alphabet to create the text within the heart.
Which meant a stop at JoAnn Fabrics for me - how sad! :)

Of course, the alphabet wasn't the correct size either, so I enlarged it on the copier and then created my template on graph paper.

Then the text was added to the heart. Now I have a completed pattern.

I then taped the muslin to the pattern, laid it on a small lightbox from Katie's Fashion Studio and traced the pattern with a water erasable pen that I found in the embroidery section at JoAnn's.

There was a lot of relief once I had the pattern on the material!

I just had to embroider it.

Because I chose two shades of pink for the heart, that left me with very little color choices for the text. I went back and forth between tans, lavenders and greens. After consulting a color wheel I chose the Granny Smith green. It's feminine, but not too childish, I hope.

Here's the square on our piano bench. It's rather large - about 13 in. squared. I'm really proud of myself for figuring out how to tackle this project. I usually need someone show me how to do something new. Even then I'm intimidated, but this time I DID IT! Whoo hoo!

I've got a few of my own ideas rattling around in my cranium.

I think I'm addicted.

Linked to Make Your Monday at Twice Remembered

DIY Day at A Soft Place to Land

Get your Craft On at Today’s Creative Blog

Just Something I Whipped Up at The Girl Creative

Memorial in Needlework

My grandmother passed away November 8th. She and I were very close and words can't describe how much I have missed her these past two months.

Grandma loved to embroider dish towels and she gave them away generously to friends and family alike. I have worn out several sets, knowing she would always make me a new one. She made a set for each of her grandchildren and had them put their sets away. When they grow up they will have a token of her love for them hanging in their kitchens.

Grandma had several old patterns. If you're at all familiar with this craft, you may remember cute kitties, bunnies and other animals, children in various forms, fruits, vegetables and florals. The patterns were quite nostalgic...like you were receiving a gift from the 1940's, 50's or 60's.

Last spring Grandma complained that her patterns were wearing out and that she needed new ones. I tracked several down at JoAnn's Fabric Store and sent them off to her. I sent patterns that I knew she had used before and a few new ones that were a little more up-to-date.

When Grandma passed away and I was asked what I would like to have of hers; the first thing that came to mind was the embroidery patterns. I wanted to carry on the tradition. I seem to have an affinity for this as you can see here. My mother bagged up two bundles of patterns that now sit in a pretty basket on my bookshelf and I'm looking forward to using many different designs.

Last spring I purchased a set a cotton towels, some of my own patterns, thread, needles, etc. with the thought of taking up this craft. I went to visit my grandmother in May and was hoping to have her teach me some of the different stitches. About 500 miles down the road, I realized that I had forgotten all of my supplies and thought to myself that I'd do it another time.

Then she passed away and that opportunity vanished. After returning home from the funeral I decided that I wasn't going to wait any longer. I went to the library and checked out three books. I just put my mind and hand to the task and this is what I created:




The first two towels were given as a Christmas present to someone very dear to me.

The second two towels will soon be wrapped in birthday paper and given with love.

It just seems like the thing to do. I can't keep them for myself yet; the spirit of grandma compels me to share the tradition. I miss her, but she's with me every stitch of the way!

Fireworks Flowers

Want a quick and easy patriotic craft to do with your kids with items you probably already have at home? Have I got the craft for you! (My tribute to the late Billy Mays.)

In January my 5-and 6-year-old kindergartners made these fireworks flowers as table decorations for our American Heritage Girls Awards Ceremony.

Colorful "flowers" make the buffet line festive

They were so easy and fun to make, although there was a little drying time between painting and assembling.

I thought I'd share the idea with you, JUST IN CASE, you were desperate to add one more thing to what I'm sure is already a busy weekend.

Here's the link to the Fireworks Flowers craft. Enjoy!

Crochet, Knit...What's Your Craft?

In the spring of 2006 I walked into my mother's house one day and saw a large box on the kitchen table. When I asked her about the box she seemed frustrated/annoyed and a little flustered. She told me about the contents of the box - skeins and skeins of blue and white yarn.

She said that my grandmother was working on an afghan for my brother, but never finished it before she died. That struck me as very sad, because from the time my brother was 8 years old my grandmother had lived on and off with our family until she died. She and my brother were probably the closest of any of us grandkids. She had completed afghans for each of her grandchildren, but since she had started with her eldest grandchild, she was just getting to my brother, the youngest one.

Mom continued to tell me that his blanket was about 2/3 done at the time of her death, but since she didn't know anyone who crocheted she had left it sit in the box for at least 10 years. She then learned that an elderly friend of the family who lived in FL knew how to crochet and she asked her if she would finish the blanket for my brother. The lady agreed. My mom shipped the blanket and the remaining yarn to this friend with the expectation of giving it to my brother right away. This dear elderly lady received the box and proceeded to "work." A short time later she called my mother and said that my grandmother had so many mistakes in the blanket that she had to rip it all out and start again. In doing that, it hurt her wrists too badly and she said she was shipping the yarn back to my mother. That was the box full of yarn on the table. She had begun crocheting a piece that was maybe 6 inches long, but it was a far cry from Grandma's own handiwork and a blanket 2/3 done. No wonder my mother was flustered. I burst out with, "I'll crochet it. It needs to be done by a family member." My mom looked at me with surprise and then asked, "Do YOU crochet?" I answered, "No, but I'll teach myself and get it done." I THEN got the Mommy look! We've all seen it...the look that says "Ok, dear, whatever you say!" (You may not remember it, Mom, but it's true!) I don't think she believed me. : )

I packed up my kids in the car and drove straight to the craft store and purchased a couple of books, needles, and practice yarn. Over the following weeks I poured over this book that taught me how to crochet lefthanded. (It has directions/illustrations for both lefties and righties.) At first I made coasters as practice. They about did me in...I've never hated coasters so much in my life! Then I made some practice swatches until I thought that I had a good basic understanding of crocheting. I had a feeling that I would learn a few more things if I made a blanket, but I didn't want to do the learning on my brother's blanket so I set out to make an intermediate skilled blanket. I wish I had a picture of that one...it was beautiful. It was a cream colored throw that had a beautiful alternating open pattern to it, but I didn't take a picture of it before sending it off to my grandmother (other side of the family) for Christmas of 2006. I hope to go visit her in the Midwest next month so I'll try and get a picture of it then.

Anyway, after completing that first blanket I felt confident I could complete my brother's blanket. I had just three months to get it done if we were going to surprise him for his birthday. I had to rip out all the yarn since I was crocheting with my left hand and the elderly friend had been right-handed, but it was much easier than the first blanket so I felt confident in what I was doing. Here's a picture of the completed blanket, as Grandma had envisioned it.

I think Grandma would have been proud. And yes, my brother liked it!

After completing that blanket my husband and two older kids suggested that I make a blanket for a special lady in Peru. The three of them had been to Peru the year before on a mission's trip and Mark had worked in the kitchen with several very sweet Peruvian ladies. They all took very good care of him and he enjoyed sitting during their breaks and having coffee together. My big kids were going again in the summer of 2007 and one of the kitchen ladies was getting her house renovated by our mission's team. Our family thought it would be special if I made her a blanket as a house-warming gift. What an honor it was for me to serve this dear woman. I asked the Peruvian pastor's wife what colors I should use and she said in Spanish, "All of them! The more the better." So this is what I came up with:

It was bright and durable and made my whole family smile when we saw it. We were very excited about giving it to her. (I did get some crazy looks when buying that yarn at the store though!) Here is Ashley giving her the blanket for her new home.

(Re: the face paint-Ashley was in a drama, cast as Satan-that's a whole other story.

Now I am working on two "baby" blankets for my little girls and a gorgeous tri-colored blanket for my son. I crochet in spurts so it takes me a while now to get something done, but Ashley mentioned that she'd like to learn to knit so that may be a new craft we take up together this summer.

I highly recommend the book that I learned to crochet with as a great place to start. If you're interested in knitting, then you should check out Sarah's blog here. She's so talented, this girl!

Feel free to leave a comment and share what your favorite craft/hobby is! It was fun sharing my stories/craft with you!