Flower Power

This wreath simply shouts "Welcome to Spring!"  With its big fabric flowers and jaunty little bow, it helps to usher in the three days of "spring" that we get here in Arizona.  (That isn't a fair statement, but our skin-searingly hot weather is right around the corner.)

I got my inspiration to create this wreath around Christmas time.  We had a craft day at church and someone had designed a wreath like this using Christmas fabric.  The simple design was a set of three concentric circles with a small brad in the middle and a bow at the top around a grapevine wreath.  I modified the Christmas design (which I have not finished yet)  in the following ways:

I changed the circles to flower shapes.
I used larger brads in three sizes, the largest were 1" in diameter.
I added a leaf shape to compliment the flower shape.
I placed my flowers on an 18" diameter wicker wreath.

 Here are the directions for making your own Flower Power Wreath:

• 18" wicker wreath ($1.00 @ the dollar store)
• 10 different fabrics for flowers (I purchased 1/3 of a yard of each.)
• 1 coordinating fabric for leaves ( I used a remnant, but I think you'll need about 1/2 a yard.)

Here is the fabric formula for the flowers:
1 chenille, 3 felt, 2 gingham, 1 polka-dot, and 3 prints
(I did not follow this formula with mine. I used 2 chenille, 2 felt, 1 polka-dot, 2 stripes, 2 prints, and 1 solid.)

• 60 brads (They can be different colors, shapes, or sizes.  There are buttons in the picture, but I chose not to use them.)
• 1 1/2 yards of ribbon (double-sided)
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks (I needed 5)
• Flower patterns

I made the patterns for the flowers by choosing some clip art shapes that I liked and then sized them to what I wanted. I printed them out and then cut them out of craft foam.

I don't think I liked the foam patterns that much.  They tended to slip around a lot.  I would suggest making the patterns out of felt or chipboard like these:

These are for an upcoming project.  The chipboard was again recycled from here.

Next cut your shapes.  I used pinking shears on the leaves and small center circle of the flowers.  I used regular scissors for the other shapes.  I could cut several shapes at a time with the thinner fabric, but I had to cut one at a time with the felt and chenille.  You don't have to be extremely precise when you are cutting because the finished wreath is intended to have a haphazard quality about it.

Here is a quick lesson on pinking shears.  

I have a gentleman that comes to my fabric store once a month to sharpen scissors and knives.  I brought him my truly pathetic pinking shears that I have had since I was about 10 years old.  They did more squeezing the fabric out of shape that cutting.  I thought that they just needed to be sharpened.  He took one look at them and told me that there was nothing that he could do to make them better.  They were poorly constructed.  He told me that I needed to spend at least $45 on a good pair of pinking shears and that even then, I was not guaranteed to have a good set.  I guess they are very difficult to manufacture.  He suggested that quality brands are Gingher and Wiss.  Then he said to test them immediately and bring them back if they don't work.  (I got a set of Gingher pinking shears for Christmas, and they work beautifully.)


Okay, back to the project at hand.  It took me several days to finish all of the cutting, but that is because I have a toddler who is potty training.  You could get it done much faster.  I kept the shapes separated by color in sandwich bags to keep them clean and organized until I was finished with all of the cutting.

There is my helper's leg.

Now it is time to assemble the flowers.  I began by laying all of the large flowers out on the floor.  (You can use the table, but I like the floor.)  Place all of the medium shapes on top of them...  

And the smallest shapes on the top of them.

Don't repeat colors throughout the flowers.  You can see that no two flowers are the same.

You can see the three different sizes I used.

Lay out the brads on top of the flowers. I used the largest brads on the thickest flowers (felt and chenille).

Add a leaf to the flower, and use scissors to punch holes through all four layers of fabric.  Use a cutting mat for safety and to protect your carpet.  (The white bumpy chenille was very difficult to punch through.)

I used my very sharp scissors.

Push the brad through the hole and open the prongs to secure the flower together. 

Mary, Mary quite contrary, how does your garden grow?

To finish your wreath, set out your piles of flowers, ribbon, glue gun, and extra glue sticks.  I kept the flowers grouped by the color of the largest flower. 

Slather a generous amount of hot glue on the backs of your flowers and stick them to the wreath.

Sorry for the blur.  If this looks clear to you, see an eye doctor!

I began at one point and then worked out from both sides.  I made sure that no two large flowers had the same pattern next to one another.  Place the flowers close together so that they have a bunchy three-dimensional look.

Tie a simple bow or a fancy one.  Hang up your project and admire your work.

Light off.

Light on.  There is the head of my helper.

Love it!

This would look great on my door, but I decided to hang it from my sconce at the last minute.  Whatever, it is versatile.  Have fun making your own Flower Power Wreath and bringing spring into your home!

I am linking up to Quilt Story and other great parties!  Click here to see a complete list.

 
























  













































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Hey, hey, hey Goodbye!

I have been spending an inordinate amount of time holed up in my closet lately.  It needed some organization.  I am by no means finished with everything, but I thought you would like to see the pile mountain of clothes and shoes that I will be sending to charity tomorrow.

I am sure that I should have sent more, but that will have to wait for another day...  I am also working on a fun wreath for springtime, and next week I will tackle the craft closet!  Yes, next week I will tackle the craft closet.  I have to keep telling myself that or else I'll loose my nerve!

Hide & Seek, Baby

Long before my son was born, I found a pattern for a Hide & Seek Bag.  I bought it on the spot and put it away for someday...  

When he was about 18 months old I got serious about completing the project for him.  This is the result:

 

He has loved it ever since.  Even my 10-year-old nieces who visited just after I'd finished it couldn't get enough of finding the hidden objects.  It was then that I realized that one of the items on the list hadn't made it into the pouch.  I opened the seam and popped it in at the same time I emptied some of the hiding beads.  I had made the bag too full that made it difficult for the items to move freely, but we will discuss that more later.  

Fast forward to now.  My daughter has been asking for her own "Seek Bag."  I had all of the materials (or so I thought) and was set to complete this project last month.  I ended up having to find a few last-minute items.  Oops!  I guess I wasn't as prepared as I thought I was.  Then life took over illnesses and potty training took center stage which brings us to MARCH, and finally the "Seek Bag" is complete.  

Here are the materials that you will need to make your own Hide & Seek Bag:

• Clear vinyl
• Colored/textured vinyl
• Canvas (any style and color you like)
• Two-sided fusible webbing
• Ribbon
• One jump ring
• Beads for filling (found in the floral section)
• Small toys
• Laminated cardstock for list tag

Most of the material was found in the remnant bins.

First, you need to gather the toys to go into the bag.  If you have older children this won't be as challenging a task.  You can always find small toys, puzzle pieces, fashion doll shoes, etc., but if you don't, there are lots of choices.  I used a lot of nifty buttons, scrapbooking embellishments,  and small party favors.  Update:  Do not use money inside the bag.  It is just too heavy.  I put coins inside the first bag that I made and I never saw them again. 

 

Keep a list of the items as you acquire them.  

You will forget what you have as you are collecting so it is a good idea to review what you have from time to time.  Also, often there will be duplicate items in one bag.  Start a list for another collection while you are working.  I had three collections going at once.  Using small toys means that you need more to fill the bag.  I used 75 toys per bag, but if you used larger toys (such as the ones that come in  a tube with a globe on top) you will need fewer items.  

As I said before, I had a pattern for this project, but I lent it to a friend and she lent it to a friend and... Well, it's gone.  I had to reconstruct the pattern from memory.  I used a piece of printer paper, a ruler, a compass, and a black marker.  

 

I measured my son's bag to get an approximate size for the pattern.  I drew a line and used the compass to create the curve.  I traced the drawing with marker so that I could see the lines.  You don't have to be extremely precise with your tracing.  My circle has a diameter of 9 1/2" so I could only fit a half circle on my sheet of paper, hence the fold line.  

You need four kinds of fabric to complete this project:

I found my fabrics in the remnants bin at the local fabric stores.  

• Clear vinyl (I used 16 gauge)
• heavy canvas
• double-sided fusible webbing
• colored/ textured vinyl

 

Place your pattern on the fold and cut once circle out of each material.  Again you do not need to be extremely precise.  My telephone worked beautifully as a weight so I did not have to use pins.

Here is where I deviated from the pattern.  The original pattern called for just canvas.  I wanted something colorful and easy to clean at the same time.  Using the canvas on the inside of the bag gives the project color while the vinyl on the outside makes cleaning up sticky fingerprints a snap. 

Next step to the ironing board.Iron the back pieces together in this order:

1.  Iron the webbing (paper side up) to the wrong side of the canvas.

  

     

2.  Carefully peel off the paper backing while everything is still warm.  

 

    

 3.  Attach the canvas to the wrong side of the colored vinyl.  

Yes, this is a  different color of canvas.

 Prepare the holder for the list tag.  I used two contrasting ribbons and a jump ring.

Line up the front and the back of the bag, inserting the list tag holder, and pin leaving a 2" space for filling.

You don't have to be very exact because you will be trimming the excess material later.  

Chose a long tight zig zag stitch on your sewing machine.  I sewed over the seam four times to ensure good coverage and a tight seal. I left about 1/4" of seam allowance as I sewed.  

Now comes the fun part!  

First, fill your bag with your toys.  COUNT the toys to make sure you have everything on your list.  Your bag should be about 1/3 full. 

Next, fill your bag with beads.  In this photo I used larger beads, I was not pleased with them so I opened the finished seam, dumped everything out and refilled the bags using smaller beads like these:  

The bag should be just over half full of beads and toys.  

Finally, pin up the hole and sew it closed.  Keep the filling well out of the way as you sew.  

Trim the seams close to the stitching.  I needed a very sharply pointed pair of scissors to trim around the list tag holder, but regular sewing scissors worked fine for the rest of the circle.  

The last step is to attach the list tag. 

Before you begin, type the list of toys and print it out on cardstock.  I typed my lists in three columns and made a front and a back.  Then I cut them out and glued them to some cute matching paper.  I laminated the lists using 10 mil. lamination.  This will make the list about as thick as a credit card.  

The corner rounder did not cut through the lamination, but you need to round the corners by hand or else they will be SHARP!

Punch a hole for the jump ring and check the placement. 

Thread the list tag onto the jump ring.

Voila!  A Hide & Seek Bag that your child will LOVE!  My daughter carried hers around for the rest of the day and kept telling her dad, "Mommy made this!"  

The small beads do a great job of disguising the toys.

"Mommy made this!"

As you can tell from the pictures, I made two bags at the same time. Soooo...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ANDERSON! 

This is also an excellent gift for a preschool or kindergarten teacher!  I hope you enjoy your bag!

I would love it if you became a follower of my blog.  You can also find me HERE on Facebook and HERE on Pinterest!

If you enjoyed this sewing post you might enjoy these other posts from Greetings From the Asylum:

Lined Travel Backpack, Ruffle-Bum Onesies, and Part One of my Yo-Yo Coverlet.

Thanks for visiting!

A Little Side Note...

In the lobby of the office building where my husband works is a wonderful deli run by Iraqi immigrants.  In addition to their standard deli fare, they feature authentic middle eastern choices on their menu.  My husband especially likes their tabouleh and tomato feta salad.  He mentioned the tomato feta salad so frequently that I wanted to try it for myself.  Since I don't make the 25-mile one way trip that often, it was up to me to make it happen in my own kitchen.  My husband said that while this is not an exact replica, it is a good adaptation of the original favorite.  Here is my version of Tomato Feta Salad...

Here are the ingredients that you need.

All of these items are easily found in your local grocery store.

1 bag of romaine lettuce

1 package of cherry tomatoes (You can use a pint of grape tomatoes too.)

1 8oz  container of  feta cheese (crumbled)

18 - 24 kalamata olives (pitted)

juice of 1/2 lemon

salt & pepper

Now we combine!

Cut the washed cherry (or grape) tomatoes in half and add them to a large bowl. You will need the space to add the lettuce later.   

Add the olives, feta, and the lemon juice.

I had a picture of one of my favorite kitchen gadgets (a wooden lemon reamer) in use, but I deleted it by accident.  I do want digress for a moment and take this opportunity to sing its praises.  No kitchen should be without one.  I had a metal reamer for years, but I wasn't really happy with the results so I purchased one like this. (This reamer is on sale at Amazon.com for $4.99.)  A wooden reamer is far superior to a metal one because it gets into the tiny corners of your citrus fruit and wrings every last drop of juice out of the rind.  My metal reamer also gave my hands unsightly grayish smudges as I used it.  That always made me leery of what it was adding to the juice.  I have used my reamer on citrus fruits as small as a lime all the way up to grapefruit.  It worked wonderfully on each of them. 

 Okay, back to the task at hand...

Add salt and pepper to taste.  Stir to combine.

Add 1/2 to a full bag of lettuce.  Gently fold the lettuce into the tomato cheese mixture.

Enjoy!

 

This side dish would be delicious with a large variety of dishes.  It would be the perfect crunchy addition to savory gyros.  Add some sliced grilled chicken breasts to make it a main dish.  Serve it with spiced lentils to keep the meal vegetarian.  I paired it with poached mahi mahi and rice pilaf.  The possibilities are endless but always delicious!

If you would like a printable version of this recipe, send me a comment with your e-mail address since I have not yet figured out how to embed a PDF here in the text of the blog.

I am linking up to these and other great parties!  To see a complete list, click on my Linky Party page!

I would love it if you became a follower of my blog.  You can also find me HERE on Facebook and HERE on Pinterest!

I have other cooking posts here at Greetings From the Asylum.  Here are a few you might enjoy:  Hard-Baked Eggs, Hamburger Cookies, and Cranberry Bread from the book Cranberry Thanksgiving.  

Thanks for Visiting!