<Living Crafts Blog

Seven minutes of inspiring fiber art images. In this video TAFA shares members visions of red: of boldness, love, and passion…
some heat to get our fiber circulation pumping for Valentines Day crafts!

“TAFA: The Textile and Fiber Art List is a business community of entrepreneurs rooted in textile and fiber art products and traditions. A majority of our members have social and environmental agendas at the core of their business. TAFA unites old and new traditions, their historical and modern importance, giving a shared platform to both contemporary and traditional textile techniques from all cultures.”

TAFA presents an inspiring collection of all things Fiber Arts….Beautiful pictures and links to fiber artists and fiber suppliers around the world….a delightful place to spend a few Sunday hours with a cup of tea!

www.tafalist.com

Fiona Duthie is a regular contributor to Living Crafts.

In her studio on Salt Spring Island, BC, she creates in a bountiful beauty of color, wool, and texture, inspired by the natural world. Fiona designs fine feltwork, felting and knitting patterns, gives workshops in natural craft, and runs her hand dyed, artisan fibre company, Kattikloo. You can read more about her fibers, projects and creative living at www.kattikloo.com and on Facebook.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comment #59 : Fleur de Paix

Congratulations!

 

Such a perfect craft to make for a classmate or friend!  After featuring the beautiful friendship bracelet designs from the Purl Bee earlier this week, we were inspired to find some more ideas.  Here are some great video tutorials on making heart designs in friendship bracelets.

You can also find some great tutorials on these and other friendship bracelet designs at friendship-bracelets.net.

 

 

Fiona Duthie is a regular contributor to Living Crafts.

In her studio on Salt Spring Island, BC, she creates in a bountiful beauty of color, wool, and texture, inspired by the natural world. Fiona designs fine feltwork, felting and knitting patterns, gives workshops in natural craft, and runs her hand dyed, artisan fibre company, Kattikloo. You can read more about her fibers, projects and creative living at www.kattikloo.com and on Facebook.

Beautiful Valentine’s Friendship Bracelets tutorial from Purl Bee.

We loved making these friendship bracelets as children but have never made any with patterns like these, especially designed for Valentine’s Day!

What a great craft to make for  a special friend…time to get out the embroidery floss and check out the tutorial!

Celtic knot work can be stunning in any form, and this beautiful knotted necklace is a great example.

The video tutorial explains the process so well, simplifying what looks like complex knot work.  In addition to Valentine’s Day gifts, wouldn’t these make lovely wedding tokens- as necklaces for the guests or bridesmaids, or as table decorations for candles, vases or glasses?

Or make a garland of love knots by using a longer length of rope….On our must do list!

 

My friend Cindy Johnson used to be a kindergarten teacher. Every year on Valentine’s Day, she made an eatable stained glass Valentine’s card for all the children in her class! For each child she made two 5”x7” decorated cookies and tied them together with ribbons. The children loved this special treat.

I asked Cindy to give me the recipe, which was printed in an old publication from the forties or fifties. The following recipe, inspired by the original from Miss Cindy, is a variation altered for Living Crafts, as I always like the flour to be measured by weight for consistency. This recipe has less sugar than most butter cookies, but more butter, and the cookies are actually not just pretty, but very tasty and eatable. I will have to also provide you all with a Royal Icing recipe, next time we have these cookies on our blog.

If you are going to let your child eat hard candy with food coloring in it, well, this is the one time in the year to do so. If not, you can test different brands of organic hard candy [that’s what I was going to do but with a staff of one some things are just not possible] and see how they melt in the oven. If you have success with any of them please let me know so I can post here!

I am holding on to this recipe for Christmas and plan to make a whole village of houses with stained glass windows – and even a church.

Here we go, thanks to Miss Cindy Johnson:

Valentine Cookies

Makes about 12 cookies in various sizes shown here:

Ingredients:

• 8 oz. all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 stick butter [1/3 cup]
• 3/8 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• Jolly Rancher brand hard candy in assorted colors
• Royal Frosting [or ready-made frosting tubes for writing!]

 

Directions:

1. Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl
2. Beat butter and sugar in bowl until light and fluffy, then add egg and vanilla
3. Gradually stir in flour mixture until dough is firm
4. Keep dough in closed container overnight or at least 10 hours
5. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Roll out dough on a floured surface to ¼ thick.
6. Place foil on a cookie sheet.
7. Cut out shapes with cutters in various sizes and place on the foil covered cookie sheet.
8. Crush candy in colors of your choice, so they are in crystals [not powdered]
9. Place as much candy as possible in the cut-out parts

10. Bake about 8 minutes, or a bit more for larger pieces. Children love watching the candy bubble through the oven window. The ones that are heart shaped look like pumping hearts!
11. Once the cookies are cooled off, you can start decorating with Royal Icing of your choice, or just buy ready-made in a tube if you are in a hurry, although those have way too much bad stuff in them [sorry Betty I like Martha best].

by Fiona Duthie

These wool felt hearts have been a Valentines mainstay in our family for years. The hearts made their first appearance when my sons were quite young, starting a tradition of them coming downstairs in the morning to find a Valentines neck pocket each, hanging in the doorway and filled with little treasures. After discovering what was hidden inside, the boys would wear their hearts as necklaces all day and look more sweet than any Valentines candies have ever been.

We have made variations over the years; quilted cottons; knitted yarns; wet felted wool; folded paper….but always come back to these felt lovelies!

Materials

0.25 yard red wool felt will make 7 hearts- we used National Non-Wovens

2 inch square pieces colored wool felt, such as white, pink, lilac, yellow, or coral- we used
wool felt sheets from Bear Dance Crafts

red sewing thread or embroidery floss

sewing needle

ribbon or braided yarn for necklace or for hanging.

wool for stuffing

optional: embroidery floss and beads for embellishing

For Wool Felt Heart Pocket:
Step 1) Cut out two large hearts and one small heart (or any other shape you desire).
Step 2) Sew the small heart onto the large heart, using blanket stitch. Leave a small opening and stuff with a small amount of wool roving, or some fabric scraps. Finish sewing around the small heart.

Step 3) Sew around the large heart from widest point, and around the bottom to the other side, catching in the necklace ribbon or braided yarn. Secure the necklace well with a few extra stitches. Embroider a vine and leaf design on the small heart, and /or sew on some beads. As an alternative, cut felt circles in a range of colors and sew onto the large heart using either blanket stitch or running stitch.

The Wool Felt Hearts also make beautiful decorations, hung together as a garland or wall hanging or hung on a door knob. Try stuffing them with dried herbs for use as a sachet; with beans for bean bags or with wool or emery for a pin cushion. These make beautiful gifts – simple to make and lovely to look at.

To make the Filled Hearts, follow all the steps for the Wool Felt Heart Pockets, but in step 3, sew all around the large hearts, leaving a space open and stuff lightly. Finish sewing around the heart.

If your heart will be a hanging decoration, sew on a length of folded ribbon to the back.

You can also use the small heart pattern to make our Love Dove mobile. Cut out 16 small hearts in different colors of wool felt. Sew two colors together, using blanket stitch and leaving a small opening for stuffing. Stuff and finish sewing around the heart. Repeat for all eight hearts. It’s nice to use different colors for each side so the colors shift as the hearts catch a breeze.

The Doves are made from the Peace Doves pattern in the Winter 2009 issue of Living Crafts. To make the two tiny doves reduce the full size pattern by 72%. Sew on a thread hanger through the top of each dove and heart- we used some gold metallic embroidery floss for a little shimmer to catch the light. With its soft, fresh, colors, the Love Dove Mobile is charming to hang for Valentines Day, and to welcome Spring. Wouldn’t it be beautiful hanging over a child’s bed?

Felt and Pattern Giveaway

National Non-Wovens has generously offered an assortment of felt for the lucky winner! Their gift includes a perpetual calendar with many patterns, and …. ready for this? 36 each 5” square 100% wool felt sheets in 6 colors, 11 half-yards of wool/rayon felt in 11 different colors, along with 8 half-yards of bamboo felt in 8 different colors, a total of 25 colors of felt to add to your stash!

Wool felt is such a delight to work with. It feels soft and substantial in your hands, and is a perfect canvas for embellishing. In addition to the above, Bear Dance Crafts has a great assortment of wool felt kits for each season and are including 4 seasonal favorites here as a giveaway for
Living Crafts readers:

Butterfly Kiss: These two little butterflies hanging under a heart can be hung almost anywhere. Made with wool felt and bead heads, this project is easy enough for a beginner.

Heart Elf: Adorable heart elf comes with pink-toned felt and fairy-tale wool hair in pink and purple tones. She sits perched in a sturdy heart covered with felt and felt leaves, has little pink wings and little beads decorating her clothing.

In the Clouds: A hanging kit with lots of hearts plus clouds, with a doll on top of the largest cloud.

Wool Felt Horse: Make this wonderful hand-stitched wool felt horse with clear instructions and full-size pattern. Finished horse measures approx. 8″/20 cm tall.

To enter this drawing, worth over $200, please leave a comment on this post by Sunday 8 p.m. EST (February 6, 2011). Winner will be announced Monday.

And the winner is…

Vicki Compton	2011/02/05 at 7:47 am
	Real wool felt is a rare commodity these days…but the feel and colours are worth it! My kids and I love creating things with this naturally warm and beautiful fabric!

This exquisite shawl by Knit/Lab is called Teardrop and has 110 tiny clear beads in it. The pattern includes a rectangular chart as well.

These sweet hearts from Design*Sponge have my attention for this Valentine’s Day. They are just so simple, and easy to do with a child too. If they have not learned how to crochet yet, they can start with the chain stitch and make the garland. Click here for the tutorial.