Blue Border Throw, A Clare Youngs design
Make a Blanket for Valentine's day
Obviously mine isn’t blue, but the pattern is titled “Blue Border Throw” and appears in Clare Youngs’ book Scandinavian Needlecraft: 35 Step-by-step Projects to Create the Scandinavian Home
I love the projects in this book and had a really tough go of it trying to decide what to make first. I thought that this would be perfect for Valentine’s day, so I decided to start here.
I’ve got to be honest and say that I’m pretty happy to finally be done with this one.
Basic construction: You embroider two pretty pieces of woolen fabric with french knots, using yarn. You then attach them to either end of a piece of fleece.
Sources of Conflict:
The pattern calls for two pieces of 40x13.5 in, woolen fabric and a 40X54in piece of white fleece. Conveniently, fleece fabric is 54 inches across straight off the bolt. Eventually the 13.5 in piece of fabric is folded over, but you’re adding it to either end of the 54 inch length, so you end up with a blanket that is 40x 67.5 (minus the seam allowance), which makes it just a bit smaller than a twin mattress. I found that to be an odd size for a throw. My first thought was that I’d adjust the embroidery so that I could attach it to the longer sides of the fleece, until I checked out the cost of soft woolen fabric. I found some that I loved but it was close to $40 a yard. I would have needed a little over a yard and a half and that would have made for a fairly spendy border.
I decided, in a misguided moment of brilliance to use fleece for the entire blanket. It was the most cost effective solution and I was afraid of ruining a spendy piece of wool with my own ineptitude. I also decided to go with the dimensions called for in the book. The bright pink fleece was Kitty’s idea. She was just sure that her daddy would love it as much as she did.
Transferring the Pattern: I took a piece of tulle, taped it over the pattern and then traced it with a sharpie. I then placed the tulle over the pink fleece and made a dot along the pattern directly on to the fabric wherever I needed to place a french knot. easy enough..
Unfortunately, fleece seems to stretch out of shape easily. While my pattern was straight and most of my knots are placed directly over the dots, my end product isn’t particularly straight, especially near the points of the hearts. That wasn’t the hard part though…
When attaching the embroidered strips to the fleece, you fold over a hem on both of the long ends and then sandwich the fleece between the two. You pin it, baste stitch it and then sew along making sure to pick up both the front and back at the same time. I was stitching through 5 layers of fleece and it didn’t really work out for me all that well. I didn’t take any photos, because it really looked like crap.
Aside from the obvious mess of construction, Geek had two complaints. It wasn’t large enough for both of us to really snuggle under it and he didn’t care for the single layer of fleece in the middle. The seam ripper and I got cozy on the couch and I set about mending things.
I purchased a second piece of fleece and stitched it together in the following way. Pink piece, fleece, pink piece, fleece and then attached the first pink panel to the last piece of fleece to create a big tube. I was mindful to make sure that both of my heart strips ended up on the same side, facing the right way. I stitched down the length of one side, and then almost all the way down the other side, leaving enough of the seam open to turn it right side out. Then I stitched it closed.
I gave it to Geek for his birthday a few days ago and he absolutely loves it. He’s still not crazy about the size but the the blanket has a wonderful heft to it.
Don’t let me scare you off of making this blanket. You too can make a pretty blanket for Valentine's Day, because Nothing says "I love you" like a hand made gift for the holiday. I wouldn’t recommend using the fleece fabric unless you’re on a tight budget, but it can be done.
Embroidered Heart Table Runner
Table Runner
It's been quite a few years since I've done any embroidery. I've done kits before but this is the first time I've transferred a pattern on to fabric and just went for it. I think I did okay.
The pattern and instructions for this red work table runner appear in Clare Youngs' book Christmas Crafting in No Time
Red heart Table Runner
The table runner is made from Linen, which I've never used before. This is quite possibly the nicest table linen that I own. I'm almost afraid to use it, and I'll admit that I was terrified to wash it. It came out great though.
Construction: You start with a piece of linen or cotton that is 40x55in. You carefully transfer the pattern to the appropriate places, and then embroider it using whipped back stitch and bullion knots. You then fold it in half (right sides together) and stitch most of the way around the outside edge. (leave enough of an opening to turn it) Turn it right side out, and then stitch the opening closed.
Transferring the pattern:
I'd never done this before. I used the dressmaker's carbon and I pressed very firmly but not all of the pattern transferred. What did transfer was very light. As a result, my hearts have more bullion knots around the outside of them.
make your own holiday table linens
Stitches:
I really like the whipped back stitch. As a novice embroiderer my stitches aren't perfect. Wrapping the thread around the stitches made them appear a bit straighter and neater. I wasn't quite as fond of the bullion knots. It took me a while to get the hang of them so my second heart looks better than my first one.
Heart Shaped Cinnamon Rolls for Valentine’s Day
Valentine's Day Cinnamon Buns
Pinterest is such a great resource when you're looking for festive things to do for the holidays. I found the idea for the heart shaped cinnamon rolls here, via pinterest.
We're cutting back on wheat, so this was a special treat for my children. If you're a baker, by all means use your favorite cinnamon roll recipe. I used the orange-cinnamon rolls that come in a tube at the grocery store. I think they are made by pilsbury.
These were extremely easy to make. To start, line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Separate the cinnamon rolls and gently unroll them half way. Take the unrolled portion of the dough strip and re-roll it in from the end until the two halves meet. Finally, give the center of the dough strip a little pinch to form the bottom of the heart. Bake following the instruction on the can (or your recipe) and then top with the frosting. These would be adorable with pink icing.
heart shaped cinnamon orange rolls
I'm a huge fan of slow food, but I don't always have time to make cinnamon rolls from scratch. Generally that just means we don't eat cinnamon rolls. It's nice though to surprise the kids every once in a while. I made the heart shaped cinnamon rolls for an after school snack and they were a hit.
Valentines Earrings to make
Happy Love Day Earrings
Ruby Drop Earrings
I'm Sweet on You Earrings
Earrings make great handmade gifts for Valentine's Day. I found instructions for all three of these designs in the "Inspiration Projects" gallery at Fusion Beads. Unfortunately, the "Ruby Drops" earring are no longer in the gallery, but it is one of their designs. You can read about how I made the Ruby Drop earrings, as well as an assortment of other jewelry projects over at Modern Minerals.
Crayon and Wax Paper Window Hearts
Crayon Hearts for Valentines day
I've wanted to make the crayon and wax paper hearts for quite some time now. I have a binder that I file away all the crafts I want to do when I find some extra time and this one has been tucked in there for what seems like forever. I saved the page from the Martha Stewart Magazine that had the photo, but not the instructions. Yay me. You can find the instructions both on her site and in her book.
It's pretty easy to do, even without the instructions. Fortunately for me, I'm now the proud owner of Martha's book "Handmade Holiday Crafts", so I was able to look back and see what I did wrong. To make these you will need: Crayons, wax paper, an iron, ironing board, scissors, heart templates, heavy craft paper, an old micro planer or pencil sharpener, needle, thread, tape and a couple of hours.
I used brighter colored crayons than Martha did. In her photo she has some lighter, more translucent hearts hanging in her window. I originally started with carnation pink crayons, but I botched it in the beginning and chalked it up to a learning experience. However, I'm kind of digging the brighter colors. I live in the Pacific Northwest and it's been a bit dreary here lately and the hearts bring some much needed cheer to the room. So when you're choosing your crayon colors, pick crayon colors that you love. I'm thinking about making some non- traditional turquoise ones to add to the mix myself.
Shredding the crayons: Obviously you need to shred down the crayons. The instructions say to make the wax shavings with a pencil sharpener. I bet that works great, although it is going to leave you with a little nub of a crayon that you can't really use. I opted for an old micro planer that I bought for zesting lemons. I was able to use every bit of the crayon and it got them down in to tiny, tiny pieces. I just have one word of warning... my method was a messy process. But I did have a ton of tiny uniform pieces to work with.
crayon shavings for wax paper hearts
I separated out my crayons by basic color tones, peeled off the papers and started grating them. I put a big piece of wax paper down to collect the crayon bits and then tipped the shavings in to individual bowls and most of it made it in there, the rest were easily vacuumed up.
I didn't measure out my pieces of wax paper. I just ripped a piece off, folded it in half and then pre-crimped the edges. For the first one, I prepped the paper on the counter and then moved it over to the ironing board. This method didn't have great results for me. The crayon shavings shifted all about and I ended up with thick lumps of crayons and sparse areas in between. I then decided to prep the wax paper on the firm surface of the counter, and then I moved it to the ironing board before adding the shavings to the mix.
Speaking of the ironing board, you will need to protect both your iron and your board. Several years ago Marathon Man bought me a nice Rowenta ironing board. It doesn't get as much use as it probably should, but I still wasn't in a hurry to destroy it. The instructions called for putting down kraft paper, which I don't happen to have. I do however have an over abundance of brown paper grocery bags. Im not sure if my iron was too hot (I don't think that it was) but something moist was seeping through the paper bags. I ended up using quite a few layers of bags but it seemed to get the job done.
Applying the crayon shavings: I crimped (folded) the edges of the paper in an effort to help keep the melty crayons inside. I tried crimping the edges after I put the shaving inside but the movement of doing so shifted my crayon bits all over the place. So I crimped, opened, added the shavings and then just flipped the edges back up together. It worked great for me. The crayon shavings need to be applied evenly, but not heavily. If the crayon is applied to thickly you'll have a couple of undesirable issues. (Note that there are not any carnation pink hearts hanging in my window.) :p First up, your hearts won't be transparent and that sort of defeats the purpose here. Two, they'll look like cheesy globs of crayons, and finally, if the crayon layer is too thick, the wax paper will separate from the crayon when you go to cut them out.
I'm really glad that I pre-grated my crayons and that I separated them out by basic colors. I wanted to have some solid colored and some mottled colored hearts. I simply used a spoon to scatter my shavings and I'm pleased with how it turned out.
I googled "heart templates" and printed out a selection. In the book, the hearts are all the same shape but are of varying sizes. Instead I opted for a variety of shapes and sizes. The cooled crayon sheets are easy to see through so I just set the template pages on the table and traced the heart patterns directly on the crayon and wax paper sheets. I fit as many hearts as I could on each sheet. Once they were all drawn, I sat down with some scissors and cut them all out, stacking them in piles by color as I went. As far as cutting them goes, they cut very, very easily. I tore a few trying to turn my scissors in the top cleft of the heart. I ended up cutting up one side from the bottom point to the inside of the cleft. Then I flipped it over and cut out the other side. (I was always cutting the right hand side of the heart from the bottom up.) Don't worry, you'll be able to see the cutting line from both sides of the paper.
Hanging. From the photo in the book it appears as though I used both a heavier thread and a different method. I threaded a very long piece of thread on to the needle as I didn't want to keep threading the needle. I pulled it though, held it up to the window in the approximate place that I wanted it to be, double the thread and then clipped it. I tied a knot, stuck a short piece of tape on it and then secure it to the very top of the window frame. In the photo it looks as if she used a much finer thread, folded it in half, slipped the folded end through a small hole and then thread the cut ends through the folded portion of the thread. I bet this method would actually help the hearts to hang straighter, but honestly... I didn't want to spend that kind of time on this project.
Placement of the hearts: I decided which window I wanted to do first. I looked at my pile of hearts and I happened to have the least amount of hearts in the darker color, so that is what I started with. I tried to evenly distribute the darker hearts and then filled in the gaps from there. I thought about going from one side of the window to the other but I really worried that I'd run out of hearts, or that the colors wouldn't be evenly distributed.
I'm so glad I finally got around to making this Valentines craft project. The hearts are fun and while it may still be a bit early for Valentines day, they make me smile every time I walk in to the room. Martha Stewart gets a thumbs up from me for this one!
