A Fun Fall Fair

Well, I"ve been busy!

Next weekend (September 14-15)

 is the Campbell Valley Fair and I've been making things to sell in my booth.

Like what, you ask?

Well, there will be pumpkins.

Painted fabric pumpkins,

 pumpkins with faces, 

 little pumpkins with faces,

 burlap pumpkins,

 painted, flat pumpkins,

 wool pumpkins, 

 pumpkins on sticks,

and in garlands,

 scarecrow pumpkins,

 pumpkins with crows,

 and crows on pumpkins.

Of course there'll be food...

 I can never grow these gourds with the long necks

so I decided to sew a few. 

 You can't have a fall fair without sunflowers,

 or a few cats,

and some crows,

 and a few more pumpkins.

Halloween's just around the corner

so we need a few scary things.

 How about a burlap owl or two? 

 Or a fat chenille spider and little spider-web coasters?

 This oh-so-creepy bat?

 Or some of these?

Did I say there'd be pumpkins?

And lots of other fun stuff!

Hope to see you there!

Ever-blooming Daffodils--a tutorial

Spring certainly can't come soon enough for me!

If you feel the same way, you can speed up its arrival in your home by making a bunch of these fabric daffodils.

Cut a 4 1/2" square of muslin.

Fold in half and sew the long edges together with a 1/4" seam.

Turn the piece right side out until the raw edges meet at the bottom, forming a little tube.

Copy this template onto graph paper and cut out.

Pin the template to a double layer of muslin and sew all the way around it.

Trim the muslin 1/4" outside of the stitching.
Square off the points and clip into the curves.

Separate the muslin layers and carefully make a tiny cross incision through one of the layers.

Turn the shape right side out through this opening.
I used a pointy chopstick to get into the points.

Make gathering stitches about 1/4" from the raw edges of the tube.

Gather tightly and knot off.

Insert the gathered edge of the tube into the little hole in the daffodil.
Turn the edges of the hole to the inside and stitch the tube to the folded edges.

Thin some antique gold paint with a little water and paint the entire daffodil, starting with inside the tube.

When dry, sand gently with fine sandpaper.

Separate the layers of fabric and carefully cut a tiny horizontal slit into just the back layer.

Drip some hot glue into the hole.

Immediately insert a stick into the hole and up into the petal.

And that's it!
Enjoy your ever-blooming spring daffodils!