Mario Mushrooms!

So, I am deep in the middle of a few big projects around the house and yard that have to be done before bad weather sets in. Progress is being made, but smaller creative projects are on hold for now--with the exception of a few mushrooms!

Mr. S.'s fourth birthday party was a Super Mario bash--check Care's blog, I'm hoping she'll share her fun ideas! A few Mario mushrooms seemed in order for Mr. S., so I referred back to Rose Langlitz's fun book 'Tasty Crochet', a library favorite , and adapted her cute crochet mushroom pattern into Mario's companions. (Grandma confession: not being too familiar with Mario and his world, I had to check Google images for details!)


Each little guy is about 2-1/2 inches tall. (Of course the blue one is a little smaller.) All the yarn was dug from my stash--I stitched on the white crochet circles, and their eyes are single stitches of black yarn. I love how jolly and friendly they look!

Back to other projects. . .

Second Cabin Project--Sweater Flower!

One more product of Karen's sweater-project bag at her cabin--she has been making fabulous flowers from bits of sweater and scraps of fabric. Here's one made with a bit of our pumpkin-colored sweater!

Karen says instructions are most likely available on the web--for our version, we cut an 8" piece, 1-1/2" wide, along the finished edge of the sweater's ribbing, and stitched it into a ring. We gathered the cut edge and pulled the stitches up tight, making a flower shape.

We stitched a torn strip of scrap fabric into a ring and folded it along the center of the strip, then gathered the folded edge in the same way, pulled it tight, and stitched the fabric circle securely to the sweater circle.

By then it was looking a lot like a poppy, but we had no black scraps for the poppy's center, and then Care had a brilliant idea: we clipped the black tag from the back of the sweater's neckline, and made another tiny flower shape for the center! (Good thinking, Care!) The printing is almost invisible. When I got home, I glued some gold-washed black seed beads (scrounged from a tacky old ear ring in my stash) to the center, for some poppy-like texture.

I'll stitch a safety pin to the back, and wear my new fall creation! Or maybe it will become a magnet for the fridge. . .

Back Home Again--With Recycle Pumpkins!

We've been away, spending time with family at their beautiful cabin far away from it all--in peace, quiet, and perfect autumn weather! Lots of cooking, eating, talking, relaxing, and beautiful fall scenery, some cactus spines in a couple of small boys--and, a few projects!

Karen pulled out her sweater-project bag, stashed with thrift store sweaters, fabric scraps and a few other odds and ends, and we were inspired to create! A burnt-orange sweater shouted 'pumpkin' to us, and we ended up with an entire pumpkin-patch worth--with green stems fashioned from bits of another knit top.

The pumpkins are fashioned from various-size rectangles of sweater, stitched into tubes and then gathered tightly at one end. We turned them tight-side out and stuffed them with cut-up bits of another sweater until they were nice and plump, and tucked the remaining raw edge to the inside, gathering it closed.

I happened to have a little brown yarn in my knitting bag, and used it to give the sweater balls a pumpkin shape by stitching up through the center of the pumpkin, bringing the yarn around the side, and back up through the center repeatedly (think of a tomato pincushion). The stems are strips of green knit, folded long way, rolled up, and stitched raw-edges-down into the top hollow.

We also snitched a piece of wire from the on-going electrical project downstairs and covered it with green twill tape picked off our knit top, and added the green spiraled tendrils to a few of the pumpkins--sorry no photo, but it was indeed cute! We stitched the end of the spiral under the stem.

Big fun creating with just what's around! I love how the little guys look so velvety. The little pumpkins went home with various people, and it looks like it's back to regular life for us-- rested and refreshed!