winter dabbling #2

Today’s little project that I am sharing is a primitive whisk broom that was born from a random trip to Michael’s craft store.

I found these in the 90% off Christmas stuff.  The thing that drew me to them was the AWESOME cinnamon smell, just like the pine cones they have out at Christmas. YUMMMM They were  cheap, 49 cents a piece, so  I took five of them thinking I would just chop them off and put them in my crocks to enjoy the nice smell.

Which I did with two of them.

I used 2 more to make a little whisk broom. Won’t you join me? (giggle)

First you need to cut them down a tad, I cut them off just below the first wicker tie with garden snips.

Don’t be like me and do this part at the kitchen table…..take yours outside and cut it so that you don’t make a big fat mess like I did.

Then I squeezed them together at the top end and wrapped floral wire very tightly around several times.  Once it was fairly secure with floral wire, I wrapped jute around and around making a loop on the back for hanging, then used a dab of hot glue to secure the end.

(  HA! look at my grody glue gun!)

Now we are going to make a primitive label for our whisk.

You can type up something or you can use the one I made here:

Cut out a piece of wax paper the size of a piece of pinter paper ( 8 1/2  x  11) and iron it to the back of some muslin, making sure the waxy side is toward the fabric.  I used some nice dyed muslin.

Then using a mat/ruler/rotary cutter , trim the muslin to the same size as the freezer paper= 8 1/2 x 11

As this is the same size as a sheet of paper it should run through your printer fine, it worked for me and this was my first time trying it. So I have no great advice for you if it doesn’t work. LOL

Print off your label.

Peal off the freezer paper and trim around your label. (You can save the freezer paper to use again!)

I cut a little slit with the scissors and ripped my fabric so that I would have nice frayed edges, but you can trim yours with a rotary cutter if you prefer.

I then did the same ripping method to cut a piece of homespun big enough to wrap around my broom with about a 1 inch overlap in the back.

Attach your label in the middle of the homespun with BIG primitive stitches.  I used a nice old looking wool floss.

Wrap it around your broom and make BIG primitive  x stitches.

Starting in the back, make a running stitch all along the top at around 1/4 inch down.  When you get back to where you started you can pull both ends tight and tie off. This gives you the tapered edge you need.

Man it smells so good!

Later gators!

melissa

 

winter dabbling #1

I promise this is still a quilting blog…but I’m sidetracked AND the quilts I am working on are for new patterns sooooooo….

I thought I would share some little projects I have been dabbling with.

Today’s project is a School girl slate.

I found a really adorable antique school slate while antiquing with my Mom and month or so ago.  I snapped that baby right up, but when I went to pay for it, the lady at the counter didn’t think that the correct price tag was connected to it.  I’m not sure if she thought I switched it or what…needless to say she wouldn’t let me buy it.  I left my name and number so that when the booth owner okay-ed the purchase they could call me.  It never happened (bummer.)

So when I was in Hobby Lobby and saw some little slates for  $2 and $3,  I said to myself, “self you should pick these up!”

So I brought them home and stained/bri waxed em.

Then I had the Brooding Genius drill some holes for me in the tops (I could have done this part, but why should I when I have a perfectly good husband to do it for me, hahaha.)  One slate got a jute strap, the other got a leather strap.

Then I made a little bag to hold the chalk for my imaginary school girl.

Here is my first attempt at a cross stitch chart  and my very professional (not) way of sharing it with you.  Maybe you can click on the picture, save, then print if you want to make one just like mine.

I ran the leather strap through the casing in my little chalk bag and through the holes in the slate, leaving it long enough to tie a knot at the top for hanging.

Someone’s ready for school!

The other slate is for the kids and I to play with and leave notes for eachother.

Later Gators!

Melissa