Candle wraps and mats

For our fall decor I made these from a kit. I love love love felt applique.

Wool blanket

I am so excited about finishing this blanket! I worked on it for 4 years (intermittently, of course) because thread painting stressed me out. I am not an artist and, even though I had a picture and instructions, each stitch was still up to me to place. After I finished the elephant, came the kite border. Easy but A LOT of kites.
I am ashamed to admit that I started it for my little sister, who was 6 at the time and her favorite toy was an elephant (Mr. Yell was his name). Now that she is 10 and much taller, it no longer suits her and so became Kitten's blanket. It is stitched on 100% wool blanketing with wool thread and backed with cotton flannel with piping. It is very soft and heavy and I think it will keep Kitten comfortably warm through the winter. I love surrounding my baby girl with things I made and dreaming about my grandchildren using them one day.

Pencil Roll

We needed a place to store our Lyra pencils and I came up with this roll. It is about 12x7 inches. It would have been better to make it taller but I was running out of wool felt that I used for lining. It really adds nice stability and cushioning to the pencils.

Latest Waldorf doll

I have not realized how hard it would be to go back to regular blogging once you take a break! We've been back from visiting family for a month now and all this time I have been telling myself to get back to blogging. I will try to get back into the routine, I promise!
And for now let me show you my new Waldorf doll, made for Kitten's best friend. I did not give her a name since she was not to be ours and her new Mom has not told me what they named her yet.

She is a medium doll, about 12 inches tall. She had to have long brown hair and blue eyes but otherwise I was allowed to decide myself. She is a jointed limbed doll from Making Waldorf Dolls. For her hair I used almost a full ball of mohair yarn. For the first time I tried knitting a wig cap and figured it out pretty quickly, although I do not crochet (but now want to learn!). It was tricky to achieve full head coverage with hair and allow for multiple hair styles without making her look like a cave person. I ended up putting a strand of hair in almost each loop along the hairline and on both sides of central parting. It would have been better to crochet a chain, put hair in each loop on both sides of it and stitch it on top of parting but I was running out of yarn, so I made it like that. Then I placed the remaining hair randomly and sparsely in between. It turned out very good, you can pull all hair behind or divide it. And even though it still looks like tons of hair when not made up, since mohair is pretty thin, it compresses neatly and makes wonderful hair styles.
I am also pretty proud of her boots, which I made according to directions in Baby Dolls and Their Clothes: Dozens of Projects to Make, but as you know if you have read this book, the patterns are very tiny and there is no way to know how much to enlarge to get the desired size, she just tells you "enlarge the pattern to fit your doll". So I spent probably 2 hours resizing it, adjusting and making trial boots until I found a perfect fit.

 Look at her cute panties!

Kitten understood from the start that this is a doll for her friend and did not give me any trouble asking to play with her or keep her, she would point at her and say "M's doll". She is such a good girl!

Cereal box marble run

I made this trial marble run following the tutorial here. It came out a bit wobbly and I should have cut the holes bigger, soetimes we had to push the marble a little bit, but we had fun with it nonetheless.

Dyeing playsilks - Part 2

Part 1, which describes my experience with dyeing playsilks with icing colors is here.

This time I decided to go for specialized silk dyes in hopes of achieving a more predictable and even result. I wanted a dye that would be easy to use and not involve specialized equipment or harsh chemicals. After reading about all silk dyes I decided to try Jacquard Acid Dyes and ordered these colors (from top clockwise): Cherry Red, Burnt Orange, Sun Yellow, Brilliant Kelly Green, Sky Blue, Silver and Brown.

I added some orange to brown because I wanted a warmer color and it came out shimmery golden, very pretty. Green again disappointed me, I was hoping for a grass green and this is quite bright *sigh*. Cherry red is a bit too cherry, still don't have my bright red. I relied on them calling this color primary in their palette but it was a mistake, may be will order some other red next time. But yellow, grey, blue and orange were perfect. I still had varying degrees of unevenness but much less than with icing colors, may be because of the dye or may be because I prewashed with Synthrapol.

Here is what I did (took me quite a while to convert 1 lb of fabric to two playsilks).
Prewash your silks with Synthrapol. I did not know that the first time but any residue on the silk, like leftover silkworm gum, oil from hands, etc. will cause dye not to absorb evenly. Synthrapol removes all that, as well as leftover loose dye afterwards.
For 2 35" square playsilks I boiled 2 liters of water, added 1 tbsp of vinegar and after that 1.75 of 1/4 tsp dye (this is a bit mind twisting, feel free to add 1/2 tsp but you really need that little dye, very economical). Mix very well, red for some reason was very stubborn and did not want to dissolve nicely. Add wet silk. Keep on low heat, just under boiling point, for 30 minutes stirring frequently. Remove from heat and let cool down. Wash in Synthrapol, let dry until slightly wet and iron. Do not wait till completely dry or you will not be able to remove small wrinkles.

I also ordered a 12-pack of silk handkerchiefs and dyed them with my bigger silks. They came out very pretty and are a good size to wrap small dolls, use in play scenes, make small animals, etc.

Mother and Baby

This is a small figure of Mother's love that I made using More Magic Wool book for inspiration, I changed the directions quite a bit and also needle felted some portions of her. I am quite proud of her hair, I totally made the method up (not that it is so complicated) and it turned out wonderful. I still need more practice with hands though, can't make them small enough. She stands about 6.5 inches tall and the baby is 2.5 inches.

Here is the side view:

Dyeing playsilks - Part 1

Playsilks are one of the best toys you can give your child. They are completely open-ended, beautiful and natural. There are so many things they can be used for, in any age: peekaboo, costumes, bird's wings, sack, blanket for a doll, props for imaginative play such as river, lake, meadow, mountains (cover a box with a grey silk), walls and roof of a house, Kitten also loves to use blue silk as water in a play bath for dolls to wash in, etc. etc. etc.
They are not prohibitively expensive but I liked the challenge of dying my own and also to try and get some colors that are not widely available, such as brown and grey.

First I decided to try Wilton's Icing Colors because it is completely non-toxic and there is a wide variety of colors. Here is what I did:
1. Make sure that you silk's edge is finished with silk thread, cotton or polyester will not take up the dye. I get my silks from here, they have the best price as far as I am aware. Usually I use 35" square but they have a variety of sizes, even handkerchiefs.
2. I boiled a (metal) pot of water, about 0.5 gallon for each silk, but basically so that it can swim freely. Add a couple of tablespoons of vinegar and dye. The amount of dye will depend on the color, I just kept adding until the color of water seemed intense enough. The more the better as these come out pretty light. I think on yellow I spent almost an entire tub and it still came out as very very light. Mix very well.
3. Wet your silk in water and submerge into dye. Leave for 30 minutes or longer, stirring frequently.
4. Rinse under cold water until water runs clear. Cover your iron board to prevent any leftover dye to come through. Iron while still slightly dump or you won't be able to get rid of tiny creases. But do not iron while soaking wet or you will have permanent lines as the water evaporates.

I was somewhat disappointed with the colors, they are pretty but very unpredictable, light and I was not able to get some colors that I needed. From top clockwise these are the Wilton colors I used: lemon yellow, leaf green (came out more like aqua), sky blue, violet, Christmas red (or may be it is pink, they are so disappointingly similar I can't tell the difference), brown (I know, completely lilac!), pink, and orange.

I also left one white. They do have a lot of variations in dye intensity, even though I was stirring them frequently. I guess this is just the downside of doing it at home in a somewhat small pot.

Next I decided to try dying with special silk dyes. Check out Dying playsilks - Part 2!

Window Stars

The window of our playroom is decorated with these stars now and I love it, the picture does not come even close to how it looks with the sunshine coming through. They are bright and shiny and Kitten says "Good morning" to them each day and wants to touch every one after that. And, considering that they've been up there for a couple of months already, I think it is telling something.
They are made out of German kite paper. May be later I will make a tutorial but for now I just wanted a taste of making them. Here they are up close:

Rainbow Ball

I have made wet felted wool balls before multiple times but this time I decided to try and needle felt it. I loved it! Even though it is much more time consuming the result is more sturdy and you can make any design on it (I have needle felted designs on wet felted balls before but unless you needle felt the whole ball the area with the design will be noticeably denser). I tried one with a bell and another without. The bell, obviously, made poking needles in it more difficult, so next time I try it I will wet felt the core with the bell inside and then needle felt the colored rowing on top. I suspect if you use magic wool instead of rowing you get a more uniform appearance (with rowing you see that all fibers go in one direction) but it is much more expensive, so I am saving mine for wool pictures. If you know where to get magic wool cheaper than $3.5 per oz, let me know, I would appreciate it!

Mother Duck

Continuing my needle felting explorations. This duck is about 2.5 inches long. I really like needle felting because I can do it while playing with Kitten, it doesn't take too much concentration (other than trying not to poke my finger), not many materials and tools are involved and satisfaction is quick. Kitten loves touching wool and watching objects magically appear in my hands and playing with them right away.

Mushrooms

Ever since I was given a complete color set of wool rowing for my birthday, I have been eager to try needle felting. I never could find good instructions anywhere, so I decided to make something simple and just figure it out along the way. Mushrooms, I thought, would be very useful. They can be used on Fall nature table, for gnome's house or in a play kitchen. And so these mushroom came to be. It was pretty simple and Kitten loved them, after I made one she grabbed it and said "More!" So I made more. I think they are quite realistic (even the size, they are about 1.5 - 2 inches tall) and they have been used extensively in our kitchen play.

A delicious meal of pasta, mushroom and meat

New Waldorf doll

As promised, I finished my first proper limbed Waldorf doll just in time to give her to Kitten as a birthday present. We named her Marfa (another traditional Russian name) and Kitten adores her, she can even say her name (it comes out as Masha). She has her own bunny (Kitten loves bunnies and her lovey is a bunny too) and a purse, where she stores her most precious possessions (a few sparkly stars). Her hair is stitched on in 3 layers, but I don't really like that it limits styling options, so next time I will try a different method.

I now have a much greater appreciation for people who sell their creations. I probably wouldn't sell Marfa for $150, which is a pretty standard price for a Waldorf doll that size (she is about 16 inches). It is such a labor of love, I felt like the doll is guiding my actions, like she was meant to be and I was only helping her to come to this world, like giving birth. There are so many small details that cannot be overlooked and, OMG, hair takes forever! However, I loved every minute of it.

I was honored to be asked to make a companion for Kitten's best friend, so stay tuned for another Waldorf doll!

May Day celebration

Since Kitten's birthday falls on May Day, I did not do anything extra in addition to our birthday celebration. However, I did make a couple of decorations, that I wanted to share with you. On our nature table the grotto was replaced with a maypole. To make it I took a dowel, finished it with my beeswax-oil finish, glued 6 rainbow colored ribbons on top, using a hot glue gun, and added several paper flowers from Hobby Lobby. They have long wire stems and I just wound them under the ribbons on the pole. It is positioned in a ceramic pot filled with stones and covered with moss.

I also made another hanging decoration instead of the cockerel, the dancers around the Maypole. The flowers on the wreaths are made with scrunched tissue paper.

Sheep

I made this sheep and lamb for our Easter table. Kitten LOVES them and I think they are quite adorable as well. The only downside is that they are very fragile and tolerate only gentle handling, which Kitten is not always capable of and I have to rescue them. Which in turn produces screaming and stomping. Oh well, most of the time they are happily nibbling away on moss or wheat grass. They were made by winding wool rowing around wire frame. Mom is about 5 inches long and the baby is only about 2 1/2. If you want directions, excellent ones are found in Toymaking With Children (although I have an older edition, I am pretty sure the content is the same). It would be so fun to have a whole flock of them and add a shepherd. They also will fit well on Christmas nature table.
It was hard to photograph them because they are white, so I am including another picture. I could not decide which one shows them better.

Easter celebration

We had a very happy Easter at our house! My sister came for a 2-day visit and it was very nice for Kitten to get to know her better. On Saturday we finished dying blown eggs and dyed some real ones using onion skins and leaves to make prints (you just put a leaf on the egg, cover it with a piece of nylon stocking and tie it). I made Kulich (Russian Easter bread) and Paskha (pronounced pAs-ha, which is also a Russian name for Easter and is a farmer cheese dessert, made in a shape of a mountain). In the evening, after Kitten went to bed, my sister and I decorated the Easter tree with blown eggs and butterflies (it came out oh so pretty if I say so myself, I am a poor photographer but trust me, in real life it is much better) and transformed the Lenten garden with life.

On Good Friday I placed a caterpillar made of green playdough, wrapped in white fabric, in the grotto. And on the Easter morning it was gone and instead an unusually bright red butterfly was flying above the grotto. I made an egg candle using beeswax. Wheat grass sprouted, thankfully, right on time. The lambs are made of wool, but I will show them in a separate post as I am quite proud of them.

Kitten was very excited to find the transformed Nature table in the morning. She received her Easter gifts - an Ostheimer bunny that you can see next to the grotto above, little gnomes with sleeping beds complete with pillows, and rainbow ribbon rings (both these gifts were made using tutorials from WeeFolkArt).

My friend came over with her daughter, Kitten's best friend, and we had a lovely Easter breakfast and a play date. We were so occupied that I did not remember to take any pictures, oops! 

I hope that you all had an equally pleasant Easter!

Hair clips

Kitten needed some hair clips that would match her new summer outfits and I remembered about this tutorial. It gives you a pattern and also explains how to make your own pattern to match an exact hair clip, which is what I did. After that I just needed to sort through my full color palette of wool felt (oh, the luxuries of my life!), find the best clothes-matching colors and come up with designs. It was so much fun and I absolutely LOVE how they came out. I look at them and they are like little jewels to me. I know, I know, I am so easy to impress.

Felt board

I finally took pictures to show the last one of Kitten's New Year's gifts. I know, right before her birthday gifts! 

It is a small (approximately 10x16 inches) felt board with different characters to show familiar stories or make our own. The felt board was made by stretching blue felt over a cork board and stapling the back. Then I covered the back with another piece and stitched around it, but you could just leave it like that. I am planning to make a larger one too when Kitten is ready to play with it on her own. 

The thing I am most proud of is that I drew everything myself and I am a pretty hopeless artist. Still, I think everyone came out quite recognizable.

Right now Kitten mostly listens to my stories and just moves characters around, she is obviously too young to come up with her own stuff.

This is a Russian story about a speckled hen that laid a golden egg. Grandma and Grandpa try to break it and fail but a mouse who runs by accidentally pushes it off the table and it breaks, after which they all cry and the hen promises to lay a normal white egg. I know, quite a story!

This is "Kolobok" (apparently it translates as roly-poly), a Russian equivalent of "Gingerbread Man".

And this is "The Mitten", only Russian story usually has a house. The roof is separate so that the Bear, who climbs on the roof, is able to break it. The roof and the house open for animals to hide there.