Rice Pillow Neck Warmer

 These little bags make up in less than an hour and make a great gift or a kid's craft project,uses scrap fabric and other minimal supplies. I make mine with a removable cover so I can wash it when it gets dirty.

Supplies:
1/4 yd muslin or other solid color fabric
1/4 yd printed flannel(pre-washed)
2-3 cups of long grain rice
funnel
matching thread.

Step 1: Cut 2 pieces solid color fabric 6 1/2 x 91/2

Sew pieces together, right sides facing- with 1/4-1/2 inch seam allowance. Leave an opening for turning right side out

 Using your funnel fill pillow with rice

Sew opening closed.

Step 2: Cut flannel - 1 piece-6 1/2 x 9 1/2 and 2 pieces 6 1/2 x 6

Step 3: Hem the two smaller pieces at one end.

I fold mine down 1/4inch, iron and then fold 1/4 inch again for a total of a 1/2 inch.

Step 4: Sew one of the smaller pieces to the larger piece(right sides together) with hemmed end in the middle

 

Repeat with other side.

Step 5: Turn right side out

and insert rice pillow into outer cover.

And now you have a nice gift for yourself or a loved one.

Free pattern

 With Christmas coming and everyone putting up their tree, I figured it would be a good time to post my snowman ornament.

*This pattern has not been tested. I sent it to a couple of people to test if for me but never heard back from them. Anyway if you find any mistakes please don't hesitate to let me know. And I'd love to see a picture of your finished ornament.

Snow Woman Ornament

The head and hat can be worked in sports weight yarn, using an F hook or worsted weight, using a G hook.

This pattern is worked in the round do not turn work at the end of each round

With white yarn, ch 2, 6sc in 2^nd ch from hook, sl st to form a ring.

RND 1: 2 sc in each sc around, sl st top beg sc, ch-1.(12 sc)

RND 2: (sc, 2 sc next sc) around, sl st top beg sc, ch-1.(18 sc)

RND 3-4: sc around, sl st top beg sc, ch-1.

RND 5: (2 sc next st, sc next st) around, sl st top beg sc, ch-1. (24 sc)

RND 6-7: sc around, sl st top beg sc, ch-1.

RND 8: (2 sc next st, sc next st) around, sl st top beg sc, ch-1. (32 sc)

RND 9-10: sc around, sl st top beg sc, ch-1.

RND 11: (sc dec next 2 sts, sc next 2 sc) around, sl st top beg sc, ch-1. ( 24 sc)

RND 12-13: sc around, sl st top beg sc, ch-1.

RND 14:  ( sc dec next st, sc next st) around,  sl st top beg sc, ch-1. ( 18 sts)

RND 15-16: sc around, sl st top beg sc, ch-1.

Stuff head at this point.

RND 17: (sc dec around until 3 sc remain, sl st top beg sc, fasten off. Weave closed.

Hat

Using color of your choice-ch 2.

RND 1: 6 sc in 2nd ch from hook, sl st top beg sc, ch-1( 6 sts.)

RND 2: 2 sc in each st around, sl st top beg sc, ch-1 (12 sts.)

RND 3: * Sc in next st, 2 sc in next st; repeat from *

around, sl st top beg sc, ch-1(18 sts.)

RND 4: Working in back loops only, sc in each st around.

RNDs 5-8: Sc in each st around, sl st top beg sc, ch-1.

RND 9: Working in front loops only, 2 hdc in each st

around sl st top beg sc, ch-1.(36 sts.)

RND 10: hdc in each st around, sl st top beg hdc, ch-1 . Fasten off.

Embellish hat as desired attach to head, I used hot glue.

Glue eyes (two buttons) and nose to head.

For the nose I just used a piece of felt rolled to look like a carrot or you could use an orange button. For the mouth I used black puffy paint or you could stitch a mouth using black embroidery thread. And for the scarf I glued a piece of fabric to the bottom - that was ½ wide x 8 inches long.

A Purty Girl Pattern @ 2010-Jennifer Wentland

This pattern is for personal use only and not for sale. However the ornament can be made for personal use or to sell but please give credit to me as the designer.

P.S I am also working on a tutorial for another snowman ornament that is made with a styrofoam ball.

Finished

Here is my finished apron for the Flirty Apron swap.

Isn't my model lovely? lol. My son always agrees to be my model, he doesn't mind helping his mom out. Below is a close up of the fabric. I couldn't get a good close up of the whole apron, sorry.

I hope my partner likes her apron. I still have a couple of tuck-ins to finish up then I'll be already to send it off. I really like this apron so it's going to be hard to let it go.

Thanksgiving Favorites

With Thanksgiving coming tomorrow I'm seeing lots of people posting their favorite recipe and it started me thinking , Do I really have a Thanksgiving favorite? HMM, I don't eat turkey, I prefer ham, I'm not big on pumpkin pie, in fact I really haven't eaten pie since my Grandpa passed away last year. He was the baker in our family and his cherry pie was the best. I guess I'm just not ready to tackle eating pie yet. Anyway as I was saying about Thanksgiving favroites. I keep asking myself what they are, the stuffing my family makes comes from a box, yes I know they are missing out on the good stuff by using the boxed mix.  But still not my favorite. My husband loves my pumpkin roll and I'm ok with it but is it really my favorite? Nah not really.
My 18 year old son makes Bubble Pizza every year and we like it well enough but still not my fave.

What I kept asking myself is your Thanksgiving favorite? Well the only thing I could think of was Grandma's Potato Salad.

This is my Grandma, she is 83 years old and everyday I spend with her I count as a blessing.
She makes the best potato salad and no gathering is complete without it. Thanksgiving is not Thanksgiving without Grandma's potato salad. Grandma has no recipe for it. She just puts a little of this and a bit of that and it tastes great every time. If only I could cook half as good as Grandma.I've made her potato salad and mine comes close but still doesn't taste near as good as Grandma's. She has been making her special potato salad for longer then I've been alive so she's had lots of time to perfect it.
What makes Grandmas Potato Salad so good is all the time and love she puts into it.

Note: I will try to get Grandma to set down and write up her recipe so I can share it on Thanksgiving.

Pretty Snowman

Here is an ornament I made for my swap partner in the Flirty Apron swap. We have to add some tuck ins to send with our apron and the word I chose was snow.Below is the list of tuck ins my partner will be getting

S-snowman ornament
N-note cards ( I will decorate them myself)
O-oatmeal lace cookie recipe
W- washcloth (crocheted by me)

as soon as I have them all done I will post them.

I am working on the pattern for the snowman ornament. I have made several of these over years and everyone loves them. Last year my son gave them to his teachers and they were thrilled to receive them.You can see them in this post. I do hope my partner likes it.

My appoliges and some swaps.

I've been a tad bit boring lately I know and I even tried giving up my blog. I was trying to do other forms of art but that isn't really working out for me so I've gone back to what works best and that seems to be sewing and crochet which I'll show you later. I decided to try and blog again and hopefully be a better blogger. but I'm not making any promises.

I joined a few Christmas swaps. One is the Flirty Apron Swap. We have to make a Christmas apron for our partner. the apron must have at least one snow flake. My partner said she like snowmen and gingerbread men but when I saw this fabric(raided from a friends stash)

I knew this is what I wanted to make her apron with. I hope she likes it. I am making a cut full size apron using a free pattern I found on the Sew 4 Home website. It is a vintage style apron and a first for me. I really don't like to use patterns when I sew but when I saw that one I fell in love with it. I plan to make myself one after I finish with my partners. We have to include tuck in the spell out a word. I've choosen the word snow and will be working on my tuck in as soon as the apron is finished.

The next swap I joined was Aunt Pitty Pat's Crumb Catcher swap. We have to make a mug rug for our partner. I'm still working on my idea for that. I had started one but it didn't turn out so well so I'm back to square one. I do have new the fabric picked out for it just need to figure out what I'm gonna do with it.

Cupcake Provocateur Giveaway

Head over to the Flirty Apron swap blog and checkout the Cupcake Provocateur Giveaway. Part of the giveaway is open to non-swapper you can enter to win a $25 Gift Certificate to put towards anything on the Cupcake Provocateur site! So what are you waiting for head over there for your chance to win