Felt Christmas Tree Tutorial

The girls and I decided to make some felt Christmas trees and we have put a little tutorial together for you:) Jenna designed the templates and cut them out for us. These little trees look so sweet on the mantelpiece or you could attach a loop at the top of the tree and turn it into a Christmas tree decoration to hang on your tree... They are also awesome pin cushions for the festive season...

Materials:
Felt
Cardboard Templates, large triangle and small triangle for base (we just recycled some old boxes for this)
Embroidery cotton
Sewing needle
Fleece
Felting needle
Colourful felt
Scissors

Dimensions for triangles:
Large triangle: 5 inches tall, base 3 inches.
Small triangle: 3 inches on each side.

Cut out your templates from cardboard, one large one for the three sides and one small one for the base of your tree. Place your template on your felt and mark out three triangles for the sides. Mark out one small triangle of the base. Cut out your felt triangles and start sewing them together as seen in the photo below. We have used  blanket stitch to sew up our trees, blanket stitch is so pretty and you could use a bright thread to make it stand out.

Once you have sewn up all the sides, fill with fleece and sew on the base of your tree. They are so quick and easy to make and really look effective standing together in a row.

 These three above were made by Jenna.

Erin attached a star and needlefelted some decorations onto hers as well as sewing her blanket stitch in a bright colour for extra effect...
Enjoy!
xo
Linda

Creative Friday

Welcome to Creative Friday :) Thank you so much to everyone who shares the love and posts their links to their amazing work:) Please feel free to post your links to anything you have created and would like to share, it can be a recipe, sewing tutorial, knitting tutorial, felting, crochet, crafts, art, spinning, weaving, working with fiber, photography, poetry...etc...

I also love to hear from you, so if you have a moment, please leave a comment:) Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful talent with us! Just add the name of your blog to the widget and then add your blog link with the http:// at the beginning of your link address:) I have added a Creative Friday button on the sidebar of my blog, please feel free to add it to your blog for Creative Friday and link it to http://www.naturalsuburbia.blogspot.com/ so others can find this space and share their creativity too:)
xo
Linda

Erin's First Play!

We have had so much excitement around our home for the last three weeks. Erin has taken part in her first play at our town hall. The cast has been rehersing 3 nights per week for the past 3 months, we have been putting together costumes etc...  They have just finished their last performance this weekend and it was wonderful. The play was called 'Jungle Tales' and was adapted from the 'The Jungle Book' by Rudyard Kipling. Erin was one of the monkeys in the play. It has been so wonderful to watch her flourish on the stage. At first she wasn't sure if she wanted to take part and now she loves acting and cannot wait for the next production! Her confidence has soared and we are very proud of her! Well done my love!

Happy day to you all,
xo
Linda

Solar Halo in South Africa

Yesterday was an amazing day as far as weather phenomenon went! I was out in my car looking for a parking space when I noticed everyone pointing up at the sky. I stopped my car, got out and had a look too. There was a huge ring around the sun, truly massive. It was a brilliant and amazing sight to witness. Halos are created by ice crystals that are present in the clouds. When the sun shines on these ice crystals, this beautiful halo effect is created. You can see more halo photos and read more about Solar Halos here.

The Halo above our house, you can see how large it was...

We also had an amazing rain storm last night.



Have an amazing day.

xo

Linda
PS I am having a SA Silly Sale on my Etsy shop now!

Bluebird Knitting Pattern Tutorial

I have been wanting to add this knitting pattern to my blog for a while to share. It was featured over at the lovely, Rhythm of The Home and now I am adding it here:) This little Bluebird is wonderful for nature tables, a small stocking filler at Christmas time etc...

This Bluebird of Happiness pattern is knitted with The Magic Loop method of knitting with circular needles.

Materials:

Brushed Mohair

Circular Needles

Fleece

Wool needle

Brown yarn for beak

Felting needle, black fleece for eyes

Pattern:

With circular needles, cast on 9 stitches (knitting in garter stitch (plain)). Join for knitting in the round and place a stitch marker at the beginning of the round.

Round 1: Knit 1 round.

Round 2: Knit into the front and back of each stitch for 1 round (18 stitches).

Round 3: Knit 1 round.

Round 4: Knit into the front and back of each stitch for 1 round (36 stitches).

Knit seven rows.

Round 12: (Knit 1 stitch, knit 2 together) repeat across this round.

Round 13: Knit 1 round.

Round 14: (Knit 1 stitch, knit 2 together) repeat across this round.

Round 15: Knit 1 round.

Round 16: Knit into the front and the back of each stitch to increase.

Knit 4 rounds.

Round 21: (Knit 2 stitches together) repeat to the end of the round.

Break yarn and thread the yarn onto a wool needle and thread the remaining stitches through the wool needle and leave until you are finished filling your bird with stuffing.

Tail:

The tail is knit in garter stitch (plain).

Cast on 3 stitches

Knit 6 rows.

Cast on 1 stitch at the beginning and end of the row.

Knit 3 rows.

Cast off.

Wings:

Knit wings in garter stitch (plain)

Cast on 5 stitches.

Knit first and second row.

Row 3: Cast on 2 stitches at the beginning of the row and 1 stitch at the end of the row.

Row 4: Knit.

Row 5: Cast on 1 stitch at the beginning and knit 2 together at the end of the row.

Row 6: Knit.

Row 7: Knit 2 stitches together at the beginning of the row, knit to the end of the row.

Row 8: Knit.

Cast off.

 

Fill your bluebird with soft fleece and ensure he is wonderfully firm, shaping him as you go.  Take your needle and thread it through your stitches and pull firmly closed and finish off.

 Shape your bluebird gently, by pushing more fleece to the back as can be seen in the photo.

Sew on wings and tail.

To make the beak, sew a loop in brown wool and weave in and out through the loop and finish off.

Needle felt on two black eyes with fleece and a felting needle.

And here he is finished!

Enjoy:)

Please note, this pattern is for personal use only, and not for resale, items knitted from this pattern may not be sold for commercial purposes, thank you.