2013 Crafting for Charity: Blanket #2 and #3

I did it!  I took sort of the easy way out and did a couple of quick crochet around fleece blankets, but these are the last two blankets.  They are warm and soft and I hope it gives whoever receives them some comfort.

I'm preparing the package and sending it out soon to Project Linus. :)

Note to self:  Making the Crafting for charity month = to the shortest month of the year??? Maybe not such a good idea!

On to National Craft Month (March).

Happy Crafting everyone!

2013 Crafting for Charity - Blanket #1

Tomorrow is Make a Blanket Day for Project Linus.  I thought it would be a great time to update my status on my goal of 3 blankets.

I first started crocheting a blanket.  It was turning out nice and thick.  Unfortunately, I ran out of the yarn I had planned to use.  I know I could have kept on crocheting with a different yarn, or buy another yarn, but I scratched the blanket as my first and decided on making it a rug instead.  Check it out:

So, as of early this week I was at 0 of 3. :(

Luckily, I had a backup plan of an easy blanket to make using fleece.  Here it is:

It's a super simple method to make the finishing fringe.

1.  Cut the corners (I remove a 4" x 4" square from each corner )
2.  Cut strips.  I used a piece of painters tape 4 inches from the edge as a guide of how far to cut.  In this blanket I cut about 1.5" strips.
3.  After cutting the strips, snip a small hole just above the middle of each strip.  When you get to the corner, don't share the hole for the two corner strips.  IMO, it just doesn't look right.
4.  Fit the strip thru the hole from the bottom of the blanket and pull.  Now do that for each hole.

And there you have it.  Finished and super simple.  1 of 3.  I hope to create another one like this tomorrow for Make a Blanket Day.  How is your charity crafting going?

Quilting Adventures

In the last few weeks I've decided to try a little quilting.  Quilting is something that I've always wanted to try, but have never really found the opportunity to try it, til now.

It started out with my friend asking me if I knew if there was a service that one can bring quilt squares to get assembled.  Her idea was that she was going to have her bible study class to decorate squares and to make a quilt for a fellow teacher/friend that is going to have a baby.  Since I've been thinking about trying my hand at quilting again and since I had a perfect quilt to make for my sister who will be having a baby soon, I went for it.  I went with a simple square checkered pattern and used flannel.  I used one piece of flannel for the backing and basically folded it to the front for the binding.

Here's my very first quilt.

Anyway, my friend decided to do an alphabet quilt by attaching the letters using heat and bond adhesive, and doing a blanket stitch with some fray check.  She had her students work on the blanket stitch for the letters.  They turned out awesome.  She gave me all of the fabric and I did the sewing to assemble the squares.  The front were squares of flannel with cotton letters attached.  The back was fleece, and the binding was flannel.  I got to learn how to blind-stitch for the binding.  :)  Overall, the quilt was pretty fun to make.  Here are some pictures:

Some tips that we learned:

1.  Youtube really does have everything. :)  I found lots of videos on blind stitching there, and my friend found lots of videos on the blanket stitching there.  If you want to learn something, check there first.

2.  Wash and iron your flannel before you cut and sew anything that will have to be washed.  Apparently, flannel shrinks quite a bit. If you're gonna make quilt squares, you don't want them to change size unexpectedly in a wash.

3.  Use those Joann's coupons because they can save you quite a bit.

Next thing I want to try??? Rag quilting.  Who doesn't love a blanket that gets softer as it ages and gets washed. :)

Fleece Basket Woven Pet Bed

I made this bed for my sister's cat a few months ago.... It's a nice dense bed that is made of rope and excess fleece strips.

Here's what you need:
- Rope,... I used a 3/8" size rope bundle (not sure what the length was).
- lots of fleece strips.
- a crochet hook helps to push the fleece strip thru holes.

Here's what to do:

1.  Start off by wrapping the rope with one end of fleece starting about 4 inches from the end of the rope, wrapping towards the end of the rope.  When you reach the end, fold the end piece over towards the already wrapped area and wrap both ropes together a couple of times around.

2.  Roll the wrapped rope around and wrap again by inserting the fleece strip into the circle formed by the fold and wrapping in around the rope. Wrap around the rope once, and then thru a hole in the previous row (first few times it will be the circle formed by the fold)  and around the rope once.  Continue in this manner going around forming a disc.  You may need to wrap thru the same hole twice.

3.  When you reach the size of the bottom of the bed that you desire, you'll continue to wrap the next rows as usual, but you will wrap the rope in the position just above the previous row (basically, building upwards instead out outwards).  Continue wrapping til you reach your desired height (or you run out or rope).

4.  To end, continue wrapping the fleece around the top row til you reach the end of the fleece strip, then just thread the fleece around til you've hidden all the of the fleece.

Notes:
Changing fleece strips - To change fleece strips, just wrap the end of the 1st fleece strip along with the rope with the new fleece strip.

Unfortunately, my sister's cat was too big for the bed.  Maybe it can be a fleece fruit basket instead. (kidding)

Crochet Edged Fleece Blanket

This is a simple way to add a personal touch to a fleece blanket.  I found this video that does a really good job of explaining how to make the foundation trim around the fleece blanket. 





Here's what I did...

Materials:

Fleece - I cut the fleece into a square of 30 x 36
Yarn of a corresponding color

How to:

1. First you need to measure and cut the holes into the fleece, for the crochet hook. I used a small pair of scissors and just made a small snip.  3/8" apart about 1/2" in from the edge.  If you want to do these little cuts easier, Project Linus sells a rotary blade that does the trick.  I just recently bought one for future blankets.:)

As a note, Project Linus is a charity that gives handmade blankets to children that are seriously ill, traumatized, or otherwise in need. They are accepting new handmade blankets to give away.  A blanket like this would be a wonderful donation for such a needy cause.  In fact, the video above, was from Project Linus.

2.  Next, I crocheted in the foundation row, exactly as they showed in the video. (Except for the corner, I sc, ch and sc on the same hole the previous sc used).

3.  So, for the next two rows, crochet ch3, and slip stitch on 3rd from first ch or last slip stitch.  I used this pattern all the way around the blanket for two rows on the second row, I did the slip stitch in the ch 3 space.

4.  Last row, I made a fan design by doing 4 dc in the previous row's ch 3 space, then a slip stitch on the previous row's slip stitch.

That's it.  A simple border to make a fleece blanket a little more personal.  Don't forget to check out Project Linus.

Fleece Rope Dog Toys #2

I was walking thru PetSmart a couple of months ago and passed by their dog toys section. I saw these fleece rope dog toys, similar to the braided ones that I posted a while back, but with a loop on one end. Anyway, two things popped into my head when I saw this; 1) “That's kinda pricey” and 2) “I can make this.” :-) And then a post was born. Luckily, I also had some fleece fabric left over from when I made some of the other Fleece Rope Dog Toys, so I gave them a try. Here's my attempt:

Materials:

- Fleece strips – I used 3 - 4” strips from selvage to selvage – I like to use different colors for each strip.

- A clip of some sort to hold the fleece strips in place while braiding – I used an Ikea chip clip.

How To:

1. Stack all three fleece strips together, and use the clip to clip it about a third of the way down.

2. Begin braiding the longer part (the two-thirds length side) until the unbraided length matches the length of the clipped third portion. (Note: I use thirds, but you can change this up a bit.)

3. Unclip the clipped portion and group together the like-fabrics. (assuming you used different designs/colors).

4. Braid the 3 groups of fleece together til about 6 inches from the bottom.

5. Make a knot and cut the ends so they're even.

That's it. I made several of these in less than an hour and gave them as christmas gifts to all my friend's doggies.

See Also:
- Fleece Rope Dog Toy #1

Fleece Rope Dog Toys

These are great toys for fetching and for tug o' waring and for spending good quality time with your faithful friend. I usually make several of these every couple of months for my dogs and for my friend's dogs. They can also be great gifts to a new dog owner or to your favorite dogs. They love playing with these inexpensive and super simple to make dog toys.

The basic construction of this toy are strips of fleece fabric, braided, then knotted on both ends. I usually pick thru the remnants bin at Joann's Fabrics for the fleece. It works out great because you get the fabric for very cheap (discounted from regular prices) and the length you get is usually about right. Watch out for good storewide sales at Joann's as the deal can be even sweeter (I recently bought a bunch of fabric from the remnants bin at an additional 70% off the already discounted price... I love those kind of deals). The only downside to this is that the selection is not always the best. Luckily, our dogs aren't too picky. :-)

To make the rope toy, you would first start out by cutting the fleece into strips of about 4" wide. I usually cut it from selvage to selvage with a rotary fabric cutter but you can use scissors too. I, then cut the strips into halves or thirds lengthwise depending on the size of rope toy I'm making. Halves make nice long rope toys.

You'll need three strips of varying colors to make a rope toy. Take those three strips and make a knot about 3"- 6" from one of the ends.


On the following step, you'll either need someone to hold the knotted end of the strips or you can do what I do and just use a clamp to clamp it down. You'll next, want to braid the strips to the end. For strong chewers, braid it somewhat tight. For lighter chewers, a looser braid will do. Once near the end, make another knot like before, leaving a 3" - 6" tail. Once that's done, the toy is complete. For looks, you can cut the tails into smaller strips. Be creative with these. Try to tie several ropes together or try adding a tennis ball in the mix. Let me know your experiences in these. :-)


As with any other dog toys, please supervise how your dog plays with these toys. If your dog likes to eat things whole and your noticing he/she trying to swallow these ropes whole, you'll want to remove the toy from the dog and make sure he plays with it only under supervision. Have him/her fetch or play tug o' war. He'll love the interaction with his favorite buddy as much as he'll love his new toy. I hope your dog enjoys his new toys. :-)