Game Day Rag Wreath

I know, I know. I've been a terrible blogger. It's been months since I last wrote about something I baked or created or did, and I apologize because I'm sure so many of you have been lost without me (ha. right.). But today is a new day and it's time to get back into the swing of blogging! And first up is a Game Day Wreath!

I really have discovered a slight obsession with wreaths. I don't think my front door can ever be bare again! But hopefully after this wreath, I won't have to make one for awhile (unless someone else wants me to make one for them) because I have one for all seasons...including football!

Yes, I know this is a super old picture of the stadium, but it's one of my faves that I have

I don't think it's any secret that I'm an NC State fan. Born and bred until the day I die. I also am a HUGE football fan. I really wanted to make a wreath to put up on my door on game days, and I've seen a bunch of rag wreaths on Pinterest and I loved the way they looked, so I thought that would be the perfect direction to take, even though I knew it would be quite the time commitment.

Finding the basic fabrics and wreath form were easy. I went with the 16 inch 4 layer-wire wreath form, and I got a yard each of white, red, and red gingham cotton fabrics. I wanted the wreath to have a little bit of a vintage feel (football is well over 150 years old!) which is why I went with the gingham for a pattern break. BUT I wasn't done yet with my fabric selection.

The dream was to have an NC State patterned fabric also in the mix, but unfortunately all the local fabric stores had no NC State fabric. Well, one had a fleece fabric, but that was not going to work for this project. So thus began the online search. There were a lot of terrible NC State fabrics. A lot of them had old logos I wasn't a fan of, and quite a few had a ton of black and I didn't really want a lot of black in my wreath...it's not "we're the RED and WHITE from State and we know we are the BEST!" for nothing! But then on eBay I found the best vintage fabric! It had the seal with the Bell Tower, and most importantly it had Tuffy, the strutting wolf logo that I LOVE.

I got a yard of that fabric, so all-in-all I had four yards of fabric...and just to warn you if you're thinking of making one, yes, I did use just about all of it. 

I sat down and got to work. I cut each fabric into 1 inch by 9 inch strips. And I ended up with hundreds and hundreds of strips!

To resist any temptation to make the wreath uniform, since I really just wanted it to be a mish-mash, I tossed the strips together so I could just pull from the top as I tied them on!

With season one of Arrested Development on (side note: I am SO pumped for the new season next year!) I spent hours and hours tying. Literally. I got through half the first season (that's about 5 hours). I tied them in a square knot, starting on the inner ring and working my way to the outermost ring. There were eight "sections" in the ring so I went by section rather than row. I was kind of concerned the fabric would be too thin to stay up and not be all droopy, but when I tested a couple strips they worked perfectly!

I know this technically isn't the inner ring, but I took the picture before I changed my method!

When I was finally done, I had...THIS!

It's just so fun! And fluffy! And quite huge. I was no expecting it to be that big, but I guess using all that fabric really would have led to it. I also used one of the magnetic wreath holders because a typical wreath holder would 1) ruin the aesthetic and 2) put it at a spot that would cover my apartment number or peep hole...two things that are very important. You don't really see the NC State stuff on the specialty fabric until you're up close, but I think it's pretty obvious it's an NC State wreath! I can't wait to have this on my door on game days!!

Spring (and Summer?) Wreath

I took my winter wreath down about a month or so ago because the form was starting to sag way too much, plus, considering how warm it's been here lately, it just seemed wrong having it up even though I hadn't made one for the spring yet. So my wreath hanger just kind of stayed lonely on my door for awhile...until today!

I pinned this wreath on Pinterest awhile ago because I just loved the vintagey vibe to it, and every time I looked at it on my board, it just made me happy. I finally got around to buying my supplies, and with a three day weekend, I knew I had the couple hours to devote to making it. Since it's already well into spring, this may end up being my wreath for both spring and summer. We'll see if I decide to be super productive in a few months because my other wreath idea will be very time consuming.

I got it in my head awhile ago, that I definitely wanted to keep with the stripe fabric like my inspiration wreath, but there was just something in my head screaming "Seersucker!!" I was a bit worried that I would have this idea and not be able to find the fabric I really wanted. I saw it online at Jo-Ann's, but I wasn't sure if I'd be able to find it in the actual store. Luckily, I walked in, and found my way straight to it! I picked up a yard of the lime green seersucker, which ended up being more than plenty of fabric (it's about 42" wide, so a yard was plenty). I then went over to the felt fabric sheets and choose some colors for my flowers. It was a little difficult because I didn't want something too bright or too dark, or too not coordinating. I decided to get a dark brown for the leaves, a tan for one of the flowers, and then use some of my leftover white felt for two of the other flowers. Unfortunately, they didn't have the right size straw wreath form, so I found my 18" wreath at Michaels. Overall, the project probably cost me about $10 and took about 2 hours (but part of that might have been my constant distraction of watching Friday Night Lights).

You can do whatever size wreath you want, I just like mine to be a bit bigger for my door, and 18" turned out to be the perfect size.

For the felt sheets, you'll need 1 for the color of your leaves, two for one flower, and four for the other two flowers (or 2 per flower if you do three different colors). You'll also need pins for securing everything to the wreath.

You'll want to cut your fabric into three inch wide strips. I wouldn't cut all of the fabric at first, just cut about 6 or 7 strips and then after putting some on your wreath, cut more as needed. This way, you'll have uncut extra fabric for some other project you may want to use it for. 

Using the pins, pin the end of the fabric on the back of the wreath, at a slight angle, and then start wrapping around the wreath! Just remember to pin each end as you go, overlap it, and pull the fabric tight so it fits snugly to the form. 

Once that's completed, it's time for the felt flowers! You can either freehand everything if you're a master with scissors, or use templates. For my leaves, I decided to do freehand since they're pretty straight forward. I was able to get all six leaves from one felt sheet. If you want more leaves, you'll probably need an extra sheet.

I decided to make myself a template for the flowers because otherwise my perfectionist self would have had to run out for a lot more felt. (This was about my third attempt to get a template I liked, so it's a good thing I decided to do that!) You'll want two big petals, two medium, and two small per flower.

Then you'll fold each petal in half, and then in half again, and pin to the wreath! 

I pinned the two big petals next to each other, and then the medium ones on the other side, and the small ones in the middle. For the two white flowers, since they were on the edge, I made sure the big petals were on the outside edges of the flower cluster. And then I fluffed them so they looked nice and pretty! You can do the flowers with more or less petals or other sizes, it's really all your preference, this is just how I chose to do mine. Then I pinned two leaves under each flower and the wreath was completed!

It definitely brightens up my door!

Christmas Crafting: Fabric Block Puzzle

Awhile ago on Pinterest, I pinned this really cool fabric block puzzle that I thought would be a great present for my nephew and/or niece. So when Christmas came around, I decided to make them!

Here was my inspiration: http://www.craftinessisnotoptional.com/2011/05/fabric-puzzle-blocks-tutorial.html
Hers look amazing, especially compared to mine, but I'm hoping the love I put into making these blocks shines through to them...and if not, I'll just remind myself that they're too young to really notice their gift isn't as pretty as it could be. I'm sure they'll love playing with them either way!

I got sixteen 2x2inch blocks (you can find them at AC Moore, online, or go get them cut at a hardware store like Lowes or Home Depot), and luckily I already had Mod Podge, a sponge brush, ruler, and I borrowed a fabric rotary cutter from one of my friends. I then headed to JoAnn's to pick out my fabric. This was an intense task because I was trying to find patterns that were mostly gender-neutral since I was making one puzzle for both of them, and I was trying to find patterns that weren't too nursery-looking. Those were some of the cutest ones of course, but not what I was looking for! I eventually found six good patterns, and had them cut about a foot off of each fabric, because that gave me some room for error (and I needed it!)

You start by cutting your fabric into an 8x8 inch square using your rotary cutter, a ruler, and a hard surface. Now make sure when you're cutting it up, you make sure to piece the "puzzle" back together so that you know exactly where to put the pieces on the blocks! If you mess this up, you're puzzle will definitely not be square, and definitely might not ever be put together.

Once you have your squares cut, make sure you have your blocks lined up in the square. Then, you just spread a thin layer of Mod Podge onto one side of a block and place the corresponding piece of fabric onto the block.

I highly suggest doing all of these steps for each fabric all together, and then go and do them for the next fabric. This will allow time for the Mod Podge to dry, and also will prevent you from losing pieces of fabric or things getting out of order.

Here are all the sides of my blocks!

There are a few strings, and some pieces hanging over edges, partly because I am terrible with a rotary cutter, and the blocks aren't all perfectly 2x2. But all in all, I think it's a cute present and I'm pretty pleased with it. I hope my niece and nephew have a lot of fun putting together the puzzles!