Pop Pom Farmer Monster & a Throw Quilt

 I decided to take the plunge and make a commitment to NOT buy any new craft supplies for the next 3 months! Well, with the exception of extraordinary yard sale finds and of course, adhesives. So I set to work on my shoe box of small/medium sized fabric scraps.

 Here is the box of fabric that I turned into....

 A throw quilt! I just cut a ton of 5x5 squares and sewed them together. Then pieced together fleece remnants (that I originally bought to make stuffies, but I've got tons of sweaters to cut up for that) to serve as both the backing and the batting. I just used a straight stitch on my sewing machine to "quilt" it. The thing is kind of little. I think it's like 40x50 inches, perfect for the couch.

The edge looked like crap because I had just zig-zag-stitched the edge because I got bored and/or lazy. So the next day I got some motivation back and crocheted a border, using nearly a whole skein of forgotten stash yarn. To make the holes to crochet in, I just used the 1/16'' hole puncher part of my Crop-O-Dile to punch holes along the edge, 1 inch apart.

I had just enough yarn left over to either make a small ball of yarn that would go unused probably FOR-EV-ER, or I could continue with the stash-busting spirit and make a little pom-pom monster. The chose the latter. I made 2 pom-poms, sewed them together, then glued on some craft felt ears, paper eyes and teeth, pipe-clear arms and legs, then a wee straw hat from the stash. And of course he had to be holding a rooster feather because that's country, and I thought it went with the straw hat. I also tied a loop of yarn to the top of the hat to make him into a hanging ornament.

Anyway, much love! I feel like crap today! Here's to a better day tomorrow :)

Pompom Easter Bunny: A review of "Adventures in Pompom Land"

Okay guys, I'm kind of excited about this bunny I just made :) Haha, it's really nothing great, but it's so soft and cute... And I think I've finally found something to do with my ridiculous stash of yarn, since I rarely ever want to take the time (or sit still long enough!) to knit or crochet. When I learned to knit and crochet, it seemed like yarn came from EVERYWHERE. So-and-so's grandma is getting rid of yarn, so-and-so found a huge yarn stash at a yard sale for so cheap... And I ended up with puh-lenty of yarn :) And it's just been sitting there. Anyhoo, Sterling Publishing sent me this book:

 "Adventures in Pompom Land" by Myko Diann Bocek. So freaking cute. Seriously. There are so many cute animals, a fox, a hedgehog, squirrel, birdies, a lamb! a kitty!etc. It was hard to pick a project, but I decided to make the bunny because Easter is soon, and I'd like to make some more decorations.

 The only time I attempted a handmade pompom was when I saw a tutorial on how to make one on a fork. It was cool, but not very puffy...kind of sparse. This book shows you how to make BIG OLE fluffy, dense pompoms that you can then shape with scissors to create wee puffy creatures. I didn't need to buy any new tools, so that was wonderful. A big trick is using A LOT of yarn :) Which is why I am so stoked about the stash-busting possibilities of this craft. This bunny is about 5'' tall and used up about 1/2 skein of sport-weight acrylic yarn.

 The techniques involve a little bit of needle felting for features like legs and tails, which wouldn't be super-efficient to make out of pompoms. And there is gluing, thank goodness. I'm all for shortcuts, and any glue is hidden in the finished product among all the fluff.

Now, when I initially flipped through the book and began to read some of the instructions, I got a little confused, but once you jump into the project, you can totally tell what they're talking about. There are pictures, and they help...but truly, I didn't get some of the ideas until I had the pompom in my hands.

All in all, I actually think I'm going to use this book to bust the heck out of my yarn stash and make things of yarn that are actually super cute. Things that I wouldn't be embarrassed gifting to somebody (unlike some of the knit monstrosities I've created in the past! Sometimes yarn can be so hideous when you do all the wrong things to it.)

Bottom line on Adventures in Pompom Land: I like it, I'm gonna get some use out of it, and BOOM, a new fluffy skill! I recommend.