Raising Maine

Learning to felt

The girls and I have watched several felting demonstrations over the past couple of years (most recently at the Alpaca farm) but we'd never actually tried to do it ourselves until this past weekend.

It wasn't nearly as hard to do as I thought it would be (of course we chose the easiest project possible) but it was more time-consuming than I realized and a little messy.

The kids loved it.

We started off with a pile of loose felted wool and a warm bucket of soapy water (a few drops of dish detergent was all the soap we used).

It was important not to squeeze the wool but just work it around in our hands so that it became saturated while forming a ball shape. If we squeezed too hard we made dents and cracks, which we wanted to avoid.

The class was designed for kids but when we were told that the adults could do it too, Fino and I jumped right in.

L. used several different colors of wool for her ball and spent about 40 minutes working the shape until it was solid.

The test to know if we were done felting was to try and bounce our ball on the floor. If it bounced, it was firm enough to stop working.

Fino enjoyed this particular step and bounced the ball not only on the floor but also off the wall. A couple of the kids followed suit and we had to put a stop to that. Yes, fathers are a lot more fun sometimes.

It not only takes a while to form the ball, it takes another couple of days for it to dry completely. Some of the kids used multiple colors because they planned to cut the ball in half and see the design formed inside the ball. (We have yet to find a good, sharp knife to make our cuts but I'll post a photo when we do.)

If you're interested in felting -- it really is a lot of fun -- here are a few resources to get you started:

Portland Fiber Gallery for classes

Halcyon Yarn in Bath for supplies

County fairs and open farm day are great times to see a felting demonstration and talk to artists about the craft

If you know of any other resources or classes about felting, post a comment below!

Bottle warmers for winter treks

We're headed to Fort Kent tomorrow for a cross country skiing adventure on the 10th Mountain Division trails at the Maine Winter Sports Center in Fort Kent.

We've never been to the area so in anticipation of the 5 1/2 hour drive north we invested in a Yakima roof rack for our cross country skis so we could take the smaller, more fuel efficient car. Our minivan gets about 10 miles to the gallon less than our compact wagon and we think over the course of the winter, having a rack on the smaller car will make a big difference on our overall travel costs this year.

We've also been getting our gear organized, which includes the new headlamps I bought everyone for Christmas so we can have a nighttime cross country ski adventure.

My friend Carl - a wealth of helpful information lately - suggested we also consider packing hot water in our water bottles before hitting the trails up north. Of course I should have realized that there was the strong possibility our water would freeze after even a short time out on the trails up there.

Carl uses an insulated container for his water bottle but after checking them out at a couple of stores, I decided they were too pricey for everyone in the family to get one (they run about $10-12/each and don't include the bottle).

I opted to make something I thought would help keep the water from freezing in our packs on the trip.

I used fleece left over from a previous project and cut to fit each of our water bottles (all different shapes and sizes) and sewed the side and bottom seams. I added a small pocket for an elastic closure at the top.

Then I took an idea from a tote bag the girls made a while back to make a square bottom so that the bottles could stand upright.

Basically, I sewed a triangle at the bottom corner of the bag on each side and trimmed the excess off.

Check out these step-by-step directions if you're interested in how to do this.

The bottles don't stand up perfectly but they'll work well-enough for us on the trail I think.

I ran a little short on material for the large bottle but I'm hopeful it covers enough to keep the contents from freezing.

Do you have any helpful winter gear suggestions? I'm always interested to hear how other people manage their gear in winter on the trail. Post a comment if you've got a tip to share!

Oh yeah, Go Pats!

Christmas sewing season

The girls went from target shooting with daddy earlier in the week to Sewing Club with mommy at the end of it.

We're going for well-rounded at our house.

The girls helped finish up the craft sale projects and made some ornaments to decorate the library's Christmas tree.

L. also learned how to use a Knifty Knitter with one of the sewing club's adult volunteers and has been busy making hats ... for her cats.

Sort of gives a whole new meaning to Dr. Seuss' tale for us.

I've also been sewing this week since I told the girls last year that I would make them Mrs. Claus capes for their various Christmas activities this month (with no such luck they would have forgotten that offer!).

Last year a friend let them borrow costume capes for the Portland Ice Arena's Christmas party and both girls loved the whole idea of them.

2006 photo from the skating party

But when it came time to make the capes, both girls wanted fleece and white fur instead of felt material. Felt would have been much easier to manage but I saw their point when they said the fleece capes would keep them warmer while ice skating and Christmas caroling as well as posing for our annual Christmas card picture (which will hopefully not involve locking Toddy the blind cat - and the keys - in the car again).

So I picked up some red fleece at JoAnn Fabrics $2.79/yard sale last weekend and some white fur fleece and got to work modifying a pattern I already had to make the capes.

Working with fleece fur is a real drag because it's really, really MESSY!

It sheds everywhere before even cutting it. I'm sure we'll be cleaning up the stray lint from this material for weeks to come.

But once the edges were folded over and sewn (which jammed up the machine multiple times), it stopped shedding so it does have some redeeming qualities afterall.

The girls said they thought the clean up hassle was worth it (I did have to agree their idea worked out in the end) and are ready for their various Christmas holiday activities this month.

Fabric Christmas wrapping

For the past couple of years the girls' 4-H club has collected donations to send Christmas stockings to soldiers serving in Iraq. My girls' contribution to the project has been to put their sewing skills to work. They make Christmas fabric bags that can be filled with items from the A Soldier's Wish List website.

The bags are 10" x 12" and the straight lines make them much easier to sew than a traditional stocking shape. They hold more too.

The kids sewed a ribbon into the seam that ties around the top to close the bag once it's filled.

The kids got a chance to see my friend Meg's serger in action with this project, which made the couple of bags sewn on it look professionally done.

The girls and their friends made a dozen gift bags in about an hour. It's an easy sewing project that everyone enjoys.

Of course, there's lots of chatter when you get a bunch of girls together to sew and you can see from the video that G. was quite impressed with the serger.

If you're interested in sending a package to soldiers serving overseas this Christmas, check out the ASWL's site explaining how to do it.

In the next couple of days the girls and I plan to get outside for some low-key exercise to help me get back in to shape -- and get back on topic about enjoying the outdoors with kids.

Pet crafts to keep the girls busy

It's been a slow week for the Almeida kids. And although I'm feeling better than I have been since my surgery, I'm still not up to climbing any mountains this week.

The girls, who are used to being busy and physically active, have been a little off-kilter with our quieter schedule these past couple of weeks and driving me a little crazy.

If they bathe the cats or give them any more attention, those cats are going to start biting and scratching their eyes out (a couple of times this past week I've had similar thoughts). Their latest antics for 'training' the cats was to teach them to sit still while being pushed around the house in the doll carriage.

I realized after this 'activity' it was time to give them a more structured project to work on so the cats could have a break from their loving attention.

Dani, a children's librarian at Baxter Library, gave us an idea for a craft project to make for the library's craft fair fundraiser in December -- pet-oriented toys and crafts.

The girls loved the idea and I thought it a perfect project to keep them busy for a couple of days.

They have had some experience sewing cat mats with their 4-H club and decided to make a modified version of the pattern they had.

G. wanted to make 'kitty beds' out of fleece and quilt batting so they were "soft and fluffy." L. wanted to make some mats like she'd seen at the pet store.

We opted to make all the mats 24" x 18" to get as many as we could from the fabric we already had at home.

G. sewed the batting for her mats right into to the fleece so that it wouldn't bunch up during repeated washings.

The fleece options readily available were diverse patterns but G. was sure there was a football fan cat owner who would like her Patriots' themed kitty bed.

Making the mats L. wanted required my help to cut and iron the border material into a long strip (like homemade bias tape) for her to pin and sew to the fleece.

And as she explained to the librarians when she brought her mats to them yesterday, she used the brown fleece for her cat mats instead of the original monkey costume she had planned to make for Halloween (another year, another crisis on deciding what to wear).

The cats were happy to walk around the house undeterred for a few hours and Dulce helped to confirm that making the mats out of fleece was a good idea.

Next week we have plans to go hiking and I hope until then this sewing project keeps them happy and gives the cats -- and mom -- a little more down-time.

Silk screening t-shirts

We had a really fun 4-H weekend and haven't had a chance to sort out all the photos yet. One of the many activities we did with the club these past two days was silk screen t-shirts.

Earlier this summer I did some research on silk screening and found a really helpful video on how to do it inexpensively at home (See below). The kids made t-shirts with their friends for our camping trip in July, then again with their California cousins and now with their 4-H group.

They've enjoyed doing this so much I thought I'd share how we did it.

We used an embroidery hoop and 100% nylon material (a 'sheer' fabric - like the kind used for dance costumes - worked great for us) to make the screen.

Then the kids drew a simple design (nothing too intricate) on to a piece of paper and then traced it on to the material (securely fastened in the hoop).

We used Mod Podge and a small paint brush to 'paint' the glue on to all the areas of the screen that we did not want ink to go through. We applied two coats of Mod Podge to make sure the screen was well-covered (and it turns out after making several of them, the screen lasts longer with two coats).

We opted to use Lumiere fabric ink instead of the more typical fabric paint because it is not as sticky and less likely the clog-up the screen. The downside to the ink is that it requires heat-setting (laying an iron on the design for several seconds once the ink is dry). The kids also liked the metallic paint options with the ink and I liked that a little of it went a long way. I purchased 3 bottles of the ink at the beginning of the summer and still have 2 half full bottles after making nearly two dozen t-shirts.

We use a piece of folded, coated paper - a newspaper ad circular actually - to spread the ink on the screen. It works great.

An extra set of hands to hold the screen in place while spreading the ink is helpful.

When making letters with the homemade screen, they aren't perfect - designs are more 'forgiving' for inaccuracies with the screening. But after the paint dried on these particular t-shirts, the kids outlined the letters with glitter fabric pens and the effect was really nice. The shirts are still drying as we speak but I'm sure you'll see the final results in a future photo here ;-)

These t-shirts made by my nieces were screened with metallic ink and they liked the 'fancy shine' to them.

Silk screening: A how to video from YouTube

Tie-dyeing t-shirts

We tie-dyed t-shirts outside yesterday after our trip to the race track. It's one of those summertime crafts that my kids love because it's both messy and colorful. And they particularly enjoy making matching t-shirts to wear with their cousins and friends.

My cousin had picked up the dye and t-shirts but I turned out to be the slacker and had forgotten to buy elastics. We improvised by using clothespins and were all pleasantly surprised how well they worked out.

We used a full package of powdered Rit dye and mixed it with very hot water in buckets outside.

My experience with Rit dye in the past is that the color washes out if you use the amount of water it calls for on the box. And asking the kids to hold the fabric in the dye for more than 20 seconds while standing over the bucket with their shirts is too much for them.

I used about a gallon of water with the full packet of dye.

Once the kids chose the area of the t-shirt to dip in the dye they counted to 20 before they removed it.

The downside to using clothespins (which they put on before they dipped it in the dye) was that it was a bit tricky to squeeze out the excess dye so I helped the kids do that part.

L. was being silly when I asked her if I could take a picture while she was making her t-shirt.

After the kids were done with the dye, they washed their shirts (with the clothespins still fastened) in a bucket of cold salt water (one gallon of water w/ 1 cup of table salt).

We ended up with a colorful mix of shirts for the cousins to wear together.

The new ice skating fashion

The kids crack me up with their various ice skating outfit choices. For instance, last week G. wore one of her favorite long fleece skirts. She sews them herself and pretty much wears one every day. It's our compromise to going tight-less (she's not a fan of wearing tights for more than her hour-long ballet class or ice skating because she finds them too itchy). I want her to stay warm and she wants to be comfortable so the fleece skirts meet somewhere in the middle.

Playing train and tag are favorites with the girls during open skate.

G. happily reported after her hour on the ice that the long skirt was easy to skate in. I'm skeptical but it's just not that important a thing to argue with her about. And hey, it's motivating her to become a better seamstress, a life skill that will come in handy throughout her life, so I've zipped my lips closed on the subject.

Today, L. showed a little variety in her skating outfit choices at the Portland Ice Arena. She and a couple of her friends shared their holiday spirit by wearing red and white capes at the arena's Christmas party.

Seen Team gallery from the Portland Ice Arena's Christmas party.

Speaking of Seen Team, we also took some photos at the
4-H Winterfest at Pineland Farms on Sunday.

Now I think I need to catch up on a little sleep after a busy couple of days...

Bubble printing is messy outdoor fun

Making bubble prints is definitely an outdoor activity. Mix kids and paint with bubbles and you get one messy activity -- and a bunch of happy kids.

Yesterday I taught an outdoor crafts class at my daughters' camp. And one thing I've learned with my own kids - let alone a group of them - is that when you can avoid the stress of dealing with a big mess, the happier everyone will be. That meant this particular project had to be done outdoors.

To make the paint for the project I used a small plastic cup and mixed 1" of each of the following (and in this order): water, bubble solution (dish washing soap works OK too), tempera/poster paint and mixed it well.

Then I handed each kid a straw and told them to blow bubbles until the cup started overflowing with them.

Then they placed their paper over the bubbles in the cup.

When they lifted the paper, they could see their "print."

We used 6 different colors and I encouraged the kids to overlap them for a more colorful effect. And the best thing about bubble printing is that the paint dries fast - about 5 minutes in the sun.

The not so great thing - and the reason I do this outside near a garden hose - is this.

While we were outside with a mess of bubbles already, I brought out my homemade bubble wands. I cut a straight straw (the bendy part doesn't work well) in half and threaded cotton yarn (it has to be cotton otherwise it won't hold the bubble) through the straws and tied it off at the size we wanted (and make sure the knot is inside the straw before blowing, otherwise it will break the bubble). It's a great, inexpensive way to make bigger bubbles -- and the kids love them.

Dip the wand in bubble solution with the straws together. Then lift the wand out and gently pull the straws apart before blowing.

The kids blew some huge bubbles but I didn't manage to get any photos of them. I was too busy trying to clean up hands, arms and legs and wishing the kids wore their bathing suits. A few runs through the sprinkler would have worked better. Next time.

Crystal necklaces

We have more rocks and "crystals" than we know what to do with in the kids' playroom. The bag of crystals (it's quartz) they collected while mining for gems at Mt. Apatite a couple of weeks ago has been sitting there - untouched - since that day.

So this weekend, with our outdoor activities still thwarted by rain, I decided it was time to find some craft project we could make with all the crystals.

I had some craft wire and tulle from the girls' old dance costumes that we used to turn the rocks into necklaces.

The tulle was great for covering up our less-than neat twists of the craft wire at the ends.

And then G. made a "princess" headband that she was quite smitten with.

We still have a whole lot of larger rocks left in our bag and L. decided to use them to make some new fairy houses in the backyard this week.

I'm glad we found some creative uses for the quartz we found at Mt. Apatite. Now if we could just figure out what to do with the all the buckets and bags of sea shells and other rocks they've collected over the years, they might have some space to actually play in that playroom.

If you have any craft ideas with rocks and sea shells, we'd love to hear about it.