A Call for Holiday Help

'Tis the season...

I was planning to post a Q & A, with some of the questions I’ve gotten during the many shows we’ve done this fall, when the following arrived. This call for help came in a rather long letter that I have shortened considerably here. Since it seems to me to have broad application, not just to the questioner, but to readers in general, I'm going to address it today because it is time-sensitive.

"Annake, please help! I was married last spring, to a gentleman who had been a widower for some time, with a grown son and daughter. I met them at the wedding and they were very cordial. They are bringing their families here for Christmas. Each family has a daughter, one 10 years old and one 12. They will be here from several days before Christmas until New Year's Day, and I am not sure how to keep the girls occupied and entertained for so long:  I have never had children or ever worked with them! My husband has decreed this as "family time" and asked everyone to limit time spent watching TV or using electronic devices. The adults are eager to visit friends in the area while they are here. We are going to take them to see "The Nutcracker", and we have planned some activities for the girls, like sledding and caroling, but those will depend on the weather. Your blog has all kinds of interesting activities, but I don't have any idea which ones are appropriate or even possible for girls this age. Please give me some ideas! Please answer in a blog post but don't use my name; just sign me "Nervous Nellie"!

Well, Nellie, I was a first-and-only wife and mother, but I do understand your concerns. I had two sisters-in-law, and a family get-together included up to seven boys ranging from toddler to late teenager, and two girls about the same distance apart in age as your guests.

First, some general suggestions. You don't mention harvesting, shopping for, or decorating the tree as activities for the girls, so I am assuming you plan to have a tree decorated before they arrive. Is there a small evergreen somewhere on your property which could be "their" tree to decorate and to cherish every time they come to visit? Or would the budget stretch to purchase a small live tree which could be planted after Christmas? If a live tree isn't possible, a small, undecorated artificial tree for each girl might be a possibility.  Let them decorate as they desire.

Crocheted Cookie Cutter Tree

Second, enlist their help with the festivities. Ask them to decorate placemats and/or place cards for all the members of the family for Christmas and New Year's breakfasts. You will need colored construction paper, a box of mixed greeting cards, white glue or rubber cement, scissors (they are old enough for sharp tips — don't insult them with kindergarten scissors), and a roll of clear contact paper to cover both sides of the finished work.

Invite them to help you make and decorate cookies, cupcakes, gelatin desserts or puddings. Don't expect perfection and do expect some mess, but include clean-up in the activities.

Crayon batik of an orchid

Here is a new activity they might enjoy. You will need two men's cotton handkerchiefs for each girl. Please wash and press them beforehand to remove any sizing. You will need a large box of good-quality wax crayons — not the ‘washable’ kind, which will come out. You will also need paper towels, an ironing board and iron, a sewing machine or needles and white thread, and a small bag of polyester pillow stuffing. They may want to outline parts of their pictures with permanent marker, so be sure to protect the work surface from ink that might come through the fabric. Let the girls decorate both handkerchiefs with the crayons. They should press hard and go over darker areas several times. Cover the ironing board with several layers of paper towels. Cover the tops of the pictures with paper towels. Set the iron on "Cotton" and iron over the paper towels, pressing firmly and replacing the towels as needed until the wax of the crayons is completely removed. Place the handkerchiefs with the picture sides together and sew them together by hand or machine, leaving a big enough opening for the girls to stuff their pillows with the polyester. Turn the pillows right-side-out, stuff, and sew the opening closed.

For the rest of these, you may have to bend the rule about Internet use a little:

Butterfly "Window Wonder"

Revisit my "Window Wonders" article (April 29, 2015) or type in window wonders on our Search Engine in the sidebar of this post. These sun-catchers are still popular, but have developed over time. Now we make graduated hangings of three pictures at a time, usually a #4, a #5, and a #6 hoop, held together with small lengths of aluminum chain, available at many hardware or craft stores. (Ask the men of the family to cut and fasten the chain lengths if you need to do so. There's no reason they should not take part in their daughters' activities!)  If chain is not available, sew or tie the hoops onto a strip of wide, flat ribbon. The rest of the directions from the original article still apply.

Another appropriate activity would be the paper designs some of my students made to look like the wonderful patterns made by Hawaiian quilt makers. The student designs shown on that blog post (January 1, 2018) were made by girls and boys in the 5th grade who were studying the state of Hawaii at the time. That is in the age range of your girls. All you would need is colored paper, scissors, and glue.

You may want to look at that post and the one on four-way designs from Hawaiian quilts from March 21, 2017 before suggesting the activity.  Let the girls study the examples on the post before they begin their own designs. The paper to be cut out should be folded into four equal parts. If they draw their design on one square, starting at the center point and extending it to both sides of the square at one point, it should hold together when it is cut out and the paper is unfolded. You can turn the paper over so that the drawing does not show. A couple of "practice pieces” may be necessary.

Finally, I suggest that you and the girls type in the word puppets on our Search Engine. The girls might enjoy the story of the Little Pink Pig. It may even inspire them to do a project of their own when they get home: there is a downloadable pattern for the pig puppet. In addition, there are several other articles which show various puppets from both front and back to give the girls ideas for designs of their own. After seeing the performance of the Nutcracker, they may want to make a puppet for one of their favorite characters from that story. Here are a couple of puppets that I don't believe that we have shown before:

Some seasonal puppets

Relax, and enjoy! And, Nellie, keep thinking about those seven boys who are NOT coming for the holidays! Let me know how it works out.

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Question & Answers, New Year's 2018

A Winter Scene

When can we expect Part V of the Still Life in Needlework series? And what is next after that?

There will be some delay, I'm afraid. J.D. is busy making prints of some of his work. His sister J.J. has just sent us several folders of her photographs that haven't even been downloaded yet. And I am offering beginning needle arts classes for adults on weekdays and mother/daughter or grandmother/grand-daughter classes for children 10 years old and older on weekends, starting in mid-January. All that is going to take some time to sort out. At this point, it looks like at least mid-February for Still Life V. I apologize for the delay. Next will be the start of a similar series on landscapes, hopefully launched before Earth Day. There will be posts on other subjects in the meantime, including our yearly Anniversary issue. Please keep watching.

Three student designs for Hawaiian quilts

Are you still going to show more of the Hawaiian quilt kinds of designs that you started showing last spring?

Yes, indeed. I have shown some of mine in various contexts throughout the years, but you may have missed them if you were searching the posts for Hawaiian quilt designs. You may remember that this was a project I once was doing with 5^th grade students who were studying about the state of Hawaii. I included three student designs (see above) that showed a real grasp of the Hawaiian quilt design style. Here is one more good student design that took a different approach.

Four-way design with strawberries

Four-way design with sea turtles

At the same time, I was teaching about different ecosystems in science, so I combined the two ideas and made several 4-way designs, each featuring something about a different environment. Some of these started at the center and worked toward the four corners of the square, while others featured corner designs with simple centers. Here is a central-focus design of sea turtles swimming outward through seaweed. I used a background that suggested ocean waters.

Four-way design with penguins

The second design shows pairs of penguins close together for both communication and warmth. The background suggests a pale sun and air filled with ice crystals. This one was a favorite with the students.

Four-way design using a desert motif

A third pattern features a desert habitat. This time the main emphasis is at the corners where large lizards surround cactus plants. The background suggests sand, while a hot sun fills the center spot.

There is quite a bit of detail in the corner designs, so we will show you a close-up of one of the corners.

Close-up detail of the desert motif

There are other patterns in my files … somewhere. I'll show them at a later date. I hope you have enjoyed all of these and that they have given you ideas for either paper or fabric projects. I apologize for making you wait for them.

Did you ever finish the Siamese fighting fish you were doing in reverse applique?

Finished reverse applique of Siamese fighting fish

Yes, it was finished as a small wall hanging. Here is a picture of it. I am currently working on a companion piece of a fantail goldfish, intended to face this one. In fact, you will see a post very soon with the pattern and directions for the goldfish. If you like, you can then make one of your own. So look around for those pretty scarves, silk handkerchiefs and men's ties that are never worn. Reverse applique can give them a whole new life!

Hey, Annake, those “roses” at the top of Part IV of the Still Life series sure look like tulips to me!?!

Good catch! We share the blame. J.D. wrote the caption and I didn't catch it in proof-reading. We both know better, since we grow both tulips and roses in Annake's Garden. Blame it on late hours and hurrying to get the post online. Sorry!

When are you going to show the real basket of flowers from Part IV?

Here it is now. How does it compare with your design?

Original flower basket photo

Thank you for your patience,

A Note from the Gnome:
We recently changed our ISP, and the email address on our contact page no longer works. Until we can get a new contact page built, please address any correspondence to:  annakes_garden@yahoo.com


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Early Spring Questions and Answers, 2017

Spring flowers in Annake's garden

I like your heart designs but I wouldn't want to do them just for Valentine's Day. What else do you suggest?

I'm glad you liked the hearts. One project I would recommend is memorializing weddings. In fact, if you are going to be a bridesmaid or a maid or matron of honor, and the date for the wedding has been set, you probably have time to make one of these as a thoughtful wedding gift. Depending on your skill, choose needlepoint canvas, monks' cloth, or Aida cloth. Choose a size that is appropriate for framing — 8 inches x 10 inches or 9 inches x 12 inches are good choices. Make a border of small hearts top and bottom or all around the background.

Small needlework hearts for borders

Or place larger hearts in the four corners. Use a pattern like the one shown below as both a chart and a sample. Rotate the pattern 90 degrees for each of the following three corners. If you put four of these together, stitched in green, you get a lucky four-leaf clover. Three of them and a stem give you a shamrock for St. Patrick's Day.

Chart and sample of corner heart

Then embroider or needlepoint a large heart shape that is open in the center. You might like to download and use the chart from the post of January 30, 2017. Add additional rows of stitches outside and inside to get the size of heart that you need. In the center of the open heart, embroider a message like the following:

Mary Jones and John Smith

February 14, 2017

Tip: Write or print the names and dates on lined paper. Cover with a smooth piece of white tissue paper. Carefully trace your message on the tissue paper. Pin the tissue paper to your fabric, carefully centering it in the heart. Embroider over the letters and numbers. Then carefully tear the tissue paper away and discard it.

These embroideries can be as simple or as elaborate as you choose. You might take a clue from the wedding announcements, if they have been chosen, to familiarize yourself with the couple's style. A white or gold frame, simple enough not to distract one from the embroidery, would be appropriate.
 

Mothers of the bride and groom should also appreciate one of these. If you want something more elaborate, you might enlarge and use parts of the intertwined heart design (January 31, 2016).

My second choice would be a similar, but perhaps smaller, birth announcement. You might embroider a blue one for a baby boy and a pink one for a baby girl or do the whole thing in a rainbow of colors. Grandmothers would treasure such a gift. I was discussing this with a dear friend and she suggested that those of you who like to embroider on perforated paper might want to do something like this in a size that would fit into an envelope.

For a larger project, you might embroider a family tree. You may want to start with a fairly large background so that the next generation's spouses and children can be added to the tree at a later date.
 

When you are making the four-way designs on paper, does it matter whether you fold the paper horizontally and vertically or if you fold it diagonally? Also, how would you apply this technique to some kind of needlework besides quilting. I don't quilt.

Let me answer your second question first. Let's explore a simple project that anyone can do with two pieces of felt, scissors, and fabric glue or a needle and thread. Remember our reverse applique (April 11, 2016 and June 24, 2016)? Once you have followed the simple directions from this post and have a four-way silhouette cut out of paper, pin your pattern to a square of felt, carefully centering the design. Cut it out with small, sharp scissors or an X-acto knife. Glue or stitch it to a square of felt in a contrasting color. Decorate it in any way you like. Frame it, make it into a wall hanging, a small pillow, or a decorative mat.

In answer to your first question, there is some difference between the two techniques. I used the “square” technique with my students because it was easier for them to grasp and execute. Here is the tulip pattern, modified to make it more nearly symmetrical, shown as cut on the square and then on the diagonal. It is necessary to shorten the tulip pattern to fit the diagonal fold.

Picture of the two patterns opened out, side by side

Is it time for more recipes?

Any time is a good time for recipes. We have an extensive mint garden. Here are two popular mint recipes from the recipe sheets we give our customers.

Minted Melon Fruit Cocktails

1 cup white sugar                                                      1 cup water

3 tbsp chopped mint leaves          Juice of 1 lemon           Juice of 1 orange

1 cantaloupe or honeydew melon, scooped into balls or diced into cubes

Sprigs of whole mint leaves for garnish (optional)

Refrigerate the cut melon. Mix the orange and lemon juices together. Boil the sugar and water together for 5 minutes to make a good syrup. Keep it warm. Chop the mint. Pour the syrup over the chopped mint. Let the mint steep in the syrup until it cools completely. Strain the syrup and add it to the orange and lemon juices. Chill.

Divide the melon balls or cubes between 6 tall glasses. Pour the chilled syrup over the melon. Garnish each glass with sprigs of whole mint leaves if desired. Keep cold until serving. This works as both an appetizer before a meal or as a light dessert after a meal.

Two varieties of mint from Annake's garden

Lime-Mint Smoothie

1 cup fat-free vanilla frozen yogurt           ¼ cup fat-free or low-fat milk

¼ cup frozen limeade concentrate                 ¼ cup fresh mint leaves

Combine all four ingredients in a blender. Blend until smooth. Serve immediately. Serves two. Delicious, cooling, and low-calorie.

Enjoy!

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Four-way Designs from Hawaiian Quilts

Orange & yellow tulips in Annake's garden

Not long ago, we had an interesting question on one of our Question and Answer posts. The question was, “Do four way designs have to be geometric?” (To date most of the four-way designs we have discussed have been for needlepoint, particularly bargello (May 11, 2014, December 22, 2014, August 22, 2016). I replied that the short answer was, “Certainly not!” I went on to say the long answer would require one or more complete posts on the subject. This is the first of those posts. I thought back to a time some years ago when three classes of 5^th grade students had been studying about the tropics, particularly the state of Hawaii. I wanted them to do an art project related to the subject to complete the unit.

I have never asked my students to do a project — from kindergarten drawings to junior college term papers — that I did not do right along with them, so I did some research. I came across some materials about traditional Hawaiian quilts. These were done on square blocks in two colors, one for the cut-out silhouette and one for the background. The subjects were usually native plants as represented by flowers, fruit, and leaves. I did some practicing with colored construction paper.

Annake's pink orchid design on grey paper

Tulip design, cut from a quarter-folded sheet

The next class day, I showed the classes how to cut a piece of rectangular paper to make it square. Then we folded each square into quarters. I drew a simple flower and leaf design on one of the small squares, beginning at the central corner. I cut out the design, unfolded the paper, and turned it over so that the drawing did not show. Pressing the paper flat on a square of a different color produced a design very similar to the Hawaiian quilt designs. I did a different design for each of the three classes and displayed them so they could be studied. Instead of the unfamiliar tropical flowers, I used familiar garden flowers from our town gardens, such as crocuses, tulips, daffodils and irises. I did, however, display photographs of tropical flowers to give them a choice.

Four-way tulip design, unfolded

The assignment was to produce “quilt blocks” of their own. The first task was to produce a corner design that they thought was attractive. Since the drawings would not show on the finished cut-out, each student could do as many as four practice drawings. During the next session, each student chose the best drawing and cut it out of the folded paper (after being cautioned not to cut the four sections apart). Then each student chose a background square in a contrasting color and glued his or her pattern to it, carefully centering it on the background. They were allowed to add additional decoration if they desired.

 

Later all the projects were displayed on a wall of the school cafeteria. Most of the students then took their designs home, but a few wrote notes to me on the backs of their projects and gave them to me, a gesture that pleased me greatly. I want to show you three of these. (Yes, I kept them.) Remember that these were 10-year-old and 11-year-old children. The first one is typical of the designs. It combined a leaf cut-out with drawings of flowers and detailed drawing of the veins in the leaves. The second one is a very carefully and skillfully done cut-out with butterflies added in the corners, facing inward rather than outward. The last one is by a rule-breaker. (Those of you who have been reading these posts for the last four years know that I am a rule-breaker myself, and therefore probably more tolerant of rule-breaking than most people.) While the swans do hold together nicely, they are not connected at the center. It was then necessary for the young artist to place a patch of blue and white “waves” in the hole in the center of the design.

Student "quilt blocks"

Now you may be asking yourself, “What does this have to do with me and my art or needlework?” That's a fair question. I expect, however, that the quilters among you have already started envisioning designs of your own. These might involve silhouettes of animals or toys for a baby's or child's quilt or vehicles or sports equipment for a man's pillow. The possibilities are endless. For those of you who want to further explore Hawaiian quilt designs, and who have a Pinterest® account (www.pinterest.com), there are enough ideas in their archives to keep you busy for years!

But let's return to the simple tulip design. You may wonder why I didn't make all the tulip leaves form “hearts”. That is easy enough to do. Try it for yourself. The answer is that I wanted a design that could be manipulated to fit a rectangle as well as a square. Since I had the pattern made, I cut it out of a couple of papers with patterned designs. Then I tried them in various combinations: plain-on-plain, plain-on-patterned, patterned-on-plain, patterned-on-patterned. Some of the most unlikely color and pattern combinations worked rather well, as you can see below.

Four-way square paterns with different paper combinations

Tip: If you are a beginning quilter, you may find it useful to collect a variety of papers in various colors and patterns. Paint and wallpaper stores and decorator's shops often discard wallpaper pattern books. If you ask them to save those for you, many will do so, especially if you are doing projects with school children, Scouts, senior citizens, etc. It doesn't hurt to ask. Then you can take a pleasing paper pattern with you to a fabric store and look for fabrics in the colors and with similar scale patterns to your paper sample.

On our next post on the subject of four-way designs (later this year), we will discuss multi-colored four-way designs in painting, collage, crewel, tent stitch, reverse applique, etc. In the meantime...

Use your imaginations,

More tulips from Annake's Garden

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You Asked for It!

4-way pattern on paper inspired by Hawaiian quilts

When we did the Winter Questions and Answers (February 14, 2017), I mentioned that we had received so many questions asking for help with certain projects that we couldn't answer all of them in a single post. I promised to complete the instructions in the first post for the month of March, and here they are. First, let me inform everyone that there will be two posts (or possibly more) devoted to answering the question about 4-way designs. The first of these will appear later this month and will touch on such topics as Hawaiian quilts, reverse applique, and pencil-and-paper art. I hope you will enjoy these posts as much as I did preparing them for you.

This first section is for those of you who would like step-by-step illustrations of the Swedish weaving pattern. The pictures below show the top and middle sections of the design step-by-step. The colors are similar to — but not identical to — the yarns used in the needlepoint design. The colors were worked with six-ply embroidery floss, except for the two straight burgundy lines, which were done with three strands of craft thread (or you could use two strands of cotton crochet thread). For the bottom section of the design, turn your fabric 180°. Repeat the first section in reverse order. It was fun to convert one type of needlework into a very different one. It makes a point that I have made before — that patterns have multiple uses. Thank you for the opportunity to demonstrate that.

The next section is for those of you who wanted to do the little animal heads in needlepoint. Remember that each square represents a tent stitch ( / ). I have stitched the designs on #7 plastic canvas so that the stitches are easy to see. The designs are stitched in knitting worsted and back-stitched in a single strand of black crewel yarn. If you do them on #10 or #14 needlepoint canvas, they will be quite a bit smaller. This is good for repeated designs, either as a border or as an all-over spaced repeat. Done on quickpoint canvas, they will be quite a bit larger. I did not attempt to match the colors on the patterns except to assure that light and dark tones bear the same relationship to each other.

Tip: Some of the designs have been modified slightly to make them easier to do in needlepoint. The tent stitch traditionally starts at lower left and goes to upper right ( / ). In a number of cases I have used a reverse tent stitch that starts at the lower right and goes to upper left ( \ ). You can see this in the spaniel's forehead, the fox's ears and jaws, the owl's ear tufts, etc. Doing this sometimes causes a tiny piece of the canvas to show through. If you don't like this, put a traditional tent stitch underneath the back-slanted stitch.

As I stitch a design, I sometimes change small elements of the pattern to make a design that is more pleasing to me. I made the cat's mouth smaller and the terrier's nose larger on these two designs. That does not mean the revised designs are better than the original patterns. You may prefer the original pattern, or you may wish to make modifications of your own. Don't hesitate to change details to get results that you like better. To emphasize eyes and noses I do a cross-stitch instead of a tent stitch.

Occasionally I make larger modifications. When I first stitched this bear's head, I did not like the result at all, but found it difficult to determine why I disliked it. Finally I decided that the eyes and nose were too close together and the nose was not prominent enough. I added another row of stitches between the eyes and the nose and made the nose more noticeable. This had the effect of making the bear's head longer, so that it appears thinner than the one on the cross-stitch pattern. These are the kinds of decisions you must make as you stitch.

Below are some more small patterns suitable for borders or scattered all-over designs. Do them in straight stitches, back-stitch, and French knots in a single color for blackwork, redwork, or whitework, or in multicolor for Holbein embroidery. Or use what you have learned about making your own patterns to convert them to cross-stitch or tent stitch. The colors are simply suggestions. Use your own choices.

Let's have fun with these,

More Holbein stitch patterns, for butterflies, bugs, and leaves

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