Red Redux

I like red.  I like it so much, and am having so much fun celebrating color this winter, that I am publishing this rerun from two falls ago!

In the summer,

and in the winter.

In my coats,

and in my shoes.

I like red.

Red crayons.

Red paint.

Red walls.

and red toys.

Red to sip and

red to crunch.

Red to sew.

red to weave,

red for spinning,

red I've spun.

I like to knit red,

and grow red.

I like red boxes,

I like red cans.

I take it back. I love red!

Blue and White

 Do you find yourself craving color this time of year?  I do, which is why I have been posting about color so much recently.  This is a celebration of blue and white!

 Blue and white is contemporary.

This vase was handblown by my daughter.

Blue and white is traditional.

This needlepoint is by Sara Nelson.

 Blue and white is natural.  It is the color of the water, the foam, and the shore.

It is the color of the sky and the clouds.  It makes us think of days outdoors, the open sea, and fresh air.  No wonder we find blue and white so calming and blissful.  Do you like blue and white?  How do you use blue and white at your house?

Quilt Top

I recently got rid of all the colors I don't like in my fabric stash.

It's hard to give away art or craft materials, but I feel lighter.  I kept what I love, and to me, it looks glorious. Just looking at the stash gives me ideas.
 

 My studio looks messy now, in the aftermath of assembling the crazy log cabin quilt. 

I don't mind this kind of mess.  It's messy the way a flower garden is messy.

 I think this quilt is about the balance of order and disorder.  The colors in the squares are having a party together.  The red grid holds all the lively mess together, and allows each square to do its individual dance.  In this picture you see the strips we decided to add to the edges, to make the quilt bigger.

Here is the finished crazy quilt top.  Yesterday I sewed a layer of luscious red minky to the back.  It is as soft as kitten fur.

Next week I will baste the layers together and start to quilt it using a combination of hand quilting and machine quilting.

Make a Paper "Tin" Lantern

Last year we made "tin" lanterns out of shiny recycled aluminum cans.  Click on the link in the right hand column to see how.  This year, I'm going to show you a more child-friendly craft using metallic paper.  An enrichment teacher and I did this craft with the second graders at my son's school, and they loved it.

  The enrichment teacher found some patterns the children could choose from.  Your child could also design a pattern on graph paper.

 For inspiration, here are some elaborate tin lanterns from the tin shop at Sturbridge Village, in Massachusetts.

Here is an illustration of a tin lantern by Garth Williams in Laura Ingalls Wilder's wonderful book, Farmer Boy.  It has a simple flower pattern.

Cut out the metallic paper to the size you want your lantern to be.  Mine is 14" by 7".  Tape the design onto your metallic paper, and tape the metallic paper onto some foam.  I used foam core, which I had handy, and worked on a thick rug.  If the surface beneath you gives, it will be much easier to punch out the pattern.  The school children used long, strong, plastic children's embroidery needles for punching.  I used pointy scissors, because that's all I could find in the studio.  Your child's hand may get tired, and she may need to work on the punching bit by bit.

 Keep the punches separated if you can.

Curl up your lantern into a cylinder and staple.  Now add a handle.  Mine is 12" by 1", and stapled on.  I put my lantern in the sun to light up the pattern.  A child may like to go into a dark room with a flashlight.  It is fun to let the dots of light speckle the wall.  We don't use candles with paper lanterns.  If you want to use candles, read the instructions for using an aluminum can lantern.

 This beautiful picture by Garth Williams is from "Farmer Boy" by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  "The holes in the tin lantern freckled everything with little lights and shadows."  Why do you think a tin lantern would be a relatively safe light for a child to use in the barn?

Last night we were reading Laura Ingalls Wilder's book "Little House on the Prairie" and came upon this wonderful illustration of Pa striding off into the dark to investigate a terrible scream.  He headed for the house of the nearest neighbors, the Scotts, who live two miles away.  Laura waits anxiously in bed, imagining her Pa walking "along the top of the bluff, on the path that went toward Mr. Scott's house.  Tiny bright spots of candlelight darted here and there from the holes cut in the tin lantern."  Why would a tin lantern be a good way to take a candle outside?  Why didn't Pa have a glass lantern?  And for bonus points.....what kind of animal screams like a woman?  If you grew up hearing Appalachian folk tales, you'll probably know the answer.  If you don't know the answer, I recommend this whole wonderful series of books.

A Hat for a Little Friend

 I made a hat for my little friend.  He put it right on.  He helped pick out the main color from my yarn basket, (he loves green,) and his mother and I discussed the color combination.  It is very much inspired by her Swedish, graphic, high-pastel color sense.  Her boys always look so colorful!  We added blue to the green the little one picked out, and when I saw his coat, I tossed in the aqua to make the coat and hat sing a song together.  This is one of my favorite color combinations!

I have been making lots of striped hats recently.  I love to knit hats, I love stripes, and I love to make presents.  I'm having a fun winter making sure all my friends and family have warm and cozy heads.