Fob Winners and Updates

Here are the three people who were chosen by the random number generator to each receive one of my wool felt scissors fobs:

True Random Number GeneratorMin:Max:Result:20

True Random Number GeneratorMin:Max:Result:6

True Random Number GeneratorMin:Max:Result:8

(After generating each number, I copied and pasted the results here; there were 56 comments, and I entered the number 56 as the "Max", but when I copied it here it reverted to the default setting of 100.  Weird!  Anyway, it generated the random numbers just fine.)

Comment #20 is from "Carla".  She will receive the bird fob.

Comment #6 is from "bethwalker07".  She chose the watermelon fob.

Comment #8 is from:  "linny".  I will send her a ladybug fob.

Congratulations!  I will be contacting each of you shortly.



And now, a few updates on past posts:

1.  My Blog is a Book:  I told you that I used Blog 2 Print to have all my blog entries from 2011 turned into a soft-cover book, which I was going to give to my mother.  You may have been wondering how she reacted to it, and the answer is, she LOVED it!!  She was very impressed with it and she read it from cover to cover, and commented on many of the things I had written.  It may be the best gift I've ever given her!  So now I can highly recommend this, especially if you have a relative who (like my mom) doesn't have a computer to read your blog.

2.  Octo-Bear:  After showing you this "interesting" creature I made for a partner in the March Birthday swap on Craftster, some readers wanted to know how I attached the legs.  Since I had received a special order for an Octo-Bear as a result of the post, I announced that I would be making another one and posting in-progress pictures.  Well, that order was cancelled (the young woman's car broke down so she didn't have the money for an Octo-Bear), so the leg-attaching tutorial will have to wait until some future date.

3. Amazing Amaryllis:  In January I showed you my pot of amaryllis bulbs as they grew into huge and gorgeous flowers.  Well, they continue to be amazing, because they are blooming again!  In July!  After having just bloomed in January!!!  The pot is on my front porch now, and in addition to the four-blossom stalk in the picture below, there is a second stalk starting to emerge.  These are some serious over-achievers, and I feel like I've been given an unexpected gift with this second round of blooms.

A Whole Bunch of Scissors Fobs

Since January I have been diligently working on a challenge proposed by my friend Susan to sew a heart every day for a year.  I am happy to say that I am currently 10 ahead in my heart count, yippee!  For the past 34 days I have been making heart-shaped wool-felt scissors fobs for this challenge.  You can see them individually on my other blog, 365 Sewn Hearts, but this is the only place you will see them all together in a single photo!

The fobs are all made of wool felt, embroidery floss, sewing thread, baker's twine, and polyfill.  They are all sewn entirely by hand.

Here they are in the pint-size canning jar I challenged myself to fill with fobs.  It took 34 of these little hearts to fill this jar:

And here they are, all laid out :

The bright flower fob, below, is my favorite.  Which one is yours?  If you leave a comment and mention which ones you like best, you might just win one of them!  On July 11th I will randomly choose three lucky winners to receive one fob each.  Please be sure I have a way to contact you if you win.

Scissors Fobs and Blanket Stitch

On my other blog, 365 Sewn Hearts, I am currently in the middle of a challenge to sew one heart every day for a year.  I've been scouring the internet and wracking my brain to come up with new hearts, and last week I had an idea:  scissors fobs.  They're small and cute and useful and relatively quick to make; but the best part is that they can be decorated a million different ways (and I only need about 200 more!).  They are made of wool felt, embroidery floss, baker's twine, and polyester stuffing, and they are finished with a blanket stitch around the edges.

Here are the 8 fobs I've made so far:

The lovely Lime Riot, who is an amazing crafter and embroidered, actually asked ME if I have any tips about the tricky part of the blanket stitch edging:  finishing the last stitch.  Since I do have a standard method that I always follow, I am happy to share it with her, and you.

This is the fob I am using for this demonstration:

Oh, I should mention...I am left-handed.  So if anything looks backwards or upside down to you, that's probably why.

Okay.  I always start sewing the back to the front in the same spot:  midway on the right-hand side, and I work counter-clockwise around the heart.  In the picture below, you can see that I have started the first stitch by putting the needle into the inside of the back piece, and pulling the thread through.

Next, I insert the needle in the outside of the front of the heart, and push the point right into the first hole you made when setting the knot (above).

That's your first stitch.  For this stitch only, I run the thread under the stitch, and pull it out on the right-hand side.

Now I continue sewing the blanket stitch in the regular way all around the heart.  (I just noticed that there's a long, stray filament of the stuffing material right in the middle of the picture!  Please try to ignore that!)

When there's only about an inch left to sew, I stuff the heart, then continue sewing.

When I have sewn the last stitch, I pull the thread through the first stitch I sewed, and tie a small knot there.

Then I tie another knot about 1/4" from the last stitch and pull that inside the stuffed heart to anchor the thread.  Pull the needle up anywhere on the back and trim the end of the thread flush with the felt.

All done!  (I can't believe that stray filament is still there.)

I don't know if I shared any new information, but I know it can be helpful to see how someone else does things...there may be some small detail here that is new to you--and possibly eye-opening.  I hope so!