School-Made Christmas Gifts

Second last day of school before our two week Christmas break. We had our school program last evening - we started our German and English songs, recitations, reader's theaters, and boom whackers and tone chime selections at five.Than had supper at the school right after. Lovely, lovely evening!

Today we finished our pine cone decorations - gifts for every family on our colony. They too, turned out very nicely, if I do say so myself. But don't take my word for it, see for yourself:

         

Thank you for providing us with pine cones, Serena!!

Wishing all my Blog, Twitter and Facebook followers, 

a Blessed Christmas and New Year!

Intarsia - Recycling Wood Pieces

It's been a while since I posted anything on recycling. Today I'm going to shine the spotlight on some gorgeous art pieces our highschoolers and their teacher Karen Maendel created. Using scrap wood from our carpenter shop they made intarsia wall hangings. Some of these were then given to family members as gifts. The first one hangs in the highschool wing of our school at the moment.

Hutterite Children

 

 

Bald Eagle

 

 

Rose

 

 

Calla Lily

Woodworker

White-tailed Deer

 

 

They're all beautiful, but my favourite is 'Hutterite Children'. Which one do you like best?

Paper Dolls

Remember playing with paper dolls? I do. However, when I was a little girl, I unfortunately never had Hutterite paper dolls. This set was created by Cynthia Stahl, who as you can see is an exceptional artist.  We have it in our school and each time we take them out, the children get so excited. They always want to know who the people are. There's something very delightful about children enjoying playing with paper dolls! Especially nowadays with an endless array of super toys within grasp, and not to mention computer games and movies.

 

 

                                         

 

 

       

Hutterite brides wear a blue dress.

                                         

 

 

 

                                         

 

         

How about you, did you have paper dolls as a child? Do you think it's important for children to have the option of simple playthings such as paper dolls, colouring books...., as opposed to always playing modern toys and games?

 

Crochet Rugs



                                                                         Crochet Rug

A readers recently asked me if I know of anybody who has a pattern for a woolen crochet rug. The only ones I could find were handwritten, and I couldn't see myself typing it out. Because looking at it, I knew I could easily get lost and mess up the whole thing. So if anybody has a digital copy, they'd like to share with me to post here, I'd be delighted.

Many times Hutterites make these rugs by unraveling sweaters, occasionally they're also made from new wool.

In the mean time, I did a Goggle search and found Free Vintage Crochet. This site has a variety of rugs; crochet, woven, hooked and more. If you're creative and love to make rugs, you could easily have a rug making field day with all those gorgeous rug patterns. My favourite is the red and grey Oval Classic.

If you have a rug story to share, I'd love to hear it. Or maybe you have a unique way of creating rugs. I'd love to learn how to make the bath mats made from towels. If somebody has pictures they'd be willing to share, I'd love to post some. I've seen some really gorgeous ones.

Recycling - From Sweater to Rug

 

I believe the reason Hutterite women love thrift shops is that most of them are...well, thrifty - they love to find great deals on some piece of fabric or yarn, rescue it from a shelf or rack, and give it a new and beautiful life. Not that the piece they purchase isn't beautiful, but at that point, many times it has lost its usefulness as a garment or afghan. Along comes a Hutterite women who envisions the colours in a pretty crochet rug for her home. The shop is happy for the sale, the woman is happy about the good deal and more importantly, abandoned article will once again be a prized possession. And the earth is smiling too.

The rug in the picture was made from old sweaters, that had been unravelled and then crochet into a rug. There is nothing better to place by the door - it not only offers a splash of colour to the entryway, but is absorbent, keeps most dirt of the floor and best of all, it's easy to wash. The re-purposed wool will serve as a rug for many years.

I know many Hutterites make gorgeous rugs with new wool and use intricate patterns, and I love those as well. But I'd rather see something old become something new.

Recycling - From Swatches to Quilt

Many Hutterites are avid quilters and their handiwork is evident in the masterpieces they produce. My sister, Shirley is one of them. I always marvel at the amount of patience, expertise and time each quilt requires and how much these crafty ladies enjoy doing it. I can sew, but don't like to, so therefore would not attempt a major project like this. However, I admire everybody who does. I'd much rather recieve one of these cozy beauties as a gift. And thanks to Shirley, I did. With my favourite colour as a guide and without me knowing anything about it, she lovingly made this gorgeous quilt for my birthday.

This pattern is known as Crazy Quilt, (click on link for directions on how to make one). It's a great way to turn leftover swatches into something useful - even the smallest pieces can be used. Because Hutterites sew most of their own clothes, there's no lack of quilting material in every household.

I know there are quite a few Hutterites following this blog. Do you have any recycle/reuse ideas you'd like to share? Even if it's just something like reusing your Tim Hortons' cup. I've heard from a number of people doing that. No, we don't picked them up from the street or other places, just the ones we drank from. (-: It actually works to wash them and reuse them. Good old Timmy would probably love us for giving their cup a second chance at holding coffee.



If you have a wonderful idea, but are too shy to leave a comment, just send me an email using the 'contact me' button to the right of this post. Would love to hear from you!

Recycling - Tin Can Footstool

 

This footstool is made from tin cans, juice comes in. They're covered with upholstery roll ends. All has to be done by hand, but since I never made one, I'm not entirely sure how it all goes. People usually try to find fabric that matches their living room furniture, to make a set of two stools.

 I wish I knew who came up with this idea, but I don't. It's such a great way to use tin cans, that are practically useless after the juice is emptied from them. Better the cans are sitting pretty in a home, than sitting in some nuisance ground for years and years.

I wonder if other people have some interesting ideas to make footstools, especially from recycled materials.

(An hour after I posted this, Cindy left this link in the comments. Very interesting! Thanks a lot!)

Recycling - From Clothes to Cushy Fortrell Floormats

 

This is another rug made from Fortrell. To make it, requires a strong fabric like denim for the back. You cut your desired colours into 1 or 2 inch squares. (I know, it's a tremendous amount of work, but with a rotary cutter, not so bad.) Each piece is folded into a triangle and sewn unto the backing, which has the pattern already marked on it. You can either sew these pieces on, going in a circular motion starting in the middle and working your way out. Or you can start at one side and work your way across. It all depends on your pattern.

These are my favourite rugs, because they are so cushy. Perfect for the type of cold weather we're having right now. They're used in bathrooms, kitchens and bedrooms. But they also make nice dog beds, especially since they wash so well.

Recyling - Baler Twine and Fortrel Clothes Woven into Floormat

This mat is made out of old  fortrel clothes and baler twine.  First the twine is put on a loom. After the fortrel is cut into strips, folded and ironed, it's woven into the twine. Finally the mat is sewn along the raw edges and trimmed a few inches from where the weaving ends. Perfect for the kitchen or bathroom! Fortrel mats are not only practical and pretty, but wash and wear well, too. These days though, it's difficult to find this type of fabric, that is durable and doesn't fray.

 

I'm sure there are many people besides Hutterite who make beautiful floormats from recyclables. Do you have a favourite rug story to share?

Recycling - One Bag From Fifty

Instead of adding new recycled items to a separate  page, (or forgetting to, actually) I'm going to be featuring one at a time right here. That way I'll probably write more about the particular item featured that day.  Hopefully this will also keep me posting re-purposed tidbits more frequently, and content will be presented in a more interesting fashion. The Recycle page will eventually have the links to each item I've featured.

I never really liked my recycling page - kept forgetting to add stuff and everything I did add, had to be on the same page. The purpose for this page is simply to showcase our love for reusing things - gift that has been passed down for many generations in the Hutterite community.

So in the name of reusing instead of throwing out here's todays item:

These shopping bags won't be clinging to a nuisance ground fence, trees or shrubs. They are made by cutting ordinary plastic shopping bags into strips and crocheting them to create practical and pretty bags - my sister Elma's handiwork. They have a sort of  soft leathery feel to them. Each bag requires about fifty shopping bags to complete.

My sister got the idea from a dear elderly lady in a neighbouring town, who had been creating them for years. She could easily have sold them, but chose rather to give them to family and freinds as gifts. Elma was one of those lucky recipients. Later, she got Elma started on making them as well - sharing patterns, ideas and techniques with her.

If you'd like to make your own bag, you can get directions here. Found this, but don't know Amelia Redmond. In any case, my thanks to her for making it available online. Apparently there are many people who wisely repurpose shopping bags. Great to see!

Do you have a bag story you'd love to share? The comment section is waiting!