My fabric collection has finally moved out of plastic totes and into the light of day thanks to my great find at the Berea College surplus auction:

I love being able to see what I've got; it is at my fingertips. It makes me so satisfied, and also feel like a prissy old lady.  

I have been seriously bitten by a crazy clock making bug. I made two more and have them listed for sale on our etsy shop. (Thanks Kate!)As sweet as they are, our house can only take so much...cuteness (and ticking). I would appreciate some feedback or suggestions!

This is the woodland gnome home whoo whoo clock. It is made of mat board covered with corduroy and naturally dyed wool felt. The clock face is painted with watercolor paint.  

The garden shed whoo whoo clock: 

I'm really pleased with the felt shingle roof. Both of these have vellum in the windows and can hold a battery powered tea light. When I am done dyeing felt, I hope to do a night light and a door stop...

I want to make some more clocks, but need materials, so I have been dyeing a bunch of beautiful wool felt. I've got a little workshop set up on our back porch, right next to the sand box. My boys have been playing happily in their little pool and sand while I do this:

with this:

(marigolds) and this:

(onion skins). 

Yesterday, I got an indigo vat for wool going and got this:

The browns are black walnuts I collected last fall. Cool, huh?

My Dad has been planning to make a sand box for all four of his grandsons for a little while now. Luckily, he collects all kinds of old things, and my Mom thought that an old wooden boat stashed in their barn would be the perfect sandbox vessel. The old flat bottom Old Town boat would never see water again, but its shape and depth would make it a good sandbox for the kids. Its subtle curves and wooden boatiness would appeal to all of us "big kids" who have fond memories of cruising around Thousand Islands, Canada in our old wooden boat. I had nothing to do with this project but admire the results, but I am planning to make some flags and pennants for the mast.

First my parents scraped the old paint.Next, they painted the whole boat with oil-based white primer. (I am sure my mom is so happy that I am posting photos of her in her painting clothes- Martha be damned, nobody wears khakis when painting!)

Then my Mom painted the outside blue and my Dad fixed a rotten side rail. I don't think Julian was actually painting, he is serving as a supervisor here.

While the paint was drying, they prepared the site by laying down landscaping plastic and laying down a bed of gravel. We were going to use pressure treated lumber as a foundation, but had gravel left over from another project. Strider donated a telephone pole piece to use as a piling and also brought the bamboo mast. I can't wait to get some of that crazy thick rope they sell by the foot at the hardware store to secure the boat to the piling.

Julian would like to add a pirate ship plank and we need a gangplank so the little kids can get into the boat. I am going to sew a rain (and cat) cover from sturdy nylon. My Mom is planning to plant perennials around the back of the boat to anchor it into the landscape, and I think the sand boat will work really well and be a fun sandbox that the grownups like as much as the kids.

I think I am finally finished with a project I have been working on for a long time. When I made a little sewn felt horse (pattern from "Toymaking for Children") for our nature table a while ago- maybe 2 years ago- it really bothered me that the seams made the horse look fake and toy-like. It was cute, but I wanted a more realistic horse to pull a garden cart full of felt pumpkins in the fall or carry baskets of flowers in the spring. I tried to make up a knitted and felted horse pattern by messing around with the knitting pattern for a horse, also in Toymaking for Children, but it never looked right. Frustrated, I abandoned the horses. Early this spring, I started experimenting with renewed vigor, forgot about trying to find a pattern to adjust, and just started from scratch. 10 or 12 or 15 misshapen horses later, I came up with these guys:

I am happy with them. My favorite is the gray one- her name is Dusty. Here she is from the front-

Here is a side view- isn't she elegant? I violated my "no acrylic yarn" rule for her mane and tail- it's super thin acrylic/poly blend I picked up at a thrift store. It's perfect for hair.

The Palomino is sweet too, he's missing a tail thanks to Avery, who likes him as much as Dusty does.

I made a Western saddle and the black horse is modeling it here. I don't like her mane as much, regular yarn looks too coarse. It's also hard to see her features, the nose and mouth don't show up. I needle felted a white blaze, and I am pleased with that. The saddle is made from Laura's walnut-dyed felt. Do you recognize the saddle blanket? It's cut from jute upholstery tape.

I am going to format the pattern to sell, but first I need to find a tester or two. Any takers? The knitting goes quickly- you can knit one in an evening. It takes one 50g ball of worsted weight yarn, and the seaming is not picky because the felting hides any stitches. When you are done, the horse looks seamless, as the mane covers the only seam. Sigh. That makes me so happy!