Hobbies that Begin with "F" - Blogging from A to Z Challenge

During the 2018 Blogging from A to Z Challenge, I will be focusing on hobbies that I have introduced to my daughters to through their childhood and teen years. Some were done as part of homeschooling, while others were areas that we explored because we were interested in the subject or activity. These are hobbies that anyone of any age could try as well.

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These are some of the hobbies that the girls have been introduced to during their childhood and teen years: falconry, felting, fencing, firearms, fishing, and flower arranging.

Falconry

We were having lunch with friends one day at the Scandia Café. When we left to go to our car, there was a gentleman who had a falcon in the back of his car.

September 13, 2012

He shared with us about the hobby of falconry, and let the girls touch the falcon. It was interesting learning about falconry - something that we don't see each day.

Felting

Sophia and Olivia began felting when they were 7 and 5 years old respectively. There are two types of felting - wet-felting and needle-felting. I taught them how to do needle-felting because it was something they could do wherever they were and they wouldn't get wet in the process.

For her second project, Olivia made a heart with different colors of wool. She used the barbed needles for needle-felting well, and didn't poke her fingers with the needles once. She was proud of her project.

January 25, 2008

For Easter one year, I taught the girls and their friends who were in a home economics class I taught at the homeschool co-op how to make needle-felted eggs.

They chose from a variety of colors of wool, and then used the barbed needles to attach the wool to the Styrofoam egg shapes.

 

March 30, 2009

The girls were so focused while they worked.

March 30, 2009

They did a base color and then added colorful wool embellishments to their felted Easter eggs.

April 6, 2009

They also made toys - like felted balls - that they could use for decoration and/or play.

December 3, 2009

Fencing

The girls did fencing on February 18, 2016, at the Minnesota Sword Club in Minneapolis. They had never done fencing before so it was a good introduction to the sport and hobby.

There was gear that they had to wear to cover their bodies and heads.

They practiced different positions and stances; and had fun fencing.

It was a fun way to spend a cold winter day in Minnesota.

Firearms

The girls' first introduction to guns was at an educational program held at Fort Snelling. These men are showing the type of guns that would have been used during WWII.

September 14, 2007

We were traveling throughout the New England States and visited a store that had guns on display. As we were looking at them, we realized that they were about as long as Olivia was tall.

September 9, 2011

One November 23, 2013, we went to the Minnesota Waldorf School for the holiday fair. The girls wanted to play a game with riffles that had foam bullets. 

The goal was to aim at the knights on the castle and hit them.

It was something that they don't normally do, yet they had a lot of fun trying to aim at the targets.

In 2018, Olivia is studying to get a license to use a gun so she can do trap shooting. She is going through firearms safety training during March and April; and will have a field day test on April 28th.

Her uncle (my brother) is loaning her two guns so she can get comfortable with them before the field day test.

So, on Easter (April 1, 2018), Olivia learned the proper way to hold a rifle and to stand as she takes aim.

Her younger cousin, who enjoys target practice, showed her how to load and unload a gun.

The one pictured above belonged to my dad, so there's a special connection there. Olivia said she preferred my dad's gun and would most likely use that one for her field day test.

Fishing

The girls learned about fish and their parts at a youth program at Interstate State Park in 2012. They did fish painting (using rubber fish) and learned about fishing.

June 15, 2012

On June 7, 2014, the girls and I stayed at Wild River State Park and did the I Can! Camp program. One of the activities offered during the camping stay was learning how to fish.

We did some fishing off a bridge in the park overlooking a river.

They learn to cast and how to bait a hook.

They didn't catch anything at that location, so we changed spots to the St. Croix River and the boat launch there.

It was a relaxing way to spend the day.

Flower Arranging

In 2013, we did a lesson about etiquette. The girls set the table using the good China dishes and silverware; and created flower arrangements.

April 4, 2013

We used a bouquet from the store and they made several smaller floral arrangements.

April 4, 2013

On May 9, 2015, we brought floral arrangements to the nursing home and decorated the tables in the different living areas.

It was Mother's Day weekend, so the tables looked nice for family visits.

We visited with some of the residents and their families while we were there.

We brought flowers also for people who were special to us and made a point of visiting each time we were there.

Often, when we go the farmers market, we will get a bouquet of flowers to bring home to create many smaller vases of flowers. These brighten up our home and lift our spirits.

Reusing, Reindeer, and Roadrunners - Blogging from A to Z Challenge

This year for the Blogging from A to Z Challenge, I'm focusing on going through my homeschooling files that I've created from the time that Sophia and Olivia were in preschool.

Some of the files are still relevant while others I will be decluttering and recycling in the process. Each day during April, I will pick one of the files to focus on - either doing a hands-on activity or sharing some information from one of the files.

For the 18th day - Letter R - I am focusing on Reusing, Reindeer, and Roadrunners.

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Reusing

- Reuse birthday and Christmas cards by making bookmarks that can be given away at a local school library. Cut the images out with pinking shears. Punch a hole at the top and then put ribbon or embroidery floss through the hole. You can also glue the card onto deckle-edge paper. Students can pick a bookmark each time they check out a book.

- Greeting cards also can be used to make postcards.

Postcards that I made from old Christmas cards and scrapbook paper.

The back of the postcard (the side you write on)

is from a cereal box.

- Wool sweaters that have shrunk can be made into little toys. When the girls were younger, I made these wool bears with fabric patches that were hand-embroidered onto the wool.

Tiny bears I made from felted wool sweaters and fabric.

The bears fit in the palm of your hand.

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Reindeer

One of the files I had was about reindeer herders in northern Russia. The herders are called Nenets (Nen-ETZ); and they depend on their reindeer for almost everything - including clothing, transportation (they travel on sleds pulled by reindeer teams), and food.

Source

The Nenets are nomadic and live in easy-to-move tents. When they move from summer to winter grazing grounds, the journey can take several weeks.

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Roadrunners

- They are only nine inches tall and less than two feet long.

- They can run as fast as 20 miles per hour. They are able to glide, but prefer running.

Roadrunner that I saw in Texas.

(Taken on May 1, 2010.)

- They have about 16 different sounds.

- Their diet consists of insects, snails, mice, bats, other birds, scorpions, tarantulas, and black widow spiders.

- The bird's temperature can drop as much as seven degrees at night when temperatures can drop 50 degrees or more.

- During the early morning hours, the bird spends long periods sunning itself. It will lift up its feathers to expose a dark patch of skin on its back that acts as a solar panel.

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In the process of going through the files that began with "R," I recycled a half of a bag of papers. Throughout the challenge, I've recycled 15 1/2 bags of papers.

15 Creative Goals in 2015

I've been thinking about what I want to learn and do in terms of my creative goals in 2015. Although almost two months have already passed, there's still ten months ahead to incorporate more creative time in my life.

During 2015, I want to:

1. Learn how to do fused glass.

Source

2. Do glass blowing.
3. How to build a portable brick oven so I can create homemade pizzas and breads in it during the summer.
4. Finish all the WIP (works in progress) in the bin.
5. Go through all the fabric bins and donate what I no longer like or want.
6. Use the bag of felted wool to make a project (or two).
7. Learn 3 new crocheting stitches.
8. Make a pair of socks using the sock loom.

9. Learn to knit and make something useful.
10. Use some of Dad's clothes and make legacy gifts to give to Mom, Mary, Jim, and me.
11. Do two upcycled crafts that use jeans.
12. Make six handmade cards using inspiration from other DIY cards.
13. Make three homemade bath products.
14. Paint and install a barn quilt.

Source

15. Make something for the next door neighbor's daughter who is expecting her first child this spring, and who has a baby shower in March. Did this on March 1st. I made two baby bassinets from diapers and a washcloth bouquet. 

Fingerless Gloves (Tutorial) - Creative Every Day - Day 7

Today I continued to look through my Pinterest boards for the seventh day of the Creative Every Day challenge; and came across a pin for fingerless gloves that led to The Renegade Seamstress. I've been looking for practical ways to use the felted wool sweaters that I have on hand, and this is something that I definitely can use.

Fingerless gloves I made from a felted wool sweater.

The edges the fingers and thumb and hand-embroidered

with red embroidery floss.

The first step to making fingerless gloves is to felt a 100% wool sweater by washing it in alternating hold/cold water; and then drying it at a high temperature. An adult-size sweater generally felts down to a child-size sweater.

Then, cut the ends of the arms off. The cuffs will be the part that goes on the forearm, while the cut part fits around the fingers and thumb.

Part of the sleeves cut off.

The next step, according to The Renegade Seamstress is to make a pattern of your hand. I did this, but felt like it was an unnecessary step.

The shape of my hand cut out from a piece of paper.

Turn the sleeves inside out so the right side is inside. This is the time to sew a seam along one side if the sweater sleeve needs to be reduced in width. In my case, the felting process made the sleeve quite small so I could skip this step.

So, then I used a sewing machine to sew a triangle to separate the fingers from the thumb.

Sewn seams separate the fingers from the thumb.

Snip the middle of the "V" to separate the finger section from the thumb section.

Using a fabric scissor, cut the section out between the "V."

 Turn the gloves inside out and then using 3 strands of embroidery floss or a heavier Pearle cotton thread, blanket stitch along the edges to finish them off.

The palm side of one of the fingerless gloves that I made.

After seeing how the embroidery floss disappears into the wool, I would do any other fingerless gloves with a heavier Pearle cotton so that the finished edge stands out a bit more.

Once I was done, Sophia asked me to make her a pair of the gloves. I have more colorful sweaters waiting to be felted, so it will be fun to make another pair in a brighter color.

Felted Wool Hot Pad (Tutorial) - Creative Every Day - Day 6

For several years I have collected wool sweaters from secondhand shops and felted them so I could make hand-embroidered toys with them. I have quite a bit of wool on hand, so I wanted to start using it up by making some practical items for use around the home.

Felted wool and embroidered potholder 

that I made.

As I've been going through my Pinterest boards during Creative Every Day month, I came across a pin about how to make felted wool potholders at Mother Earth News. There's another similar pin that also links to Mother Earth News. However, there are slightly different images of the potholders.

The process I followed is relatively easy. Basically, I cut a 7" x 7" piece of felted wool and cotton fabric. The wool was rather thick, so I only used one layer. If it had been thinner, two pieces of wool would have been better.

Above: 7-inch square on a felted wool sweater.

Below: 7-inch square on cotton fabric.

I cut out three stars and three curvy lines from black and purple felted wool. I embroidered the stars onto the gray wool using the blanket stitch; and the curvy lines using a straight stitch in a haphazard pattern.

Stitched stars and curvy lines.

I put the wool and cotton fabric so the right sides were facing out.

Then, I turned the long edges of the a 2"x 6" piece of cotton fabric in towards the middle and then did a blind stitch along the edge. I inserted 1 1/2 inches of the two short ends in one corner between the stacked layers.

Next, I pinned around the edges of the potholder.

Blanket-stitching the wool and fabric together.

Using embroidery floss, I secured the loop by making several small stitches through the wool and hanger to secure it in place.

Back of the potholder.

Then, I stitched around the sides of the potholder using the blanket stitch.

Part of both sides of the potholder showing.

Now the potholder is ready to be used.

Creative Work I've Done

Today's question for the Summer Blog Challenge asks: "Are you an artist? Show some artwork or doodling you've done."

I enjoy being able to do a variety of crafts and things that allow me to express myself. The images below show a variety of things that I like to do and have made over the past several years: embroidery, quilting, snow sculpture, baking, nature journaling, needlefelting, origami, paper folding, quilting, coloring, doodling, photography, paper cutting, quilling, cake decorating, homeschooling/teaching, and playing the piano. 

Hand-embroidered and appliqued artist trading card.

July 26, 2008

Snowman I made on Leap Day.

February 29, 2012

A couple of pages from my nature journal.

February 15, 2011

A two-page spread from my 
Take a Stitch Tuesday embroidery journal. 
Each week I put a personal reflection, 
list of five items for which I'm grateful, 
a collage of images that represents the week, and 
embroidery samples that show the new stitch I learned that week.

February 26, 2012

Hand-embroidered penguins that I made
to help my daughters learn their colors.

December 14, 2008

Needle-felted letters (each one 2 1/2" x 3 1/2") 
that I made when my daughters were learning the alphabet.

June 12, 2008

Origami window stars.

June 7, 2009

Hand-embroidered felt food.
Some of the items are from patterns, and
others are ones that I made up based on 
food I had in the kitchen.

February 1, 2009

Origami boats with felt sails 
filled with candy hearts.

February 12, 2008

One of the monthly journal quilts I made.
Each month I created one based on what happened that month.
Every component in the mini quilt represents something.
They are each about 9" x 12".
April 9, 2010

This is another example of a journal quilt I made.
It is also about 9"x12".

August 24, 2010

"Secret journal page."
I wrote a page in my journal, cut it up, and 
glued it onto another page.

March 9, 2009

I have a book with blank mandalas that I color
using Prismacolor Colored Pencils.

May 23, 2008

Photo I took of Sophia when she was 6 years old.
She's pulling milkweed seeds from her pockets and releasing them.
The seeds are floating away in the wind.

September 29, 2007

Paper cutting with roses at the end of each point.

January 1, 2009

Sashiko pillow I embroidered and sewed.

July 17, 2010

Homeschooling/teaching requires some creative thinking when
new concepts are taught. 
In the picture above, Sophia was learning 
jump counting (counting by 5s and 10s).
September 25, 2007

Page of  circles I did with
Prismacolor Colored Pencils.

March 7, 2009

Sensory and memory quilt that I made for my dad.
Each plain square of fabric is a different texture.
The white squares have pictures that my dad and 
I picked out shortly after he was diagnosed with 
\mid-stage Alzheimer's Disease.
They each had special meaning to him.
He slept with the quilt each night from Christmas time 2009 
until his death on January 5, 2012.

December 21, 2009

Olivia's photocopied hand with
quilling I did glued on top of the image.

February 16, 2008

Candyland cake I made for Olivia's 8th birthday.
She saw the image in Taste of Home magazine, and 
asked if I would make it for her.
This is the cake I decorated.

January 18, 2011

I learned how to do the couching stitch, and
used some wool yarn, cotton floss, and wool felt.

This was part of the Take a Stitch challenge that 
started on January 1, 2012, and goes until December 31, 2012.
March 5, 2012

This is another stitch I learned (the green and purple parts).
The other elements I added to make it 
more reflective of my style.

February 8, 2012

Sophia took this picture of me playing the piano.
The shadow in the lower right part is 
Olivia standing next to me.
I took lessons for ten years when I was growing up.
Although I don't play as much as I would like to now,
I still can sit down and play some songs which is nice.
January 31, 2008

Two hand-embroidered bears made from 
a wool blanket that I machine felted.
They are holding a paper flag bunting.
They're small bears - they fit in the palm of a person's hand.

January 30, 2011

That's a sampling of the things I like to do. Am an artist? I don't term myself one. I just enjoy doing the things I have shown, and look forward to the times when I can do them.