Iced Baked Bunnies

Day 40 - Iced Baked Bunnies

Well, here we are - Day 40, my last project.  I've decided to bake again and today I'm making iced baked bunnies.  The baked bunnies are really just bread and I'm cheating a little by using a 'simply add water' bread mix.

I've made the mix as recommended on the packet and definitely added the optional butter. Having kneaded the bread for a full ten minutes I've first torn off balls of dough and rolled them out into long thin sausage shapes.  I'm really not sure how large the bunnies will end up being so I've made a mixture of sizes.

I've then made a twist in the middle of the dough leaving a hole in the middle. This is the bunny body.

I've made a second twist above the first but this time left no hole - this will be the bunny head and ears.

Lastly I've filled the hole with a small ball of dough to be the bunny tail.

Currently I've left the bunnies on baking trays, covered with clean tea towels, to rise before I can cook them.  I'll be putting them in the oven in about an hour.

In fact they did rise quite a bit!


Now they're out of the oven, I've left them to cool before glazing them with a little icing. Another tasty treat!

Some look like bunnies more than others!

Willow Weaving

Day 38 - Willow Weaving

This is what my bath has looked like for the last few days..........

I've been soaking willow to make it pliable enough for today's craft.  Although our school has often used willow to make various structures, I personally have never undertaken a large project. By mid-morning I should know whether it's going to work for me or not! At this point I'd like to say a personal thank you to school for donating the willow for this project.

I've decided to make a large cross to form part of the church's Easter flower display.  Of course I hope the church will be able to use this willow weaving for other future displays as well - which is why I'm not making a rabbit! The other reason being I haven't a clue how I'd even begin to weave a rabbit.  For a cross I thought I'd start by making two rectangular frames - one short, one long - and tying them together to form a cross.  This in itself was harder than I thought it'd be. 

My general tactic was to bend the willow around the frame in large zig zags, trying to wrap it over and under itself as well. By mid-morning I was seriously beginning to doubt whether this was ever going to work.  The willow wouldn't stay put, I couldn't figure out how to tie the ends in to anything and it was extremely difficult trying to stay to the cross shape.   In fact I later gave up trying to keep the bottom of the cross frame together and decided to concentrate on weaving the top part.  

Well, I persevered. I decided to let the willow bend where it was most happy bending and I left some of the ends sticking out, figuring I would simply snip them off later.  Eventually I began to see progress and the top of the cross began to come together.  

Happier now I moved on to tackle the bottom of the cross.  I did find that the more weaving there is the easier it becomes as there are more points to secure and wrap the willow.  





As I've said the original shape didn't really work out and I spent hours twisting, bending, snipping, weaving and wrapping more and more strips of willow around the cross until I was entirely happy with the shape from all sides.  As a last thought I decided to wrap about eight willow strips in a hoop around the neck of the cross and these came  together nicely on the front. What an effort! Here is the finished cross taken in our garden..

Looking back I'm not sure that the willow had soaked for long enough however the project had to be done today as the church would need it tomorrow.   Some of the willow snapped as I bent it, but more didn't than did.

It was also great exercise as I lost count of the number of times I raced up the stairs to get another two strips of willow from the bath tub.  The willow dries out so quickly that I never got more than three pieces out at a time.

2 days to go!!!!

Update: Here are some photos of the willow crosses decorated for Easter....

As well as the large willow cross I made these quick small willow crosses which look lovely as a 'hill far away'.

Thank you to the flower arrangers at the church for incorporating them in such a beautiful way.

    

Quilting

Day 36 - Quilting Block

A few weeks ago I had two designs for making a patchwork cushion. I never really got around to using the rabbit design and so I'm re-inventing it to make some quilting blocks. Here are the pieces I had already cut and how they should come together to make a rabbit face. Each square  measures about 4cm without allowing for selvedge. 

Now that I've machine stitched them together this will make the centre of my rabbit quilt block.

I've edged the rabbit block with a lovely green leaf patterned material but I've added something extra to the bottom edge.  Along the bottom edge I have created a small pocket by splitting the strip in two and adding another layer of material to one side. I've placed the pocket piece on top of a green leaf piece and then sewed them both to the other half of the bottom strip.  I've used material from the raw edge and so haven't bothered to hem it. Having finished the bottom strip with pocket, I then sewed on the top and both side pieces.

As I'm busy at the machine I decided to put the front, wadding and back together and quilt the blocks before adding a bias binding edging. I'm machine stitching the front side of the bias binding and I'll hand sew the back.

Note: we were in the middle of a monopoly card game
- multi-tasking! 

To make some carrots to go in the pocket I've simply taken a quarter of a circle of orange felt, folded it in half and stitched it up the side to make a cone shape.  I've turned the carrot inside out and stuffed it. To finish the carrot I've taken a running stitch around the top and pulled it tight whilst slipping in some green felt for the carrot top.  Finally I've secured the green felt in place with a few stitches. Though it sounds easy, it was quite fiddly!



Our bunny needs a face, so I've added a nose and stitched on mouth and whiskers.  I've found some matching buttons for eyes.  For now the carrots can simply sit in the bunny's pocket but I might add a ribbon to stop them from getting lost later.

Yes - I haven't finished the binding and the buttons need fixing in place but I'm off to do those now in front of the telly!

Good night - only 4 more days to go!

Wet Felting

Day 35 - Wet Felting

Every now and again there are things I see that I just fancy having a go at - wet felting was one of them.  All you need is bubble wrap, netting, bamboo mat, soap and roving.  Roving is unspun wool and I got mine from Hobbycraft and from a local fabric and craft shop called Abakhan. I suppose the outlay cost for the roving was about £1.50 per colour and I've used six.  Five of these came in a multipack so I picked a pack which I felt would lend itself best to an Easter daffodil theme.


To set up I've put a binbag under where I'll be working, placed the bamboo mat on top and then the bubble wrap on top of the mat. I've started by making the blue and green background.  To do this you tear off strips of roving and lie them on top of the bubble wrap.  When you've done one layer you go over with another layer in the other direction. You can build up three or four layers. To add more interest to the background I've then added in different shades of green and black. I found some shiny feathery blue wool which I've cut up and layered into the sky.  Some people use this technique to make unique sheets of felt which can then be made into other items.  I suppose you could add all sorts of bits to the roving. Another Easter idea has come to me using the colours I've got and feathers!

Once I was happy with the background I placed the netting over the top and used a weak soapy (washing up) solution to wet the roving underneath while flattening it down. 

I then removed the netting and started on the daffodils.  To make the stems and leaves I tore off some roving and twisted or shaped it a little before pressing them on top of the background.  The stems and leaves should soak up some of the excess water from making the background, if not you can add a little more to hold them in place.  To make the daffodils, I've used exactly the same idea, again using a little more soap solution to hold them in place. 











For the daffodil trumpet, I remembered the fluffy yellow wool I'd used to knit the Easter chick and mixed it into a ball of roving before putting it in place on the picture. Now, if I was making a piece of felt to be used for something else I'd have to make everything flat but for a picture I'd like a little bit more texture so I've only pressed the trumpet down in the middle so that the edges will hopefully stand out.

To complete the felting process I put the netting back over the whole picture and then gently rubbed a bar of soap in a circular motion all over for a few minutes. You have to lift the netting every now and again to stop the fibres from sticking to it. Once the felt seems to be really holding together you can lift it off the bubble wrap, put it back down on the bamboo mat and then roll the wet felting up in the mat.  Having placed elastic bands on the ends of the mats I've squeezed out any excess water before starting to roll the mat backwards and forwards for a minute. Once rolled in one direction you unroll the mat, turn the picture round and roll in the other direction. Ideally the picture should fit in your mat!

Here's the picture soaped and rolled

Now the part I was dreading.......Having rolled the felt in the mat and feeling confident that it's holding together, the felt needs to be rinsed in tepid water to remove the soap.  As I've made quite a large picture it was hard to hold and I was very nervous of the whole thing falling apart.  Rather than putting the whole picture in the water I decided to dip the felt bit by bit. Luckily it all held together - hurrah! I rolled it in a towel, again to squeeze out some water and it is now drying.  Later today I will embellish it somehow.  There are a few ways to display it either mounting on a canvas, hanging it straight on the wall or if I'm stitching on it I can use back it with canvas before hanging it.

Looking at the picture again I felt there were a few parts around the edges which weren't truly felted together, I think because they weren't in the mat. So I slightly re-soaped the picture and rolled it again.  This time the picture knitted together a little tighter and shrunk a little so it fit better in the mat.

Once it had dried off I decided to stitch the outline of the daffodil, stems and leaves using the machine and placing a large piece of calico behind it.  I also stitch some extra into the sky to hold it all together.  I still don't know how I'm going to display this! 

I'm pretty pleased with the finished piece 
Finished size is approx 38cmx27cm! 

Update: In fact I was so pleased with the result that I made a miniature version of this as a birthday card for my mum! 

Sock Rabbits

Day 34 - Sock Rabbits

I owe a huge thank you to my eldest daughter today as she has been my tutor in making these sock rabbits.  She's already experienced in the art of sock toy making as she has made and given these to friends and relatives.

I've already bought some patterned socks, so here's how we start.  The socks are folded out so that the heels are pointing upwards.  Then we cut from the toes towards the heel on both socks and snip the ends to make them a little pointed.  These cuts will end up being the ears and the legs.  The heels in the socks will become the face and the bottom. 


Although we have used a book to get the basic sock bunny idea, my daughter has adapted the instructions slightly from her own experience.  On one sock we cut off the top cuff which we will then make into arms and on the other sock we cut off a longer section from the cuff which we make into bunny jumpers - aah!

Once we have made all our cuts we turn the socks inside out and stitch up the ears and legs using a back stitch. We then turn the legs and ears right side out.

The bunny starts to take shape once we stuff the ears and the head.  To get a lovely rounded shape you have to roll the stuffed ears in your hands and try to use just one big ball of shaped stuffing to make the head. To finish the head we use a running stitch around the edge of the sock and pull gently until tightly closed.  





Having made the head we make the body and legs in the same way.  It takes a bit of rolling and squeezing to get the body to 'sit'.  Once we are happy with the shapes we stitch the head to the body.





Remember the cuffs we cut off?  The larger cuff we can now slip over the bunny's head. As I had bought a mixed pack of patterned socks, I've used the cuff I cut off another pair of socks to make the jumper for this one. With the second cuff we make the arms by firstly cutting it in two, turning each part inside out and stitching the edges together. We then turn them the right side out again and stuff them.  The arms are then stitched to the body.

To give our rabbits real character, we've stitched on faces and added buttons.  See what our bunnies got up to this afternoon!

I also need to give a big mention to my eldest daughter who took all the bunny photos - thank you!

I'm beginning to wonder what I'm going to do after the 40days project has finished - any suggestions??