Spring Wreath

I have to confess I actually bought the items for this wreath last spring- well O.K. I'll really come clean- I got the grape vine wreath for a fall project. I'm crazy about Autumn and Halloween but my eyes are bigger than the season. I get so many projects stacked up that I never have a chance of starting half of them! So I never did anything with this- then I thought "I'll make a spring wreath". I bought some flowers that I loved- stuck a few in the side to test out a look. But that was it, I got side-tracked leaving this poor thing hanging on the wall in my studio.

This year I'd been eyeing it with plans of finishing it! I don't know why I didn't get to it last year, it's a simple project and really took less than 30 minutes from start to finish!

First I arranged the flowers in a way that I liked (I tried to arrange them in one direction and stack them on top of each other). I do this without glue so I can play with it and change anything I don't like. Then one by one took the flowers out, added some hot glue, and stuck them back into place (this way I don't loose the arrangement).

To make a bow I used a ribbon I've been wanting to use in a project for a while now. It just wasn't right in anything else but on this I think it's perfect.

It's a pale butter-yellow and has a really lovely embossed texture. I'm not sure if you can see it in the pictures or not- but it's really nice and just feels like spring!

There was a bit of a bare spot between the where I ended up putting the bow and the flowers so I filled in where I needed to and viola! Instant (if you don't count the year it sat around) outside spring decoration!

Wreath projects are fun, usually pretty cheap, and easy- and my favorite part is making the bow! It just finishes everything off. It totally amazes me how one ribbon pattern over another will completely change the look of a wreath.

Always Read The Directions! (A Felted Bunny Update)

Sometimes something seems so obvious that you're sure you are right- so sure you'd bet the house on it.  So sure that you don't even want to take an extra minute and read the directions that the very thoughtful designer of a pattern put in there. (Perhaps for a reason?)

But what does it really hurt to take an extra minute to read the directions? (Even if it's just to affirm that you really do know all there is to know about piecing the front, back, and two feet of a knit rabbit together.)

But when you've done this before and there are only 4 measily pieces- why take the extra minute (literally) to read the few lines of type after the last row in the pattern? (The designer did go through the trouble of telling you something she clearly thought you needed to know- so why not art least be courteous and read it. After all,  it's only a minute.)

A minute that turns out could have saved loads of time later... 

After knitting and piecing several bunnies together and (amazingly) remarking after each one how "the feet didn't seem so hard to attach last time" or how "these just don't look right" I finally, finally read the directions and discovered that I am indeed doing it wrong (Very wrong). And now I will have to rip out the seaming for the feet on all of the previously "completed" bunnies.

Reading the directions could have saved me from sewing the seam on the bottom of each foot first instead of last. When the pattern said "Position the cast off edge of one foot along the end of one leg" (right there in black and white).  I could have done that- instead of attaching the foot a completely different way (which turns out to be sideways).

If I had read the directions all of my rabbits would have looked like this- 

See how nice the feet attach to the legs and lay flat.

Instead of this- 

See where I have pulled the stitches in a weird way. Incidentally, I needed to that in order to actually get the feet to fit on. (And shouldn't this have been my first clue?)

Yet, I went on to attach more feet like this- what was I thinking!?!

While I am ripping the seams of these feet out I will be thinking about how in the future I will always, always read the directions.