Valentine Rag Wreath!

I wanted something for my front door and I thought it would be fun to try a rag wreath. I bought a wire frame from the craft store, half price with a coupon, so well worth getting one. If  you want you can also use an old coat hanger and bend it into a heart shape.

I used some thrift material that I was thought would work nice in a craft project and it was perfect for this. I snipped the cloth into 1" strips and tearing it, since they were long yardage. Then I used scissors and cut that into 6" strips for the ties. The frame has 3 sections, two in the back and the middle is slightly higher, so you want to start with the back two rows and then do the top section last. You can add less strips to the inner section since the two outer rows fill most of the wreath, but you do need a few on the inner to fill in, so the wire doesn't show.

This is a 12" wreath, I had wanted a larger one for the door so I might just keep this one inside. I made up a little heart with some scraps and added that by making a tie and tying it to the middle piece. A fun project to do, works up quickly and a good way to use up scraps.

I wanted to show off the wreath, so I used a little photoshop magic to make a new background.

This is the fabric, I used. It is a nice soft material so it gives a nice raggedy look. If you would like a tutorial with photos, you can find one Here.

Vintage Fabrics and Apples!

My Sister in Law used to craft and as she cleans, she finds things and gives them to me. This time it was books and fabric. Most of the books are old patterns and magazines that aren't my type or ones I can reuse into new things, so those will go to the salvation. I am not sure on the fabric. The blue with flowers is a bit stiff, reminds me of curtain or pillow fabric, so wondering if it would be a good backing for quilts, for my daughter. I had to wash it, since it smelled like musty moth balls.

There is at least 5 yards or more of the light blue floral.

She also had this panel with some fun prints. I hated to wash it, but the smell was horrid. It might be fun to make something out of it.

I am still using my big bag of apples. I made apple cookies and apple crisp. Today I made apple burgers and apple butter. It was the first time I have made it and I used all of the apple so the natural pectin thickened it nicely and it tastes good, even without sugar. It will be nice to use on rice cakes. I am still looking for the original recipe for apple burgers. I sauté onions and grated apples in butter, then add that to the hamburger and bread crumbs, then you make small patties and back them in the oven, my family loves them.

For the apple butter, I cooked the apples for about 4 hours, than cooled it down, put it in the blender and then cooked it for another two hours.