Catnip Christmas Trees – Felted Needle Toys for Cats

Hope you all had a delightful Thanksgiving. If you were brave/foolish enough to go out for some black Friday shopping, it’s good that you made it back home safe and weren’t trampled by hoards at Walmart looking for the Furby Boom/Xbox One or whatever it is you absolutely needed to have today instead of waiting like a rational person and shopping online at amazon.com on Cyber Monday.

I am working on a few projects for the holidays, including these felted-needle catnip-filled cat toys. I’m using a foam pad, a single needle and a bundle needle, wool roving and a regular old cookie cutter for the shape.

The wool roving goes in the cookie cutter and is then pierced over and over with the needle until it’s felted flat. I put the brown for the trunk in on top of the green and felt it all together.

Then I remove the cookie cutter and do the embellishment on top.

You’ll need to make two trees for this, then felt them together (finished side out, of course) except for a space on the side large enough to fill with catnip.

Don’t try to shake the bag of catnip directly into the felted bit, as the nip will go all over and then you’re picking catnip pieces out of the felting, which is really obnoxious.

After it’s full, put the tree back on the foam pad and felt closed that remaining side.

I’m also going to do a few gingerbread men in the same fashion, and finish up with wet-felting round balls. Maxy loves to chase those all over the house, even more than playing with the catnip toys.

Smartykat catnip is organically grown. If you watch where your wool roving is coming from, making your own cat toys is preferable to getting in Chinese-made crap with who knows what in/on it. If you’ve ever picked up a loved-on cat toy, you’ll feel how wet and spitty it gets…anything on them is going right into your cat’s little body.

Like animal projects? Check out these past posts:

Dog Bait/Treat Bags

Dog Coats

Another dog coat

And yet, another dog coat

Sewing Project – Heated Neck Warmer

I’ve been saying for awhile that my next sewing project would be something I would use and enjoy; the last few things I’ve worked on have been gifts for others (dogs, really). But not this time. We use these microwavable heated neck warmers all the time at our house. They are good for old aching bones, and also for those cold nights when you want to keep your heating costs down.

Mom got us one of these many years ago (ten plus?) and we’ve gotten a ton of use out of it. She gave us another one just a couple of years ago. We really heat these up every single night, six months out of the year or more. And they are starting to wear out. I’ve performed emergency repair on them multiple times, but even the fabric is starting to disintegrate on our old faithful.

After making repairs Monday night, I decided it’s time to put another one together. I drew a hasty pattern, following the interior neck curve of this one, and measuring out seven inches from that for the outer line (top and bottom piece is six inches across, with a half inch seam on each side).

Yeah, not perfect, but it gets the job done. I did use a straight edge for the bottom two lines. Then I cut out the fabric from my stash. It’s a heavier woven.

Knowing the failing points of our old piece, I wanted to make sure I had a double-seam sewn in this one, with a nice tight stitch. Went around it twice, and turned it out.

Our other pieces are filled with buckwheat, but rice was cheaper at the store so that’s what we went with on this one. Stitched up the end by hand, then ran over both ends with the sewing machine for additional strength.

A five pound bag of rice filled it, but I’d go with a little less on the next one I make so it’s a bit more flexible.

I finished the minky baby blanket on Grandma’s 1941 Singer 66-16. It’s wrapped up, along with a book I seem to remember from Long Blvd that Grandma read to me, and the package is on its way to Ohio. I know Grandma would be pleased to know I used her machine to stitch the blanket. Hopefully, the blanket itself will be sort of like a hug from Grandma to the new baby.

After I got the hang of using the old Singer 66-16, I really like it. Threading it wasn’t as difficult as I was expecting. Aside from a bobbin threading mechanism that seems to be completely broken (thankfully, I could wind the bobbin on my Brother) and an electric cord that’s on the edge of falling apart, the machine is in good shape. It also sews such a nicely stitched line.

The next sewing project are dog treat/bait bags for the shelter. I need to draft a pattern and get started on them. I will be using a purple 9 oz. canvas and purple nylon rip stop. I think I may switch back to the Brother for this next project, just so I don’t forget how to use it. However, I’m a bit behind in my reading (post to follow), and haven’t played the guitar in over a week.

I have started the second baby blanket, this one on Grandma’s Singer 66-16. It needed a new felt

and to do a proper job on the blanket, a walking foot

The machine sews a line just beautifully!

The clips are Getta Grip Sewing Clips. You can get them here. Highly recommend them; if I’m sewing regular fabric and not something like minky, that’s pretty much all I use…so much easier than pins!

Last night the rain/ice moved in and we had a bit of a mess. It’s supposed to be up to 45 today and close to 60 tomorrow before it cascades back down to the single digits for the weekend. Ugh! It is the last week of January, though. We have 51 days until spring.

I have Grandma’s sewing machine. Mom and I tried to get it going a few years ago to make some curtains, but we couldn’t get it to work. I’ve done a bit of internet research, and I’m going to clean it up and give it another try.

I looked up the serial number along with the details. It is a model 66-16, AG283xxx. It was ‘born’ on December 16, 1941 along with 35,000 machines at the Elizabeth, New Jersey plant.

This top view shows the oil holes in the top (oiling is the second thing on my list after cleaning).

Have an old Singer and want the official word on it? The Singer website has a great section to learn more about your vintage machine.

If you need to ID your machine (to learn the difference between the 66 and 66-16, for instance), this website is excellent.

If I can get Grandma’s machine up and running by next weekend, I have a very special project I will be working on. If I can’t, I guess I’ll be doing that project on my new Brother. It’s really the difference between what is easy (the Brother has all the different stitches, has a walking foot attachment, and I feel comfortable using it) and the sentimental project.

One of the projects I was planning for Christmas didn’t get done…a patchwork scarf for Mom. Good thing her birthday is in January!

So, instead of doing the easy thing and buying a block of 5×5 charms already cut out, I instead purchased fat quarters and cut my own 5×5 charms.

The pieces were laid out two by two so I could decide the order, then each duo was sewn together with a 1/4 seam. Then the duos were sewn together in a long strip, making sure everything lined up. I only had to seam-rip two of them out for bad alignment. Not bad.

After the whole set was sewn together and the seams were pressed, I cut the flannel backing, sewed that and turned it, and then did the edge stitching around the final product.

I am sad that it didn’t turn out the way I had envisioned it would 🙁 Mom can always use it as a table runner, I guess.

Anyhow, Happy Birthday, Mom! I love you!

Last night I finished the first of the baby blankets.

I think it turned out pretty good. The minky did move a little on the cotton, but the walking foot and the pinning helped for sure.

Kristy really liked it.

Next I have another secret-squirrel project I am working on. It’s the big project for the weekend. I cut out a few cardboard templates to help on it. Here’s the fabric:

Two projects completed so far in January, with at least one more that will be done to boot.

I’d like to have a new sewing project completed each month of 2013. I’ve already done one, a sort of table skirt-looking thing (sorry, no photos). It seems like everyone I know is having a baby, so I got some minky fabric and I’m making baby blankets.

They are minky with a cotton backing. That particular combo is rumored to be tricky, so I am pinning every inch on the sides and using my walking foot. It took me half an hour to figure out how to get the walking foot on appropriately. Hopefully it will help with the fabric, though. The color is sort of turquoise, which I hope will be fine for both boys and girls.