It's a Primitive Christmas!

Primitive Christmas crafts available for a limited time!

I've got some primitive Christmas things that I made and have put them in my etsy shop.  

Primitive stitchery ornaments, primitive dolls, fabric covered candy canes, Snowmen & a penny rug table runner.

 All items were made by me. 

This is just some of the items available. 

All are in my etsy shop for sale until Friday evening. 

www.PriviesAndPrims.Etsy.com

Stay in your comfy jammies and shop from home!  

I'll be happy to ship them right to you and you don't even have to go out in the cold.  :)

My first craft show this year!

Every year I say I need to stop doing shows.  They are just too much work for my body.  If you've ever done shows, you know what I'm talking about.

This year, I decided to only do two shows.  One is this weekend and one next weekend.

This weekend, the show is at the Lime Valley Mill.  It starts on Black Friday and goes through Sunday afternoon.  If you're in the Lancaster County area, be sure and stop by for some handmade goods!

Here's some photos of things I made for the show.

 Reindeer penny rug made with upcycled wool clothing. 

 Burlap gift bag appliqued with upcycled wool clothing. 

 Wool applique table runner made with upcycled clothing. 

Wool star snowman ornament made with upcycled wool clothing. 

Rag stuffed primitive Christmas tree stitchery made from an upcycled curtain panel. 

Log cabin punch needle mounted on a painted horn book. 

Wool applique Christmas sheep and Santa pillows made with upcycled wool clothing.  

Small burlap bag for gift card, appliqued with upcycled wool.  

 Another snowman burlap gift bag appliqued with upcycled wool.  

 Primitive doll, "Charlie".  Pattern by Serendipity Primitives.  

Primitive prairie Christmas doll made with pattern by "You Are Special".  

Primitive Santa & Crow doll made with pattern by Chestnut Junction. 

Like I said in my last post, I've been busy!  

I've been busy!

Long, long time since I've been here.  Missing in action, but definitely 'in action'!

I work at a campground, so in the summer I don't get lots of time to craft.  Because it's in my blood, and it's who I am, I still MUST find 'some' time to craft!

One thing I did was make fire starter cups for the campground store.
I bought an old crockpot at Goodwill and asked around for sawdust.  A friend gave me a HUGE bag of sawdust and I went to a thrift store and got a banana box full of old candles for dirt cheap!  I was in business.  I went to Dollar Tree and bought some Dixie cups (3oz) and some stick matches.  I also got an old cooking pot from Goodwill.

I melted the wax in the crockpot, then scooped some sawdust into my cooking pot and added some melted wax with a ladle.  Mixed it up with a spoon and made it kind of a sawdust granola texture.  Spooned it into the cups, stick the matches in, then add a tiny bit more wax to seal the holes from the matches, then sprinkle some wood shavings on top and add a bit more melted wax.  They sold like crazy at $1.00 each!

Another thing I recently worked on was primitive stitcheries.  

This one hasn't been ironed yet, but it gives you idea what they look like.  Get black frames from Dollar Tree and you're in business!  I stitched them on fabric that was a heavy cotton curtain panel I bought at Goodwill. 

One mistake I made, was when I went to buy a water soluble marker to do the writing, I mistakenly bought a disappearing marker!  It works, but I have to stitch it right away before it disappears.  :)

Love Dollar Tree!  I bought plastic candy canes and tore homespun fabric strips and hot glued them on at an angle.  Then I soaked them in a coffee mixture to prim them up and hung them on a wire fence in the sun.  

They look great on a Christmas tree or you can tie some together with jute twine and use them as bowl fillers. 

A future project that I started and haven't finished yet, is thin wood boxes.  

I spray painted them and will cover them with fabric, sand the edges to distress, and stain them with coffee.  I'm not sure yet what I will do on the tops.  I'm thinking wool applique or punch needle.  

Have you ever made salt dough ornaments?  I tried my hand at it and wanted to dip them in wax.  Didn't turn out so good.  :(

I made the mistake of not cleaning out the crock pot first.  It still had the wax for the fire starters.  

It had red wax in it, so everything came out with a pink tint.  I think it works great on the candy canes, but not so good on the snowmen.  Also, there was sawdust in the bottom of the pot and some got on the ornaments.  You can see it at the bottom of one of the candy canes.  Lots more on the back of the snowmen.  I threw them in the trash.  :(  

I think they're also too thin cause they break really easy.  At least it kept me busy and out of trouble for a little while.  :)

Yesterday, I stitched some wool applique snowmen on burlap bags.  

They are 12" high and make great gift bags!

I bought 4 of the bags and each one will be different.  

Two done, two to go!

Today, I'll be working on a rug hooking project~~~

Stay warm!

Two new pin cushion patterns available!

Two new pin cushion patterns available!

Primitive Americana Patriotic Sheep & Chubby Snowman!

In my etsy shop~And they're instant download!!!

https://www.etsy.com/shop/PriviesAndPrims

I dyed wool for the first time!

I had dyed raw sheep's wool with Rit liquid dye one time, but I've never tried to dye wool fabric.  I love the mottled look of the overdyed wool that I see in primitive stores and online, but it's a bit pricey.  So, I wanted to try it myself.

I was given this wool blanket from a friend that got it at Goodwill.  It wasn't quite the orange I wanted for primitive pumpkins and penny rugs.  Perfect guinea pig fabric for my new adventure!

I went to Labadie Looms in Bird-in-Hand, PA and bought some Cushing's dye.  The shop owner suggested I use 'rust' and I'm very happy with it!

I was afraid I'd make a big mess and put some some old clothes on and got out an old pot that I was saving for just this kind of project.  

I'm amazed at how easy it was and I didn't make a mess at all!

The darkest piece is the first one that went in the dye.  The one on the far right is the last piece that went in.  

The fabric actually soaks up the dye, so the mixture gets lighter and lighter.  I just kept adding pieces until the water was clear.  There are 4 pieces all together, but one is hidden in the photo.  

This is the exact look I was going for and now I'm hooked on dyeing wool!!!

My etsy shop~

Have you checked out my etsy shop recently?
 https://www.etsy.com/shop/priviesandprims
I have lots of patterns and wool for sale.

Even grab bags of wool to give you a good variety of choices for your penny rugs!  Patterns include stitchery, punch needle, wool applique & penny rugs.

If you need wool, but don't see what you're looking for, just send me a note and I'll see if I have what you need.   I've got TONS of it!

Wool applique and Vintage Campers~

Well, I did real good posting for a while, then I get busy and get away from it again.

 I'm trying my best (sometimes) to get some crafting done, but with my new job

 it's getting harder to find time.  

 I've been working on some wool cats for probably a couple weeks and finally tonight I started stuffing them.

I'm working at a campground now and it's the perfect fit for me.  I get to meet people from all over the USA and other countries, plus I get to do the retail and the computer.  Perfect fit.  

I especially have a fondness for vintage campers, so I always make sure to visit those guests and check out their campers.  

 
This is a vintage Airstream that an Amish couple was camping in.  They are on a 2 month long road trip!

This one is a 1968 bus converted into a fully equipped RV.  

It gets about 10 mpg which is only about 8 mpg less than my 4 cylinder PT Cruiser!  Something's not right there.  I think Chrysler needs to improve the mpg!

I've decided I want to be a workamper in my golden years.  First I need to get some other things in order and then find the perfect vintage camper that's perfect for me.  I've got a few years to go, so I have plenty of time to decide exactly what I want.

Exciting Saturday night!

My only day off this week and I get a phone call waking me up at 8:50am about something I'm selling on craigslist.  Then they didn't even show up!  I listed a canoe for my boss and the caller said he'd meet me at the campground before noon.  I texted him around 11:30 and he messaged back that he had an emergency service call.  Well, thanks for waking me up on my day off!  

The rest of the day went ok.  Quick dentist appointment and then home to cut out some 

wool penny rug candle mats.  

My exciting Saturday night is a bit of stitching therapy,

and 1/2 way watching Captain America movie with my son.  

He's watching it and I'm in the same room.  :)

Early morning work tomorrow, so I'm heading to bed.  

Keep stitching!  And smiling!

Penny Rug & Rug Hooking wool~

I've just listed some wool for sale on ebay.  Perfect for hooked rugs, penny rugs & applique.

I've got just a bit more to cut to size.

Yes, that's my bed under all that wool.  

And, there's more wool in my closet.  

It's gonna take a while to get it all ready to sell!  

If you see something you like in this mess of a pile, let me know 

and I'll get you some close up photos and a price.

  

There's an ebay graphic on the right side of my blog page.  

Click on that to go the auctions.

Penny Rug class with Janice Sonnen

I had the pleasure of taking a penny rug applique class today with 

Janice Sonnen at the Landis Valley Museum.
http://www.landisvalleymuseum.org/index.php

I already knew how to make penny rugs, but it was lots more fun to make one with a group 

of women than it is sitting home by myself.  :)

Someday I would like to take a rug hooking class with Janice also.  

Janice is a traditional crafts person and makes mostly primitive style hooked rugs and penny rugs.  

You can find out more information here:  http://sonnen.rbcrafts.org/

While I was at the museum, I talked to the store manager and signed an agreement for them to sell my wool pincushions and penny rugs on consignment!  

These are the ones that I left there for sale.  

All are made from recycled clothing and the pin cushions are stuffed with sawdust & sheep's wool.  

My handmade items will also be available soon at the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society Museum store.  

http://www.lmhs.org/Home

I love doing handstitching and I'm feeling blessed that others enjoy the finished products. 

Time to get busy and make some more pincushions!  Or is it pinkeep, or pin cushion???