Horse Pillow

As I discussed previously, this is one of the Christmas gifts I made for my a family member. You can see this post for more information.

She is in sixth grade and loves her horse, Drawdy. This customized pillow has both her name and her horses name and image on the front. Additional details include a small key ring added to the halter, fringe for the mane and forelock, textured yarn details in the ears and heart, and a faux leather backing. This pattern is available for free at my Ravelry and Craftsy stores. If you came here through those sites, welcome! Hopefully I can give a bit more insight here.

My model

There are so many ways to customize this pattern! You can change the name (I included an alphabet and number chart in the pattern),  the name, alter the colors, pick a unique backing, etc. Please email me at thatfarmgirlteacher@gmail.com if you need assistance, or if you'd like to order a finished pillow from me.

To learn about my inspiration, please visit this post.

This was the pattern designed for the horse pillow. You begin at the bottom right of the grid and finish at the top. To me the neck is kind of skinny looking, but after the fringe is added it looks much better! :) Also, I wouldn't advise skipping the halter. I actually added it in order to create a distinction between the horses head and neck, without the halter, something is just...off.

I didn't add quite as many embellishments with this one as they weren't really necessary. The heart is made from a really pretty textured yarn I've had forever, and the inside of the ears is made from a yarn I spun myself from Alpaca fiber to add texture and shadowing. Originally this was going to be pink, but in hindsight I decided it made the horse look like a very bizarre mouse...

The backing on this pillow is a faux leather I've had lying in my stash forever. Because it's faux, it's soft and supple and can easily be punctured with a yarn needle.  To get the perfect size, I pinned the finished front to the fabric and cut around it. It doesn't fray, but just in case, I used pinking shears to prevent any possible fraying. If using a fabric that does, simply use your favorite method of finishing to finish the edge. Using a yarn needle and embroidery thread or tatting yarn, complete a blanket stitch around the perimeter. You'll want to insert the needle about a quarter inch from the edge (or just under your hem, if you created one) and make each stitch about a quarter inch apart.

Using the blanket stitched edge, join the front and back together, wrong sides together using a single crochet stitch. Leave a small section open along the edge and remember to stuff it before you finish closing. My favorite part about this, is probably the fact that you don't have to weave in a million ends, just stuff them in the pillow. :)
 
I'd also like to share some important "Do's" and "Don'ts" I learned using the afghan stitch:
DO: Customize this pattern, or create your own, I promise you can do it!
DO: Watch the Gege Crochet tutorials on YouTube, especially the one on color changes.
DO: Take lots of pictures of the process, I really wish I had taken more. 
DO: Stay organized when arranging the skeins, the order you use them is best.
DON'T: Try to travel with this. This is really not the project you work on in the car or at the doctor's office. Sometimes you'll have so many skeins attached at once you'll have more of a headache untying the knots than it's worth.
DON'T: Over embellish. Step away from the work OFTEN and eliminate the inclusion of truly unnecessary details that would clutter and take away from the design rather than add to it. 
DON'T: Be afraid to ask your family member for their opinion. My sister the horse-lover was especially helpful on this one. She was really helpful for advice on getting the correct proportions when designing the pattern, and determining which of the embellishments were unnecessary.
DON'T: Design the pattern in one sitting. Step away from it often to get an overall perspective and clear your head after a while. This is more important than you realize. Had I not stepped away from this pattern...I'd have made a bizarre looking mouse. :)

I really hope you enjoy this pattern and it inspires you to make your own! :)

~That Farm Girl Teacher

Merry Christmas

I know, I haven't made good on my promises, but I will be making up for it soon, I ..er.. promise :D Between wedding planning, work, and school, I haven't had a ton of free time, and most of what I do have goes towards actually crafting...instead of blogging about crafting. Hopefully I will work my schedule out better, but for now, let me show you what I've been working on.

From left to right. Horses: Tux, Jose, Drew Piney. Dogs: Mandy Cole. Standing people: My dad, Randy, and sister, Miranda. Sitting people: Me, my mom, Tammy. For the story of our annual family Christmas photo, click here.

By the way, I know it's past Christmas, but Santa brought the Wooten household the flu for Christmas and we're just running behind in general. :)

Every year for Christmas I give the children in my family handmade gifts. (To see last year's, click here.) This year, I decided to use some new skills I learned with the afghan crochet stitch (sometimes called Tunisian crochet) to make personalized pillows for each of them. I was really inspired by an amazing Mario afghan crocheted by the INCREDIBLE Gege over at GegeCrochet. (Link: here, seriously, go check it out, it's amazing!!!) She also has wonderful tutorials on her YouTube profile I recommend if you are new to this technique, I used her videos myself when I was learning. All of these patterns were created by me, I'll talk a little bit about the process I use to create them here, and again when I 'officially' share these patterns. I'm still working on how to transfer them from paper into a digital format, and will be putting them on Craftsy and Ravelry as soon as I'm finished.

This was the first one I made for my cousin, Tiffany. The original horse design actually came from a different pattern I made for a laptop case for my sister. The coloring is designed to actually look like her horse, Drawdy, and the pillow features a fringed forelock/mane, a metal ring for the halter, textured yarn in the heart, and hand spun yarn (by me) inside the horse's ears. The backing of the pillow is a cool faux leather fabric I've had laying around waiting on the perfect project.

 

The next pillow was designed for my cousin, Lawton. His father works as a lineman for the local electric company. He is all boy and loves everything about his dad's job. This bucket truck was designed with this in mind, featuring his dad's actual truck number and company logo. The pattern also has silver ribbon in the hubcaps, and variegated, hand spun yarn (Not by me, I purchased it about a year ago in North Carolina) for his name. The backing for this pillow is cut from one of his dad's old work shirts to add an even more personal touch. (I actually think he like this side more! haha)

To make up for cutting his shirt, I also made his dad this coozie from the sleeve. :) There's nothing special about it, basically I just dug a coozie we already had out of the drawer and sewed it into the sleeve.

Finally, this was for my cousin, Ethan. He has really been into Star Wars lately and his mom told me he draws Storm Troopers every time you turn around. This was actually the most challenging for me, mostly because I didn't have the slightest idea what a Storm Trooper actually looked like. After several Google Image searches, I arrived at this pattern and I think it's pretty close. The additional back stitching around the mouth (do they have mouths?) is what really bring it together. The pillow also has silver ribbon stitches to imitate stars and textured yarn for his name and the border. The backing of this one is a fleece fabric with realistic-looking images of the Solar System. I forgot to take a photo of the back before wrapping it though. :(

I still have two more pillows and a laptop case I'm working on that use similar techniques. When I share each of the patterns I'll talk a little more about what went into each of them. These shots are of the patterns I used to make them. As you can see, I taped grid paper together to design them and used crayons to color things in and get a better overall idea of how each would look. You may also notice that some things changed between the first design and the final product.

Wooten Family Photo

It's that time of year again! Every Christmas there is tons, and I mean TONS of hustle and bustle. My immediate family and I go to at least two Christmas parties, (one on either side of the family) as well as prepare for our own family traditions. I know three parties doesn't really sound like a lot, but when you couple that with the fact that both my mother and I work at elementary schools and are very involved with charity/Christmas fundraisers this time of the year, December tends to be quite a blur!

One of the particularly fun traditions we do is take a family Christmas photo...which doesn't sound like much if you've never seen a Wooten Family Photo...take a look at the good, the bad, and the ugly from 2013....

Left to Right: (Horses) Tux, Jose, Colby, Drew Piney (People) Tammy, Rebecca, Miranda Randy (Dogs) Mandy, Cole

The above was the winner for the official card, but of course I'm going to show you more than just one picture. :D

Thanks to Eric, our wonderful photographer and my boyfriend who inevitably gets roped into the ordeal whether he likes it or not. :)

I'm not going to lie, the process is not an easy one and I'm often reminded of the Griswold family antics! (Mom's favorite Christmas movie)

In addition to the big photo, we also do smaller photos with just humans, just one person with the animals that belong to that person, the children, the adults, dad and kids, mom and kids, etc.

All told we easily take over a hundred pictures, I promise I'll try not to get too carried away with today's post...

Well, maybe... I am my mother's child after all.... :)

The animals are the most challenging as it's borderline impossible to get everyone looking the same directions with their ears where they belong, however you wouldn't believe how many we have where the animals look great...and at least one human is just a bit off... :)

And yes, I know that not all our animals are pictured, but we try to get as many as possible. Chickens and sheep just don't always photograph well! Plus, it's not possible to have EVERY animal in the picture so we often just grab one to represent their entire species...

 Merry Christmas!

~Farm Girl Teacher