Sweet Apple

Apple Blossoms by William Biscombe Gardner, England 1847-1919

Yesterday I was busy with mending and fixing some of my recent sewing. I added pockets and trims on some of them and cut out some solid color jackets.  I had this small piece of fabric from Walmart and wanted to make the stripes of color land a certain way when gathered up into a pumpkin or fruit, and this is how it turned out.

The apple was made by folding a piece of the fabric in half to make a square and then sewing up the sides, leaving the top open for stuffing.  I then used quilting thread for gathering the top.  The stem is a fragrant cinnamon stick, and I used some old floral leaves that I have in my little box of floral pieces that might come in handy someday :-)

The honeycrisp apple on the left, with the variegated  colors is what I was trying to make the fabric apple look like. I really of the Gala apple on the right, with the dark red stripes.

With this fabric I also tried to make one of those beautiful storybook pumpkins that has the pretty green and gold on it. 

I saw a beautiful purple velvet pumpkin at the grocery store today that was being sold for $13.00.  Also in the floral section of the grocery store, there was a bouquet of roses with faux diamond stick pins in the middle of each rose.

I used to be able to get one long stemmed rose for about $2.00 there, and when I asked if I could buy one rose with of the florist jewel pins, I was told they were not available like that any more. I could buy a bouquet only, but not a single rose, neither would they sell me the crystal florist pins.

I was in the mood for a fresh flower with one of these pins, so I took a dressmakers straight pin and glued craft gems on them with tacky glue (not Elmer's liquid glue, which doesn't work with this project) and pushed the pins into some fresh Zinnias from my garden. (My roses didn't grow well this year.)

Until I can get to Hobby Lobby or Michaels, I have substituted a piece of a straw for the one I put in the artificial rose.

The straight pims work okay in the fresh flowers.

I like so see the light from the window shining on these little gems.

I appreciate all your suggestions for topics to address on this blog, and I am thinking about them all the time.  I have an urgent sewing task today, as I heard my ladies are going to tour some public gardens and rose gardens at a historical house, and I am making a garden tour dress.

A good verse to think about today for homemaking:

1Co 14:40    Let all things be done decently and in order.

If you are interested in making apples for your decor, here are the instructions for this particular one. You can get more information online, as there are other ways of making these.  You can use any fabric you like.  I was interested in this tie-dye print because it has the color of apples.  

Take a rectangle of this fabric and fold it in half to make a square.  If using a print that you want to go vertically, you will need to experiment to see how it will work.  In this demonstration I have the stripes going horizontally on the apple.  The first one I pictures has vertical stripes because I wanted the apple to look like the real ones.

After folding it in half it should be a square.

Hand or machine sewn two sides, leaving the top open for stuffing.

Stitch around the top and pull up the stitches to gather, and secure the gathering by sewing into the fabric and then securing the thread in a knot.

Since it looks more like a sack than an apple, the pointed ends at the bottom will have to be folded over and stitched down.

Tack one side down and then the other to make it more rounded.

Insert a cinnamon stick or a piece of wood in the middle with some latex leaves. You can dab some tacky glue in the openning first.