Oh, so crazy for covered boxes!!!

Here's another project that I took along when I went to Iowa earlier this month. This is what it looks like finished........

I love to cover boxes with fabric and this Mary Englebreit fabric was just perfect for a sewing box. The box is one of the brown papier maché boxes you can buy at craft stores. I covered it with the fabric and then I looked to the fabric for inspiration for the top of the box.

I saw the trio of flowers on the side of the box and decided I wanted to make them from woolfelt for the top of the box. First, though, I couold see the flowers sitting on a field of yellow polka dots, but didn't have any fabric with yellow polka dots. Sooooooooo, I took black woolfelt, traced the oval shape for the box lid to the woolfelt, and then I stitched French knots all over the oval to get the polka dot effect! This was very good practice for perfecting French knots. LOL! Once the stitching was done, I glued the felt (and a bit of batting) to a pre-cut oval to place on the top of the box.

I completed this much of the box a couple years ago, but had never added the flowers. I thought it was time the flowers should "bloom", so I took it along to my sister's so I could finish it. Before I left I cut the felt flower and leaf shapes. I didn't use a pattern for the flowers or the leaves. Instead, I just cut flower shapes and leaves that sort of looked like the flower trio on the side of the box. I cut two thicknesses for each flower and stitched around them with blanket stitch. A stem stitch was used on the leaves. I could have glued it all in place but I chose to stitch it to the top of the box. I worked on it at my sister's while we chatted and then finished it at my mom's while we chatted. :-)  The floss used in the project is from The*Gentle*Art. Their colors are fantastic!! The woolfelt is from National*Nonwovens.

Inside the box are two little items that I made a couple years ago from Mary E fabric scraps......a little crazy quilted pincushion and needlecase. Someday, I'll finish the quilt that those scraps came from and tell you the story that goes with it. It's a project that I was hand-stitching and am thinking that if I ever want to finish it, I should consider machine stitching the rest of the quilt.

Changing the subject.........let's talk fall colors. These photos were taken in Lehigh (Iowa) when my mom and I took a drive late Saturday afternoon. This is a bank of trees that we saw as we headed to Dolliver Park, just west of Lehigh...........

The view below is the Des Moines River looking south. For those of you that are familiar with Dolliver Park, this is taken just opposite the large stone shelter in the center of the park. It was such a beautiful day and a beautiful view! This park holds lots of memories of family reunions, Bible School picnics, fun times with school friends and more!

From Dolliver Park we headed back through Lehigh and out to Brushy Creek Park which is east of Lehigh. This park is relatively new. Most of the land was farms when I was in high school in the 60's but the land was purchased in later years and a park was created. Those trees once sat in a revine and now they stick out of the lake! This is a very popular park for horse lovers as they are wonderful riding trails here! I'm beginning to think that I should be writing tourist brochures. LOL!

From Brushy, we drove back into Lehigh where the sun was beginning to set. I took this photo of the Des Moines River looking south. In the center is a pier where the old railroad bridge used to cross the river. Now it catches debris during high water and when it's low, as it is now, the debris and the sandbar show up.

I noticed that shadows were forming on the hillside and that the sun going down seemed to add extra brightness to the leaves. The little house tucked in the trees is the home my great-grandparents lived in when I was a kid. My great-grandpa built that one and several other small homes in Lehigh. It's that house, though, where I remember my great grandma snapping beans on the front porch and then winding balls of fabric strips for rag rugs. And then there was the garden that they had at the back of the house! I never had a garden that looked as good as their garden did!

Just to the north of that house, sits this green one and my great-grandpa, and grandpa, and a little help from my dad......well, they all built this one. It was for my Great Aunt Marie. She passed away several years ago and I was fortunate to get her spool rack. That's another story I could share someday. The colors were awesome on the east hillside so I took a few shots as I walked east across the bridge toward Aunt Marie's former home.

On Sunday, there was a huge car cruise that came through Lehigh. What a gorgeous day it was for a drive up and down the valley's that dot the countryside in Hamilton and Webster Counties. If you think Iowa is just plain flat and only corn fields..........well, it's not. Get off on the side road and you can see some amazing scenery!!! These photos were taken Sunday morn, Oct. 3rd and are just a couple of the almost 400 classic cars that began in Stratford, Iowa and made their way to the Webster County Fair Grounds in Fort Dodge, Iowa. Another 300-400 cars came from other directions to join this car-lover's dream called.......... "Cruise to the Woods".

I liked the red coupe but my son and grandson would have loved the Mustangs!

That's all for now, except for one last photo of the little couple that my mom has setting outside her apartment door................

I am sure they are saying "Happy Fall!"
Have a great weekend!!!!
Back soon....
Sandi