This no-sew project is simple and fun. Try something new and enjoy the fun of creating your own winter flower garden - no weeding necessary!

In Alaska at least, the growing season is long past, and the outdoor palette is a mix of white, brown, and gray. It seems a bit early to start planning for next spring, but you can create your own special garden inside with just a few materials and an afternoon. By using fabric shapes, fusible web bonding material, and an iron, you can quickly create a colorful wall hanging for any room. This is a simple project for the kids (you do the ironing), and they do make nice home-made gifts too. Here's how to do it:


Basic materials for this project include muslin, fabric prints, fusible web (in a large roll and in 3/8" width), and some type of hanging rod. Cut some muslin or broadcloth for the background of your wall hanging. You decide the size, based on where you'd like to hang it, but be sure to add a few inches extra at the top where you'll need to fold it over and insert a hanging rod.

Be creative when you consider your materials: Use a small- to medium-sized branch for your hanger, add new dimension by gluing seeds or other natural materials to the fabric. Use embroidery floss, buttons or other store-bought embellishments. If you're a sewer, you could satin stitch around your shapes in different color threads.

Choose some colorful fabric prints that complement each other - calicos and batik work well. Iron the fabric to the rough side of some paper-backed fusible web (medium weight is fine). Then peel off the paper backing and start cutting shapes.



You do want to think about the design you'd like. What are your favorite flowers? How are their petals shaped? Do you want one large flower or several smaller ones? What will the background look like -- the side of a house or blue sky? Or would you "arrange flowers" in a fabric vase set against a white background? But don't get too caught up in measuring or drawing out a picture. Once you've made some basic choices, just start snipping shapes and arranging them on your muslin canvas, without ironing them on yet.


Arrange shapes to your liking. Experiment before you iron them to the muslin.

In this example, I've chosen to cut strips for a sky and petals for a large flower. The foreground will be overlapping layers of green and another print that will represent fields of flowers in the distance. I also "fringe" each of my shapes by pulling at the edges to create loose threads. I like this look over a more finished effect.

Once you've arranged the shapes to your liking, you can iron them to the muslin. Iron in sections to make it easier to add new elements.



Optional: If you want the background of the muslin to be "colored in," you can add fabric paints along the way. Here I have used Jacquard Lumiere fabric paints since they are easily mixed with water, which gives flexibility in the richness of the color (less water = darker color). This paint dries quickly and provides an additional dimension of color to your work.



Iron a strip of 3/8" fusible-web on the back of the top of your wall hanging. Remove the paper backing. Turn the design over so it is facing you. Now, turn the top margin down an inch or so to create a pocket for your hanging rod. Iron in place and you're done! (In this example, I've added extra blue fabric at the top using fusible web, folded it over to create the pocket and attached it to the muslin on back with another strip of fusible web.)



If you have questions, post them here, and please comment back if you try this project and have additional suggestions.

If you're like me, you think of yourself as just a little more self-sufficient than most people. My friends oohed and aahed, for instance, after finding out that I make my own butter from raw cream I buy from an Amish farmer. I shrugged it off; I pick up the food from a drop point about 10 minutes from my house, I told them, and "churning" butter is as easy as shaking a sealed jar for 20 minutes or so while checking my e-mail with the other hand.

But secretly, I enjoyed that praise. I enjoyed thinking of myself as the kind of person who doesn't use paper towels or own a television. I flattered myself that I could "rough it" as well as my great-grandmother, Amish herself. Then my brother dealt me a cruel hand: he embarked on a solo road trip from Baltimore to Montana, where he spent the summer wrangling horses in the wilderness, camping outside and growing his hair into one giant dreadlock. And before he left, he gave me this book.

Don't get me wrong - Country Wisdom & Know-How is about as good a manual for living as you'll find anywhere. It's exhaustive and exhausting all at once. There is almost no domestic or agricultural task that is not represented here; the printing is tiny and the pages are large, no-nonsense newsprint with hundreds of carefully labeled line drawings. But if you thought you were pretty countercultural, it will school you within an inch of your life.

The book is a compilation of information from Storey Publishing's Country Wisdom Bulletins, small booklets which were published in the 1970's during the "back to the land era." They were simply and directly written, with easy-to-follow diagrams, and millions of copies were sold to eager do-it-yourselfers. The Bulletins have been divided into six basic categories, all of which are tied in some way to agriculture and gardening, in keeping with the belief that natural is better.

Animals: Here is where you can easily get lost for hours learning how to identify, attract, feed, bathe, house and care for all kinds of wild birds (including a formula to be fed to abandoned babies, every fifteen minutes for twelve hours a day, until you can get more professional help: dog food, egg yolk and baby cereal!) Or you could learn what to look for in buying a horse, how to build a beehive, or the ten most useful herbs to improve feline health. And if you ever need to butcher anything, you can consult the diagrams here to ensure you do it correctly.

Cooking: This is far from an exhaustive primer, but there are very detailed sections on a dozen different ingredients, from winter squash to green tomatoes and basic breadmaking. The dairy section is especially useful; people used to know how to make clabbered cream cheese and use a spoonful of yogurt to start another batch, and once you've done either, you'll be hard-pressed to continue buying an inferior product at an inflated price. The section on preserving food is also a great place to start, if you've never done canning or pickling before; there are lots of recipes for simple jams and relishes, vinegars, and (woo-hoo!) a whole section devoted to homebrewing, from hard cider to beer and wine.

Crafts: Try to imagine the exact opposite of the plaques with misspelled, pithy sayings you've seen at craft fairs! All of these goods are useful as well as beautiful, from candlemaking to quilting and basketweaving. In every case, the instructions are comprehensive and clear, and the projects simple enough for a complete novice to attempt. The best section, "Gifts from Nature," features ideas like wreaths, soap and gingerbread houses (think elevations and fretwork details, not graham crackers and Tootsie Rolls). Having long believed that the best gifts are the ones made by hand with love, I couldn't wait to try some of these.

Gardening: In this section you'll learn to grow the plants you'll use for projects all over the book. It begins with a thorough tutorial on types of soil and seed, garden planning and layout and prevention of weeds and pests. Then there are over a hundred pages (roughly a fifth of the book) devoted to individual types and categories of plants, from flowers to herbs, vegetables, roots and fruits. You can find out how to grow the grapes you'll later make into wine; propagate lavender for use in medicinal salves; or transform an existing field into a meadow of wildflowers. Each section contains detailed information about growing conditions, transplanting, maintenance and harvesting.

Health and Well-being: Not to worry, there is no "miracle cure" being promoted here - just the sensible advice of generations who have relied on plants to keep their bodies in balance. There are recipes for bath salts and aromatherapy oils, primers on the care and use of healing herbs like echinacea and goldenseal, and ideas for herbal teas, soups and medicines thought to be beneficial for a variety of ills.

Home: More proof that this book will appeal to both genders! This section runs the gamut from fairly quick (repairs to leaky faucets or broken windows) to very involved (construction of sheds, fences and root cellars.) But both are treated with equal efficiency, and as always, quality and beauty remain important. Ever wanted to learn how to cane a chair, braid a rug or sew a curtain? All are detailed here.

Overall, the best feature of this book is its unpretentious and direct language. No stone is left unturned, no aspect of a project ignored, but the editors have taken care to retain the down-to-earth quality you'd expect from a book based on passed-down knowledge from largely agrarian societies. If you fancy yourself a lover of nature, you will find this book a joy to read for all the years it will take you to do so!