Weave a Chenille Stem Easter Basket

The finished yarn and chenille stem basket.

       Learn to make a very sophisticated Easter basket using textured and unusual yarns. This is a perfect Easter craft for using left over yarns that you may have tucked away in the drawer full of discards. I have so many supplies like this! I just hate to be wasteful and not use them somehow... The supplies you will need include: chenille stems (all white), yarn, cardboard, small nail and wire clippers. I made this basket for 2019, but I'm just now getting around to posting it here, sorry.

Selecting the yarn for this craft will greatly
determine how your finished piece looks!

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Cut an oval from heavy cardboard for the bottom of your chenille stem basket.
2. Use a nail to punch holes along the outer edges of the cardboard bottom.
3. Bend the ends of each chenille stem around and up through the holes. The length of these fuzzy wires will predetermine the height of the sides of your basket.
4. At this point you may wish to wire the bottom of your basket with an extra wire or chenille stem if you intend to display it on an Easter egg tree. To wire the bottom push a stem up through and back down into two holes strategically located in the bottom cardboard.
5. Now continue to weave yarn in and out of every other chenille stem. The yarn you choose to use for this weave will greatly shape and affect the appearance of the basket; so choose carefully.
6. Shape a wire oval the same size of the base to twist the tips of the chenille stems around at the top of your basket. 
7. Weave additional yarn around the top edge to cover the top edge till smooth. 
8. Wire loops at both ends of the basket using covered wires.
9. Bend another wire for the handle and twist this through the wire loops at both ends to shape the basket handle. 
10. Cover the basket handle with more yarn.

Left, Cut an oval from heavy cardboard for the bottom of your chenille stem basket.
Center, Use a nail to punch holes along the outer edges of the cardboard bottom.
Right, Bend the ends of each chenille stem around and up through the holes. The
length of these fuzzy wires will predetermine the height of the sides of your basket.

Left, The wires inserted into each nail hole. Right, see what the bottom looks like.

Left, I decided to glue a second layer of cardboard on the bottom of my basket to make it stronger.
Center, At this point you may wish to wire the bottom of your basket with an extra wire or chenille
stem if you intend to display it on an Easter egg tree. To wire the bottom push a stem up through
and back down into two holes strategically located in the bottom cardboard. Right, Now continue
 to weave yarn in and out of every other chenille stem. The yarn you choose to use for this
weave will greatly shape and affect the appearance of the basket; so choose carefully.

Left, I chose to switch out my yarn types to make a stripe. Center, the bent oval stem for the top
edge of my basket is the same size as the cardboard bottom, however, you could adjust this to be
larger or smaller to change the shape of your basket. Right, I covered this with yarn before and 
after attaching it.

Left, See the chenille stems wrapped around the wire edge. Right, see that I wrapped the edge of
the basket again with yarn to cover the exposed stems.

More Weaving Crafts:

• Weave colorful Easter baskets using Dixie cups
• Weave yarn trees
• Weave Indian Corn for Autumn Fun!
• Construct a cardboard box loom for a child

Print, Cut and Color a Vintage Rocking Bunny

Directions for Making This Vintage Easter Toy: Paste the cutout on cardboard. When the paste is dry, cut around the outline of the rocking bunny toy. When the toy has been cut out, bend it back along the dotted line in the middle, between the ears. Color the toy. Cut out the flaps and bend these at the lines. Paste the two braces at either end of the rockers between the two bunnies on the inside of the toy. Now you have a fun rocking bunny for your Easter table top!

• Antique bunny postcard, Easter Joys poem and a hidden nest of Mister Bunny or possibly his brother Sunny...
• Sew a vintage stuffed bunny for a grandchild or new baby this Easter!
• Strange Easter Dolls, Enchantimals, once stuffed inside baskets for Easter...

Simple Cross Stitch Patterns for Baby

       The historical Cross stitch patterns illustrated below are very suitable for decorating articles which belong to young children; for instance, the row of pigs could be embroidered on a bib, or, with the addition of some other animals, might form a border that could be applied to a nursery table cover or curtain.
      A rabbit sitting between two plants might be used just as they are for decorating some small article, or they could be repeated to form a border design, and in that case other animals might be introduced as well as the rabbit.
      The two borders and the flower sprigs could be embroidered on any article for which cross stitch is a suitable decoration. The sprigs could be adapted to a collar design, repeated to form a border, or used as an all-over spot pattern. Any plant with a definite outline can be translated into cross stitch, and if it were small enough, could be added to these designs to decorate a spring themed baby quilt, a small sampler to hang in a nursery or to hand stitch a few decorative pillows for a rocker located in the cozy corner of the baby's nursery.

A Ballad Of Trees and The Master

 A Ballad Of Trees And The Master
by Sidney Lanier

Into the woods my Master went,
Clean forspent, forspent.
Into the woods my Master came,
Forspent with love and shame.
But the olives they were not blind to
Him;
The little gray leaves were kind to Him;
The thorn-tree had a mind to Him
When into the woods He came.

Out of the woods my Master went,
And He was well content.
Out of the woods my Master came,
Content with death and shame.
When death and shame would woo
Him last,
From under the trees they drew Him
last:
'Twas on a tree they slew Him-last
When out of the woods He came.

In the cross of Christ we glory...

        In the cross of Christ we glory, because we regard it as a matchless exhibition of the attributes of God. We see there the love of God, desiring a way by which He might save mankind, aided by His wisdom, so that a plan is perfected by which the deed can be done without violation of truth and justice. In the cross we see a strange conjunction of what once appeared to be two opposite qualities - justice and mercy. We see how God is supremely just; as just as if He had no mercy, and yet infinitely merciful in the gift of His Son. Mercy and justice, in fact, become counsel upon the same side, and irresistibly plead for the acquittal of the believing sinner. We can never tell which of the attributes of God shines most glorious in the sacrifice of Christ; they each one find a glorious high throne in the person and work of the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world. Since it has become, as it were, the disc which reflects the character and perfections of God, it is meet that we should glory in the cross of Christ, and none shall stay us of our boasting. Spurgeon.

• Boasting Only in The Cross
• What Does It Mean To "Boast In The Cross"?

Austin Stone Worship Live

Thou art my King- 

My King henceforth alone;

And I, Thy Servant, Lord, am all Thine own.

Give me Thy strength; oh! let Thy dwelling be

In this poor heart that pants, my Lord, for Thee!

                                                      Gerhard Tersteegen.

Color Retro Easter Characters

Description of Coloring Page: Easter lamb jumping a fence, a hip Easter chick dressed for a Easter Parade, and a retro Easter Bunny wearing a plaid Sunday blazer...

• Shade a springtime puzzle to reveal a hidden picture within . . .
  

Don't forget to drag the png. or jpg into a Word Document and enlarge the image as much as possible before printing it folks. If you have a question about this coloring page, just type into the comment box located directly below this post and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can.