gnomes driving a tractor with handmade felt hay bales

This lovely tractor and trailer was a birthday gift from a dear friend. The gnomes were my birthday gift to little f, and one of the more intense needlefelting projects I've taken up yet. While the shredded paper from one of his gifts made great hay it was getting everywhere. When he opened the box with the shreds, he called out "hay" and didn't even notice there was another gift from another dear friend, it was quite hilarious.

At any rate, I pulled out some wool felt and got busy. For each bale, I cut out four rectangles, 2"x1" and two squares, 1"x1" and whip stitched them all together with a little stuffing. It went into my mending basket and into the bathroom so I could work on them while little f was in the tub.

The galvanized tub was outside, and in my attempt to reduce consumption in our house, I brought it in and scrubbed it out. Now we use less than half the amount of water in his bath each night. That means our pump runs less and we use less hot water. He likes it better b/c he gets a full tub! It does mark up our tub a bit, but it's starting to rust a bit anyway. A towel could go under it, but I haven't made that happen yet and a little baking soda takes off the marks pretty easily.