Friends and fond farewells

It has been a little while since my last post, for which I apologise. With my trip to Canada imminent, and counting down my last few days as work, my life is turning upside down in a very big and scary way and between the terrified tears and excited highs I haven't had a lot of time for crafting!

Still, I could not let one of my closest friend's birthday go amiss. She may live in Toronto, but thanks to the modern wonder of the internet and instant messaging, I actually talk to her (well type to her actually) more than any of my friends here in the UK. I am extremely excited to be visiting her at the end of my trip to Canada - I cannot wait!

Despite her insisting that I need not send a present (that my visit later in the year would suffice), I really couldn't stop my fingers reaching for the needle and thread...and with the help of some inspiration from Mika Art Blog, I produced a fridge magnet, brooch and keyring in the shape of a Boston Terrier. This cute breed holds a very special place in my friend's heart.

Keyring

Brooch

Fridge magnet

I did have a little trouble getting the eyes right...I'm terrible at eyes and most of my creations don't have them for exactly this reason. The eyes give character, and I find if so difficult to capture this. I left the brooch eye-less as I thought it was a bit more wearable that way (abstract, perhaps).

I did not write this post until after the parcel had arrived for obvious reasons, and I know now that my gifts have been well received. So during this time, when I am saying a sad goodbye to my workplace and the friends I have made there, I can at least look forward to my adventures in Canada and towards the end of them, the chance to spend time with one of my oldest and most cherished friends.

Tutorial: Mini flower hairclip

As promised, here is the tutorial for the mini hairclip featured in my previous post. It is my very first tutorial, and I hope that it is easy and fun to follow! Please comment below if you have any questions.

You will need:

Pattern pieces (see Step 1)

Three colours of felt (your choice of colours)

A small button

A metal hair clip

Needle and thread

Step 1

Save the pattern image below to your computer by right clicking on it and selecting 'save as'. Print the pattern - I recommend that the largest flower is about 3.5cm across.

Step 2

Using the pattern pieces, cut one flower in each colour.

Step 3

Secure your threat in the middle of the largest flower piece (for info on how to do this, see here).  This should be on the topside, which is the side facing up when the piece is complete. 

Step 4

Place the hair clip on the bottom side of the largest flower, ensuring that the slots are central. This central placement of the slots in the clip is important, as it needs to allow for the button to be sewn on through them in the next step. Secure the clip in place with a few stitches.

After a few stitches, your hairpiece will look something like this on the bottom and top:

Step 5

Position the two other flower pieces on top of the largest one. I like to do this so that the petals are offset, but this is personal preference.

These are then secured in place by sewing the button on top, with the thread being passed through the slots of the hairclip. Sew through the button holes several times, as this will safely hold the whole hairpiece together.

Step 6

Finally, pass the thread through to the topside of the largest flower and fasten off with a couple of backstitches. Ensure that these stitches are hidden below the petals of the flower above to give a neat finish.

The finished piece:

A stab in the dark...

I do the majority of my crafting in the evening - probably a side effect of having a daytime job of course - and tonight is no exception. I just wanted something simple and fairly quick, as I am in need of some early nights, so I decided to go with an idea which has been in my head since I made my first hair clip (see Button Bonanza). I think mini hair clips like this are the perfect accessory for young girls - I just wish I could pull it off myself because it is so cute!

However there is an obvious downside to evening crafting, which the the lack of daylight. This makes it difficult to do just about everything from cutting out and sewing and especially photographing. I am so eager to share my work with the world that I cannot wait until daylight appears! As if to rub in my poor photographic efforts this article was at the top of my reading list tonight with some handy hints on where I'm going wrong.

Anyway, look out for a tutorial on these mini clips, coming soon I promise - when I have daylight in which to photograph the production process...

Pony Power!

The first ever animals I made out of felt were horses and ponies. They were 2D, roughly blanket stitched and it took me several ponies before I figured out how to effectively stuff them - legs included! One in particular had a 'gammy' leg which was so poorly stitched that it ended up all wonky. I still have them all...perhaps I will photo them as an update (or prequel) to this post.

It makes sense therefore, when I got back into felt craft more recently, that my initial attempts at 3D animals were of ponies. The photo below is the first and will probably always be my favourite, although a little under-stuffed! As with many of my creations involving these colours, the picture just doesn't do it justice as it doesn't quite capture the rich purple in contrast to the blue. The felt is in fact flecked with shiny purple and blue ribbon and it is the colours that make it my favourite piece! It is a little different for me, as I normally make animals in their natural colour.

Which brings me nicely onto a trio that I made, based on three real horses. It came about after I listed one of my ponies on Ebay - although it did not sell (as sadly my items never do) - a lady contacted me and asked if I could make hers and her friend's horses if she sent photos. I took up the challenge, and a challenge it was! The most difficult part was making the 'feather' around the grey horse's legs but I persevered and I was so pleased with the result. I hope you like these little beauties too - I was sad to send them away!

Pincushion perfection...

...Well, almost! It's finished at least...perfect is not however a word I would use to describe it. I'm happy with it, but as I went along various ways in which I could have made it better seemed to pop into my head. In particular the wave pattern - I wish I had done each layer of waves in opposite directions.

Still here it is - the bottom is made from an old film canister which is super handy for storing pins, needles and all manner of small and easily mis-placed items...beads, buttons, tiny but important pieces of felt...and more!

This pincushion will replace my old and faithful one, in the shape of a toadstool, in the picture below. You can now see where the film canister idea came from! This little wonder was made by myself, probably about 15 years ago (now I feel old) as a Brownie, and it has served me well. I wonder if any of my fellow Brownies still have theirs! Sadly, it is getting difficult to push pins into as I think all of the stuffing has begun clumping together into big solid lumps.

Having had the weekend pretty much free, I have been able to do lots of creative stuff! Yesterday I made another owl egg cosy on commission and this afternoon I got busy in the kitchen - the result being a large batch of muffins! Yum - chocolate chip on the left, peanut butter on the right.

Button bonanaza

Now, I know I said I was working on a pincushion...well I certainly have been but three attempts down the line I am still not happy with it (damn my perfectionism) and have given up at least for the short term. Who would have thought a pincushion would be so complex? It might have to do with it being in the shape of a whale!

Anyway - I took a trip to Leicester on Friday to meet a friend and she took me to a wonderful little craft shop called Button Boutique http://www.buttonboutiqueleicester.co.uk/

I was specifically looking for some form of clasp for a bracelet I was making, but unfortunately I couldn't find anything which quite fitted what was in my imagination! However, I finished the bracelet this afternoon, eventually using a rustic looking button from my mum's vast collection as the fastening. I got the cute little beads from ebay. I'm not too happy with the quality of the cord I used as it isn't real suede it does snap if you pull it hard enough.

Although I didn't find what I was originally looking for, Button Boutique housed all manner of other wonderful craft items which, as the name suggests, included a wide range of buttons. This reminded me of another project I had in the pipeline - to make some hair pieces which had a large button as the centre, as I had seen some in the bedroom of the same friend mentioned earlier in this post. This of course means that once again I have to give credit to someone else's imagination for these (they were made by another friend of this friend), but I'm beginning to this there is no such thing as an 'original' idea!

Above is my first, and will not be my last hair piece - and I am very pleased with the end result! The ribbon also came from Button Boutique and although this picture does not very well capture the colour, both the ribbon and the button are a rich purple (this and orange being my favourite colours).

I got a few other buttons and ribbons from the shop as well - so watch this space for more of these beauties :)

The stuff of dreams...

Its been a while since I posted anything, but please don't think I have been idle! I have been working on a pincushion on and off for the past couple of weeks - it is taking me a while as I have made two prototypes so far and I'm still refining it (yes it is quite a complicated pincushion!).

On top of this, crafting has had to take a back seat during my spare time this last week because of an unexpected turn in my life. Well I say 'unexpected' which is not entirely the case, as I known for a while that the fate of my employment contract was uncertain beyond May. Despite this I think I was fully expecting it to be extended, but as it happens, that isn't possible and I had been looking at other opportunities just in case. To cut what is a very long, and not at all craft-related story short - I am going to the west coast of Canada for 3 months, to help out at a sea kayaking company in return for kayaking trips!

The most exciting part of this for me is that I will be in Killer Whale country - the Johnstone Straight. I think it is amazing how whales and dolphins have some kind of special hold over many people, who would fight to protect them having never even seen one in the flesh and I count myself amongst one of these people. To see them wild and free will be nothing short of a dream come true for me.

It is obvious therefore, why these creatures hold pride of place in the banner at the top of my blog. I made this mother and baby due back in winter 2010 and they are one of only a few items that I have made and kept for myself.