Keeping busy over Christmas and New Year

The few weeks before Christmas found me with nothing to do so I found some wool I had bought a few months ago and made myself another virus shawl.  It was once again a quick and easy make and filled in an empty slot!

As I have mentioned many times, I am not one to sit and do nothing!   This is even at times like Christmas and the New Year when there are other things going on - if I am sitting, I have to be doing something!

Thankfully Little Box of Crochet and Craftpod both came to my rescue with projects to fill my time.

The December Little Box of Crochet was a Toft pattern for a delightful little dog.   Not that I am particularly a dog lover or a fan of amigurami, but it kept me occupied!

Even I have to admit he's cute!

The Craftpod box had two 'makes',  The first was an embroidered mistletoe sprig in a hoop which was joined by a felt fox. 

I really enjoyed both of these makes and although I have resisted a subscription to Craftpod, I am usually tempted once I see what's on offer!

Autumn Embroidery

I've had an Autumn box from Craftpod for some time and what with one thing and another, I've only just had the time to open it and do a bit of embroidery.

These little boxes are sent quarterly, one for each season, and have a selection of embroidery and other crafts all inspired by nature and the seasons.   Have a look at their website, particularly if you like embroidery as there's not much out there like this.

This box had a lovely toadstool design set in an embroidery ring to which I had to add some embroidery stitches to give it a hand-finished look.   Just love the finish and now feel inspired to do some more.

The two little owls were also part of the box and the two together make a great display on the fireplace.

Seen From Above - One Inch to a Mile

I just love "Inchies" and sooner or later I make some to fit with my current theme.  And Seen From Above is no exception.

I started needlefelting various fibres, fabrics and yarns to create a fabric which I then cut up into inch squares.   These were first edged with blanket stitch and then embellished with hand stitches and beads and for some I added scraps of old maps.   The Inchies were then assembled and mounted on old OS maps which in turn were mounted on board and framed.

As some of the maps I used were old enough to have a scale of one inch to a mile, I didn't have to think too hard about the title.

 

 

The left overs were then mounted on maps and used to map greetings cards.

Textile Art for craft fair

I have created some unframed textile art and felt art for selling at the craft fair I am doing this weekend.

The felt art is similar to work I have done in the past.  I first created a felt base using my embellisher and then added hand stitches in toning colours.   Buttons were added to finish.

        

         

I also tried out some new ideas for the textile art, with a mixture of patchwork, mixed media and fabric collage, all finished with hand stitching and some with buttons.

 

 

 

Both the felt art and the textile art are stitched to cream board and are sized to fit an 8" x 10" frame.  If any remain unsold after the craft fair, I will be putting them in my Folksy shop.

What am I up to at the moment?

I've been busy recently creating lovely little things to sell at a craft fair I have booked in August.  Sadly that hasn't left me much time for creating my textile art.

However, I am very pleased with the things I have made which include several items using cover buttons using vintage and vintage-style fabrics.   There are buttons, hair clips and bookmarks.

 



There are also some brooches, some made from felt - both needle made and wet made - and some from fabric.

I've also made some heart hangings which incorporate a lightly stuffed heart mounted on a decopatch covered board and include a 'heart' saying such as "Home is where the heart is" and  "A heart that loves is always young".

I also have some textile art that I have previously made so I will also be including them.

 

 

Many of these items can be found on my Folksy shop, Created  by Lynn.   I also have a page on Facebook under the same name.

Make and Do with Nanny

Had a lovely time this morning making felt with my grandchildren, Eloise and Samuel.  As you can see from the photos, it's very serious business!

Eloise did something quite plain with the intention of adding some stitches to it once it is dry.

Samuel's had to have a dinosaur on it - everything revovles around dinosaurs with him!

   

 

  

 

 

 

    

    

 

 

 

 

 

South Downs National Park challenge - an update!

Following my last posting about "the boot" you may be surprised to hear that I did finish the boot and together with the quilt I came first in the Challenge.   There were only four entries but I felt rewarded for the time and effort that the two pieces took.

Thanks must go to my Thread and Shutter friends who were very positive about what I had done which spurred me on to get the boot finished and to add finishing touches to the quilt.

Around the front of the boot are the wild flowers that can be seen on the Downs but around the back is a reminder of the rubbish that can also be seen in some places along the many footpaths that cross the Downs.

On the quilt I added some stitches and buttons, again to represent the wild flowers often seen at the edges of fields.   I also used gesso to create a chalk path across part of the quilt, complete with foot prints.

The design for the quilted part of both pieces are based on the field patterns that can be seen all over the South Downs National Park and for these I used my own dyed fabric.

 

 

Front

Back



South Downs Challenge

Just in case you think I'm taking part in anything energetic, don't!

The 2013 challenge from Context was entitled "South Downs National Park" with the challenge to create a quilt with measurements between 2 and 5 metres or a 3D item inspired by this fairly local Park  I know it's 2014 but it doesn't need to be finished until the AGM in March so there's still plenty of time!

My idea straight away was to create a 3D boot using a combination of felt and quilted fabric so with time ticking away, this morning I made the felt that will hopefully be the basis of the toe of the boot.  I've never been terrible keen on the actual making of handmade felt as it seems like too much hard work but decided it would be the best way of constructing it so gave it a go.   It is a lot of hard work and I have to confess that I didn't roll for as long as I should and I didn't turn as often as I should but it's turned out okay in the end.

The first photo shows the fibres layered ready for wetting.  I had already put the net over and had started to spray with the water when I took the photo.

I'm very please with the result and can't wait to get started on the next stage.



You may have noticed the lack of red, white and blue blobs on the finished piece compared with the first one.   These were put on to represent flowers which I plan to have around the edge of the toe but they just would not stay attached to the felt so I discarded them.   I had been worried about the scale of them as I find to difficult to allow for the amount of shrinkage.   The plan now is to needle felt the flowers on and possible add some machine stitching too.

My plan for this afternoon is to dye the fabric ready for the quilted part so more news of that later.