Peach Patterns

Hot air balloon mobile

A few months back the lovely Claire of Craft Schmaft was looking for pattern testers for her new "Hot Air Balloon Mobile" pattern.  As I've always had a teensy bit of a "thing" for hot air balloons I immediately put my hand up and said "Pick me! Pick me!"  Well, it's taken me a while to post pictures of my finished mobile but here they are finally:

The girls think this mobile is very cool and also, of course, can't resist any opportunity to jump into frame.

             

Reasons why this pattern is so fabulous:

• If, like me, you normally "stuff up" when stuffing, this is the pattern for you as there are no small, awkward nooks and crannies to fill and the balloons take shape so beautifully.
• There is a lovely balance of machine stitching and hand stitching and the latter is not too challenging (the cute little baskets just call for an easy running stitch).
• The mobile is perfectly adaptable to suit either a boy's or girl's room.
• The little clouds and the teeny-tiny bunting are probably some of the cutest things you'll ever make.

So that's my 20c worth!  Hop over and check it out!

Christmas circles

Have been inspired by lots of embroidery hoop art I've seen around and decided to make a little Christmas scene of my own with some felt, vintage trim and little house buttons.

The Little Bits Quilting Bee book is an early Chrissie gift to myself.  I love the circles quilt featured on the cover.  It has a 2 star (easy-ish) rating so maybe even the quilt-challenged amongst us could tackle it?!

Felt & ribbon birds

I discovered a lovely UK blog a while back called The Linen Cat which belongs to a very creative lady called Beth.  Beth works magic with fabric, felt, ribbon and beads - her soft toys are amongst the most gorgeous I've seen.

I particularly love her Lavender Birds (which she sells ready made) and contacted her to ask if she'd mind if if I used hers as inspiration to make a few for my girls.

Beth graciously said yes and here are the ones I made.  

I didn't have lavender so just stuffed these birdies with polyfil (they probably could have done with a bit more stuffing).

They look cute either hung singly or in a group, mobile style.

Aren't those pirate mice just amazing?

And, by the way, eek, it's December already!!  We put up our tree on the weekend so it's all starting to look very business-end of the year!  Hope you have a happy Monday....

Handstitched Owl Pals

I'm asked from time to time whether you can make my little Owl Pals without a sewing machine.  The answer, of course, is yes! These were made entirely by hand over the course of several "sofa stitching" sessions in front of the TV using only felt and 3 strands of embroidery floss. I cut the bodies, eyes, head details and beaks from my own felt stash but the little flowers and circles were purchased pre-cut.

 

 
To do them in the way I have here, you need to master the French Knot.  My French Knots were more like "French Nots" until I found this link on the blog "Stitch School".  There are extra details here that seem to be missing in most explanations of this stitch and the photos really helped.

 

The smaller Owl Pal, which was created by shrinking the original template to three-quarter size looks very festive.  I'm thinking of making a few more of these with ribbon loops for hanging on the tree.

And here they are demonstrating their original purpose as little pincushion pals.   

Sorry about the pins guys!

Happy Mother's Day

Hope all mums are enjoying their day today.

A nice little surprise for this mum was to see my "Owl Pal" included on the fabulous Kid Independent blog amongst this gorgeous little collection of stitchy gifts:

Photo credit: Kid Independent

I've had a great day (the weather has been just divine) and I'm hoping to round the evening off with a bit of stitching myself...
 

Mother & Baby Owl Pal Patchwork Kit

A new kit is in the shop. It's one for the nursery or kiddies room. It comes with the original Owl Pal pincushion/softie pattern and additional wool felt and fabric to make two softies (mother and baby owls) and also a little coordinating mini-quilt or cushion cover.

  

The pink and green colourway is really sweet and includes owl, leaf and an assortment of coordinating abstract prints. 

Little linen forest

 

We made some little linen and lace trees this afternoon and decorated them with some tiny ric-rac and wool felt circles and flowers.  They were inspired by the lovely ones over at mayamade.

The tree forms were foam ones bought from our local art & craft shop and we got the little packs of felt decorations earlier in the week from Pom Pom Rouge. 

We simply attached them to the trees with coloured glass head pins.  I had to stress the importance of the "less is more" principle to my young assistant.  Otherwise they would have been completely covered from top to bottom!

We've got a couple more to do to complete our forest but so far so good....

New "Owl Pal" Kit

A new "Owl Pal" Kit in Alexander Henry "Spotted Owl" fabric is in the shop:

Would look equally cute made up as a softie for the nursery or little one's room.  The kit comes with wool felt, printed fabric pieces and buttons.  And see those little turquoise owl pins?  I'll throw in a set of 3 of the pins with the first 2 kits sold.

The original kit in Kokka Owls is also available....

Twinkle toes

Do you ever put on your technical hat and try to decipher visitor stats on your blog, etsy shop etc?  I signed up to Google Analytics recently thinking that it might give me a heads up on who visits my shop and blog and where they come from.  Making sense of the info there is another thing altogether and I can't say I'm any the wiser (yet).

Anyway, I do know both from feedback and from the basic stats (the ones that I can understand), that a lot of readers visit to view/download the little ballet slipper charm free pattern that I put up on the blog some time ago.  It was early days then and I was dipping my toes in the waters of pattern writing to see what it was like.

So, I've put together some little kits to go with the pattern which contain all the bits and pieces you need to put them together: wool felt, cotton print scraps, silky cord, crystals and polyfil.  Cute! They're in the shop.  Also, if you're a blog reader (and you mention it in the "Message to Seller") I'll throw in some of the ballet tutu fabric used to make the totes in the background of the photos (until it runs out, of course!)

(Note: The pattern file was a bit clunky in the early days and a few people had problems downloading it. It's since been resized and should be easy to access.  If you do have any problems, though, give me a shout and I'll email it to you.)

The "Owl Pal" Pincushion Kit & Pattern

Did you know? Wink Designs "Owl Pal" Pincushion Softie Kits are now in the shop.  The kits include wool felt, fabric, buttons, pattern template and sewing instructions.  Everything you need to make your own little owl friend: just add polyfil!