Fabulous vintage

You may be expecting a cushion, and of course there is another cushion on the way (there's ALWAYS a cushion underway!), but more about that tomorrow when I've had a chance to take a picture in daylight.

In the meantime, I've been talking handmade soft toys with lovely friend Nikki.  Nikki has rediscovered her sewing machine (the knitting phase is over, apparently) and has been making velvet elephants - very cute. 

We think a few vintage style animals in gorgeous fabrics might go well on the craft stall so I went searching in our basement for the old craft books I know I own.  Twenty minutes later and with that grimy feel to my hands I emerge with a couple of gems to give Nikki and I some inspiration.

They are:

•  "Design your own stuffed toys" - Anne Dyer 1971
• "The complete book of handicrafts" Ed. Jill Blake and Joan Fisher 1976

Here a just few images from these fabulous tomes (as is the fetching picture at the top of the page) to get your creative juices flowing!





If anyone would like patterns or instructions for these then leave a comment and I'll scan them in for you, I think these cuties should be admired by many!

Will let you know if we have success (with the animals, not the hats!)

x

Thank you cards

Before I get cracking on my mental list of crafty things to do in 2011, I need to say thank you to all the wonderful folk we know who sent Felix gifts for Christmas.   Never one to pass an opportunity for making something (!), I've done a bundle of hand-made thank you cards. 

If you fancy a crack at these, they're dead simple - just pick some nice fabrics, iron interfacing onto the back for stability and sew buttons and beads on.  I used PowerPoint to do the words, printed them out onto cream paper and used the machine to stitch those on too

Now, I must stop doing this and get on and write them!

x

Wonky or straight?

When it comes to patchwork, I'm actually a novice.  I know this because squares and stripes are all very well, but give me a triangle and it all goes...well, a bit wonky.  I got a bit ahead of myself recently and found a patchwork block called Tippencanoe. This block features three types of triangles and I thought I'd give it a go for a cushion

....hmmm

......three hours later and with high stress levels I finally produce said cushion.  See below for the culprit, it looks OK from a distance but close up non of the points match and one of the central triangles is definitely bigger than the others!   And this was after I unpicked it because I made perfect points on the edges only to realise I'd left no seam margins...grrrrrr

So for the moment, I'm sticking to wonky and not getting too bothered by my lack of technical prowess. Here's the latest creation, made with layers of random stripes so none of the seams match!

Maybe I'll try triangles again in 2011 :)

x