Felt, felt and flare-ups!

Howdy my lovelies, long time no see!

I have been in the grip of a big old fibro flare and have basically been an exhausted zombie for over a week now. Not how I usually roll - it's mostly pain normally but this past week I've genuinely looked as if I have narcolepsy.........and that's not a good thing.

Anyhoo, before the flare took hold I dabbled with a bit of felt earring making! Cupcakes, bats and russian dolls - I just had to try them and get them out of my system I think.

The pics below show all three efforts: (The bats will certainly be adorning my lobes come October!)

Cupcakes!x

Russian Dolls x

Batty earrings!x

So, there are the felt earrings and while we're on the subject of felt; does anyone watch 'Kirstie's fill your house for free'? I'm a devotee and artist Charis Williams is a girl after my own heart - last week she said she keep everything and even has a collection of jam jars. I thought I was the only one!!

Charis also had an awesome hair adornment  - a cute little bone! Now as I love anything kitsch, kooky, quirky, or any other term you prefer, I had to make one. I made it from white felt, toy stuffing and a hair clip, tweeted a pic of it to Charis and she loved it! (Have to say I do too!)

In other news I have signed up to the "Stall and Craft Collective" and will be selling from my online stall once the flare has passed and I have a selection of items to stock! Can't wait to get going but in the meantime I've been commissioned by my Mum to make her a bespoke make-up bag for her birthday which is well under way and had a lightening strike of an idea brought about by going to sleep!

More of those next time, until then lovely people.........

Be happy!

Big Love, Loli B xxx

Designing, doodling and doing!

Howdy, it's time for another update on my crafting journey (even if it is later than planned - thank you fibromyalgia)

So, I've been trying out a few old things and a few new this week - felt brooch (new), oilcloth key ring (new) and jewellery (old).

A few weeks ago I got a copy of Craftseller magazine with a free kit attached to make a travel card wallet from some lovely red and white polka dot oilcloth fabric. Sadly, not all of the parts were inside so I sent a little tweet to the magazine and they said they'd send me a replacement kit with their apologies. (I must add here that it is an utterly brilliant mag and website - www.craft-seller.com please check it out for tons of ideas and info).

True enough the next day I received a new kit, with all the right bits, and was ready to crack on and make the wallet. But hang on a second! There was a completed card wallet inside along with the kit!

Having customised my wallet (of course) I figured I could make a couple of key rings with some of the oilcloth. They're dinky and, to be fair, not incredibly sturdy but they are pretty! Here's one of them:

Oilcloth key ring x

Having given one to my friend (which was immediately hung up in her car) I thought I'd do a little jewellery making - an old friend of mine!

The handy thing about this was that even though I've been feeling devoid of all energy I could do this from the comfort of an armchair.

First up; the heart key ring friend loves anything pink and/or sparkly so I made her a little pair of earrings......

Sparkly earrings x 

Next I made myself a pair with 'bone', semi-precious stone and 'shell' pieces - the bone isn't real of course and I'm afraid I can't tell you what the semi-precious stone is as the beads came from a big bag of mixed stone beads!  

Anyhoo, I wanted something pretty but laid back and here they are:

Turquoise and neutral earrings x

As you can see for some reason I just could not get my camera to focus on these - must figure that out before I launch my shop!!!

Finally, I had to do something else with fabric - I can't go a day without the feel of it in my hands........

Lo and behold; Billy bluebird was created - a dinky bird brooch made from felt and stuffed with a little stuffing to make him puff out his chest! Here he is on my first Glasto bag (I now have three) which was wonderfully lined and customised by my fabulous Mum with a selection of buttons old and new!!

Billy bluebird

Since these makes I've been busy designing more earrings and brooches so my next post will hopefully show you these..........

'Till next time, be happy and enjoy the sunshine!!

Big Love, Loli B xxx

There's a cornucopia of information out there........insomnia...........and 'Hoot' the owl.........

Hello again!

Having posted earlier I have spent a while going through my 'resource' file and the good old t'internet searching out all kinds of info - legal shizzle, where to sell, who charges what to sell on your behalf and all that jazz.

Phew! I had to take a little break and have a cuppa in the garden after information overload and wouldn't you know it? The OH rings me and suggests I have been sunning myself while he's been working all day. If only. I'd probably have less of a headache if I had been in the sun too long!

The upshot of my afternoon's research is that I have a (long) list of websites to check out, blogs to read, and decisions to make.......oh and pattern pieces to cut ready for assembly. (I mean putting together - not taking to school in the morning!)

In other news I was unfaithful to my blog this week - I posted a pic of a little creation on Facebook before I posted it here. Please forgive me dear blog! *grovels on knees, does puppy dog eyes etc etc

Anyhoo, here's what I should have posted!

The OH is having trouble sleeping so I made him a little felt owl, whom I promptly named 'Hoot', and filled it with lavender from the garden. (I doodled many 'owl' shapes and searched out many pictures and eventually came up with a relatively simple shape I was happy with).

Here he is:

'Hoot'

Having handed him over to the OH I stated that he was fiddly to make and was deffo a one-off, but within a few mins of the photo of the owl being on Facebook a friend asked if she could order some! Typical yet marvellous!!!

To be fair, having made my templates (from template plastic) cut the felt pieces and chosen the buttons for the eyes the 'making' part wasn't tricky at all. I think I'm trying to convince myself that if I blast through the preparation I can handle making more; plus it's cute and smells lovely so I'm becoming rather keen!

Off to soothe my overloaded brain with laid back tunes and sunshine for a little longer before I get back to it!

Big Love, Loli B xxx

P.s. It's a good job the owl is aesthetically pleasing as it didn't help with the sleep problem at all! Are men-folk immune to Lavender??

One step beyond......and a stitch debate

Howdy,

It's time for another patchwork post - it's about three dimensional patchwork again (and how I got hooked on making these bad boys!)

So, after the pin cushion/doorstop I made for my Mum and finding out the pattern was a) not for commercial use and b) much bigger than I expected, I decided to use the graph paper in my quilting book and doodle a bit......

I seem to like working with definite lines and angular structures so I got to trying rectangle and diamond combinations. These turned out to be perfect for a little pin cushion so I made my templates, cut my fabric, tacked the pieces and got stitching......... (N.B. NEVER use your dressmaking scissors to cut anything but fabric - they will get blunt really quickly and you will no longer love them!)

The essential bits and bobs

Super cute ice cream tubs make for fab storage!!

My local haberdashery, craft centre-type place sells samples of fabric in these dinky ice cream tubs. Not just lovely to look at - they come in handy for storage too!

With lots of scraps of fabric (mainly internet-acquired this time) I made the first pin cushion in bright fabric. The next three were all in softer blue tones and then I added a pink and yellow one along with a red and white one in the interests of not becoming a faded, vintage-style addict. (I totally love the vintage-looking cushions personally but I know not everyone shares my exquisite tastes!)

Here they are: 

The first (not -so-famous) five

Bing! Red and white number; enter stage left!

I used fabrics to compliment the main sections for the sides and hey presto; a little family of pin cushions came to be! Now I just need to decide how to sell my wares and get going. Small items like this are perfect for me as when the fibro flares up and I can't do a lot I can at least crack on and still feel like I've achieved something. Winner!.......even if I did become hooked on making them for a time.........

Just to prove they are 3-d!

To Whipstitch or not to whipstitch? (This bit refers to hand sewing patchwork - I'd rather do it by hand as it portable and easier to correct any mishaps!)

Well, that is indeed the question. Most quilting reference material I have read suggests using whipstitch to join the patchwork pieces together. This is when you hold two pieces, right side together, and catch one or two fibres from each piece with your needle and thread.

So, me being me, I cannot get this to look good on a finished piece and I find it uses a ton of thread. Therefore on my patchwork pieces I use the tiniest running stitch imaginable - seriously, we're talking around 1mm per stitch! This gives me a neat, surprisingly strong, finish with very little stitching showing if any at all.

I guess the best way is to practice and find what works for you - we're all different and that's what makes life interesting!

Right, signing off now to go and do some research on selling and doodle some more designs.

Toodle pip!

Big Love, Loli B xxx