This was ages ago!  But it was cute, remember when I made Luna her felt letter set?  They were fun, then I decided she needed to see the whole alphabet in order, and made this cushion.  Well a while back, Luna had a go at laying out the letters, she did this herself and sang along her abc’s as she went.

Some were a bit back to front, but we sang it together when she had finished and she sorted them out.  I remember writing my letters back to front for a while when I was a kid.

It was nice to see her working this out, she actually knows many of her letters and we do read words together.  I also talk about how m-o-o-n spells moon and so on (we have many books about the Moon) all pretty low key, she seems to be grasping little things like that and enjoys pointing out signs that have the alphabet on them while we drive around.

I love to get people sewing, it’s easier and more fun than some may think..  You can buy one of these babies from my Felt.co.nz shop.

It’s good to start with something fun and well, these will be quite festive too.  I’m putting together these sewing kits, you can make a set of three or five strawberries, and the good thing for beginner sewers is that makes good practice!

Like my other kits, all you need is a pair of scissors, the kit comes with the felt, stuffing, template, thread, needle and a couple of pins.  They require no tricky fancy stitches, just a little time.

I’ve used mine as a string of strawberries to decorate the house, and Luna has a whole pile to play with too…

So look out for me at i.craft.kingsland if you’re in the hood this weekend, or come to The Michael Park School Fair to see me… or any of my other markets (see over there to the top right..) or you can just email me if you’re interested.

I’m slowly working working through some projects I’ve had unfinished for hmm, maybe two years and it’s great.  Last weekend I finished this cuddly cushion sea star that had been waiting to have it’s top sewn on, I was also dreading fitting it to the base, the top is smaller and so I was all worried about it being gathered and not look authentic..

You see, it based on a blow up of a tiny sea star that I made for a mobile for Luna, all those years ago, and so it had to look just like the real thing, only well, huge.  But I sewed it all up, and it’s a bit gathered in places, but it looks great, I’m pretty happy with it after all.  Here’s the underside, I hand stitched the felt pieces on and didn’t bead it because I know how long it takes to sew beads on a felt star fish!

By the way of you ever see a sea star upside down like this, quickly see if it’s ok and turn it over so it can get going…

I was thinking about making some more to sell, it’s actually very comfortable and you can kind of squish it into your side or behind you, and it’s really snuggly too!

The other day little Blake gave Luna and I a bit of a treat after falling asleep for nearly an hour and a half one morning, we decided to hit the sewing room, and Luna did some stitching.  Above is Luna’s strawberry pincushion, she still enjoys ‘pinning’ as she calls, even making ‘pin gardens’ – I need to take a photo before she transforms them into new things!

I was working on their alphabet wooly blanket cushion (this will be for our ‘home library’ as Luna calls it – the lounge book shelf where we keep library books and most of our big kids books).  The letters are almost all stitched on, nearly there, wohoo.

These are her first five ‘pincushions’ from left to right.  She knew how to push the needle through, and after starting with a short length of thread she quickly asked for different coloured thread and more pieces of felt.

I was really very impressed, though I suppose that’s no surprise!  I assumed she would sew keeping the pieces flat, she didn’t, but created these interesting more three dimensional forms.

I really had to resist the urge to try to show her the ‘right way’ to sew, as she was bringing the thread around the piece and folding it on itself.

This last one, I gave her more pieces of smaller felt off-cuts and she kind of threaded them together as you might beads.  So cool to see how confident she was with a needle and thread, despite a few finger pricks, she now wants to make more for presents.  Such fun to be able to sit and work beside each other and I look forward to seeing her future creations.

So as I’ve been unpacking the sewing room.. or work room I’ve been coming across old projects, this one Red Fish I started when Luna was a baby, intending to do, I don’t really know what with it, the thing is Luna loves Dr Seuss, and a red fish is certainly in with the marine theme of things I make her.

So if you don’t know the fish, it’s from One Fish, Two Fish and I blew it up to fill an A3 page, or piece of felt in this case, and I carefully cut the fish out of red felt and labouriously started sewing it on the background.  Luna loved it immediately, we were unpacking together, so I really must finish it and decide what to do with it!  I’m thinking I’ll make it a wall hanging.

And, as I don’t favour plagiarism, or ripping off other artists deigns, I think (hope!) that Mr Geisel wouldn’t mind too much if I make it for my daughters wall…

Some treats for sale at the Auckland Art and Craft Fair…

And some fuzzy photos of my lovely snuggly Sea Horses and Scallops.

Come and say hello, take home something lovely and have a delicious cupcake at Kraftbomb, in the Grey Lynn Community Centre, 11am – 2pm. x

Here are some new Don’t Give Me The Chop!  carrot softies, coming to Felt.co.nz soon…  These are bigger then the old ones, and use the lovely new Innergreen corn filling, rather than polyester, which is soooo good, soft and lovely, low allergenic, biodegradable and easy care.

They’re still pretty freaked out.

Make gingerbread?  That’s what I thought I’d do.

I love the colours, and the printing on the card is great!  So nice to get my hands on some nice vintage ric rak, it feels lovely and soft too.

So here are some photos of the gingerbread dolls I’ve been making, fun really, I get to use some of the hundreds of buttons I have stashed away.

That one is a bit fuzzy!  Here are some details…

I have some nice colours to play around with.

I just wanted to share these new needle books…  they are so pretty and very useful!

I’ve started listing photos of my work on my Facebook page so you can browse there if you use it and purchase directly from me, great if you can’t get out to markets regularly!  They come with two felt ‘pages’, a needle and pin, are compact and easy to post, so a good little gift for someone special.

Here is one of my Heart needle books, all hand cut and hand sewn.

And inside…

So pretty!

If you haven’t liked my Facebook page yet, please do!

I’ve been around on fb for a while now and I’m making some exciting new changes, I’m sharing my projects, kind of like here but with more photos, and now I’m uploading catalogues so you can buy directly from me!  At present I’m just selling and shipping in New Zealand, but will be working on getting out to a wider audience – just need to sort out Paypal deets and shipping..

In the meantime, go take a look, I have listed these pretty needle wallets, all hearts for Valentine’s Day…

And these Don’t Give Me The Chop!  Carrots are cool too.  They’re actually huge, about 50cms long each!