Interesting fact no.5

I cannot make my mind up about what colour my blog should be. I've visited so many that look really nice and have now lost count of how many times I've changed mine. Today it is duck egg blue and brown, tomorrow, who knows!.

Interesting fact no. 4, owls, owls and more owls!

I love Owls. They seem to follow me, they are something that keep cropping up over and over again. My most successful cross stitch kit design for Coats Crafts was of an owl. I have a small collection of owl ornaments which live on top of the grandfather clock given to me by my mum, grandma, husbands grandma and my mother in law. I also love making owl softies, I think it's the big eyes that do it!.

This week, Hooty came to visit. He flew out of my fabric stash basket, flapped around the sewing machine and then landed on my desk.



Hooty looked lonely, so I made him some (girl!) friends.



Caught the owl bug, kept going and before you know it, Hooty had a gang.



When I design for Coats, I usually have to use easily sourced fabric or Rowan as they are part of the Coats group. It was nice to finally use some of the fabric I've been finding myself. This little lot came from Kitty Craft.

This weeks WIP, and interesting facts 2 & 3!

A new hen softie has hatched this week, still not 100% sure about the legs but am happy for now. The hen also has a little chick finger puppet with a pocket for it to sit in.





This is the other side as I've used different fabrics on each. (Next time, I will photograph softies with a more interesting background!).



Interesting facts 2 & 3,

I work differently to most crafters who blog, in that the items I make are not for sale. They are prototypes, which will be made into a craft kit you will be able to buy in the shops so you could make one yourself, or they will appear in a craft or embroidery magazine as an editorial feature. In the future, I will most likely begin to make one offs to sell, as it can be a bit frustrating having to stick within manufacturing constraints when designing something to be kitted. You can see what I mean by a 'kit' here, rag doll kits, and felt toy kits.

My background in crafting is vast, BA Honours Degree in weaving and embroidery, 11 years design and manufacturing experience, I can turn my hand to make most things but i cannot ...................... knit!!! I probably could if I tried, I can (or at least, used to be able) crochet but haven't done any for years. Must get some knitting needles and have a go!.

I have been tagged!, interesting fact no.1!

I have been tagged, thank you to Cupcakes for Clara. It seems I now have to come up with 7 interesting facts about myself and also tag 7 other bloggers. This is going to take some time, but for now, the first thing that springs to mind is this, I am married to a rather talented portrait painter, we have known each other for nearly 20 years and been married for 10 of those. In 2002, we had our first child, and for my first mothers day, this was my present.

It is not the most flattering of portraits, but I was 6 weeks into motherhood at the time and extremely tired. It is supposed to make anyone who has had a baby look and say 'oh, I remember feeling like that!'. His web site is here.

Fabric and Felt elephant

I still haven't finished the owls, the excuse being that I'm waiting for some more fabric to arrive and will then do the pocket on the front. There was nothing in my stash that was quite right so I have chosen something else. In the meantime, the elephant has had some attention. Again, it has a pocket, one on each side, and a little finger puppet to go with it.



This is the other side, I'm not sure which fabric combination is my favourite, but this way, there is the best of both worlds!.






Addition to post, the elephant has been featured on the Cuteable web site here!

Also, my first order of fabric from Kitty Craft arrived. So, I quickly put together this pin cushion. It's not the nicest pin cushion in the world but it does they job, and I'm always loosing my pins and needles!.