Carrots and sprouts are not just for Christmas...!

I have a couple of new free patterns, but have decided to go about putting these online in a slightly different way.  I have been an absent blogger this year, a few reasons, work, real life and health have had other plans.  More on that another time, but for now, better late than never, but as the title says, carrots and sprouts are not just for Christmas!

If you fancy squeezing in making some new Christmas tree ornaments in between online shopping and wrapping presents, these are very quick and easy and will look rather cute on the tree (and also hanging in the kitchen till next Christmas!)

Christmas pudding bauble,

As my part of the 'Sew a Softie for Christmas' campaign, here is my pattern to make a really simple Christmas pudding tree decoration.

Ladybird,

Many moons ago, I had a free pattern posted on a craft and sewing blog called Whip Up.  Sadly, Whip Up is no longer live, which, after double checking some of the links on my blog, also means the pattern for the ladybird is also no longer live. 

There's been a long absence for me from blogging, reasons for which I'll go into in my next post, but for now, I'm going to add the ladybird pattern here, it was a popular pattern and is also one I've used myself a few times when I've done teaching sessions, its small, simple, quick to do, doesn't require a huge amount of materials and can all the sewing can be done by hand.

pattern skill rating : easy

Edward's Menagerie,

During the summer, I was invited to attend a book launch for the latest title to join Edward's Menagerie...

Birds by Kerry Lord

The launch took place at the Toft Alpaca Farm near Rugby, which is well worth a visit for the wool shop, cafe and a tour of the Alpaca fields.  

 

During the day I was there, Kerry herself gave a number of workshops taking us through the process of making one of the birds from start to finish including stuffing, sewing up, joining limbs and also adding the eyes.

There were other members of staff on hand to instruct crochet for those who were either a beginner or (like me!) had not done any crochet for a very long time.  Everyone there was lovely and very welcoming.

 

Also included, was a tour of the farm and the chance to meet the Alpacas up close.

They are adorable!

While I was there, I bought some Alpaca fleece to do some wet felting with.

As far as the book itself is concerned, the first Edward's Menagerie book was hugely popular so following that with birds is a natural step.  The birds are cute, comical, colourful and bursting with character.   Design wise, they all follow a similar pattern, as in body, legs, head, and wings, the idea being once you have made one, it becomes easier and easier to make more.  The crochet side is well explained and the patterns are graded for difficulty so anyone from beginner to advanced will find a project to suit them.  You can easily alter the scale of your bird by using thicker wool and a larger hook too. 

There are over 40 patterns in the book, making it good value for money, and unlike sewing books where the pattern may need to be traced from the book, these instructions are all in written form, so it is only a matter of preference over print copy or digital.  Although, for me, I prefer to buy in print.  In our house, music and movies are all pretty much digital nowadays, but for books, nothing beats an actual book!.

Back...

Wow, it's been almost a year since I last blogged.  It wasn't intentional to take such a lengthy break, it just kind of happened that way.  I have been posting on my Facebook page, occasionally in the meantime, but not with any regularity.  I also love using Instagram, although my posts tend to be mainly of our cats!

There has been crafty stuff going on, a bit of teaching and writing to be precise.  I have spent some time doing workshops with Primary School kids at my sons school, and out of all the projects I did with them, the wet felting has to have been the most successful.  They had great fun doing it, its messy but its just warm water and soap messy, and we always seemed to gather a bit of an audience of the other kids wanting to know what we were doing.

We made balls, basically the easiest thing to do if you wanted to give it a try.  The fibers I used were given to me by Coats Crafts UK (I used to work for them!), and is called Filz-it. 

The kids did really well considering none of them had done it before.  Wet felting to make balls can be tricky as it requires lots of patience, if you rush the process, the ball won't be matted enough to stay as a ball and will break open as it dries.

Lots more to blog about soon, including a book and Alpacas (all will be revealed!) and a small sewing tutorial.