Hello,

This blog has been so quiet lately, I feel the need to re-introduce myself.  Hello, I'm Amy, and I craft... sometimes, oh, and I also wrote a book and I make stuff!

The summer has been very busy for us, visiting lots of family and also ripping our garden to pieces to begin a complete revamp that has been on the cards for the last 5 years.

(railway sleeper planters!) 

There has been a little crafting, not much I have to admit, but just a little...

Luke has a cabin bed in his bedroom, and despite having what I think is quite a nice room, he continually makes a pain of himself (as most little brothers do) by hovering around his older sisters room far too much, so I decided to make the underneath of his bed into a den by adding curtains.  I have lots of fabric, but most is in the form of fat quarters, so nothing large enough to make curtains.  Obvious solution was to patchwork some together.  I have to be honest and say the thought made me shudder a bit.  Patchwork and Quilting has, so far, not really appealed to me, and I did begin to wonder why this might be?

I think it's because it involves precise measuring and cutting, whereas in my everyday crafting I tend to do things by eye and in a slap dash fashion.  So, trying hard to remain undaunted, I pressed on and turned the upstairs landing into a great big cutting mat,

and patchworked this totally exact and not cut in the slightest bit wonky fabric jigsaw into...

a curtain!   I hung them both in place, intending to take them down again and give them an iron, yet here we are, a month or so later, and they are both still there, still un-ironed.  But at least there are 2 people and 1 animal happy with the den, Luke, because he has a den, Lucy, because he's slightly less of a pain, and the cat, because he hid in there and missed his vet's appointment for a blood test because I couldn't find him.  Sneaky cat!

Back,

Summer is almost over...

next week it's back to work!

See you soon

Close encounters...

Apologies for the lack of posts lately, first our internet connection has been erratic due to a faulty (now replaced) router/modem, and second, it's the school holidays and life has been very busy!

I did, however, get the opportunity to spend some time with this beautiful little lady...

wish I could have taken her home!

Onion,

It's my friends birthday, and rather sadly her cat died.

So, I made her this...

Hope she likes it.

Penguin finale...

Time for the final Penguin to add to the collection...

 

You will need :

10 x 12 cm of felted wool for the body (although if you have no felted wool, just use fabric)

10 x 10 cm of felted wool for the base, eyes and wings

4 x 4 cm of craft felt for the beak

6 x 6 cm of craft felt for the fish

6 x 5 cm of fabric for the tummy patch

5 x 8 cm of fabric for the wings

2 small buttons for the eyes

2 small buttons to attach the wings

Toy stuffing

Selection of embroidery thread (I used pearl cotton 8, but any will do)

Small pebble to weight the bottom

Small piece of card for the internal base

Tracing paper and a pencil to trace the templates

Plus the usual suspects, pins, needle, scissors etc…

Before you begin, print out the templates so the complete image is a finished size of  9 x 14 cm, that should make them the correct size to work with, any problems with that though, just send me an email (there's a link in the sidebar -->)

  

Step 1 : For the body cut two shapes ,using the template provided, from the felted wool.  Pin, right sides together and stitch, roughly 0.5cm away from the edge leaving the turning gap open.  Turn the body right side round, and fill with the stuffing.  Keep going until you are happy with the shape.  Make a well within the base of the stuffing for the pebble.  Pack the pebble in place by adding a bit more stuffing and finish off by cutting a small oval shape from the card (cut this by eye as it’s hard to give an exact size due to the felted wool stretching when stuffed) and place it just inside the open end.  Cut the base piece from the felted wool, place it over the open end to cover the hole and secure in place with random straight stitches.  

Step 2 : Place the felted wool for the wings wrong side together with the fabric.  Cut out one wing through both layers.  Flip the template and cut the second wing.  Sew around the edge of each wing using blanket stitch.  Attach one wing to each side of the penguin with a small button, positioning them fabric side facing out, with the more curved edge towards the front of the penguin. 

Step 3 : Cut two circles for the eyes from the felted wool and stitch onto the face with one of the small buttons in the center of each eye.  Cut out the beak, fold in half and attach along the folded edge with random straight stitches.  From the fabric, cut out a tummy piece and sew into place again with random straight stitches.

Step 4 : To make the fish, cut 2 fish shapes from the craft felt, join the 2 together by sewing blanket stitch round the edge.  Add a small french knot to each side for an eye.

Your little penguin is now complete.  You can make as many babies as you like! (sewing wise I mean, not literally!) 

(templates, just drag & drop the image onto your desktop to print)


As always with my free patterns, YES  ...you can sell what you make (as long as you don't go into mass production),  just add a copyright mark to say ⓒ Lucykate Crafts... within any written description and also make sure you join the Lucykate Crafts... Pattern Pieces Flickr group to show off what you make. Happy stitching!