Needle Felted Skulls

Over the past few months I've continued to sculpt various pieces with needle felting. I really like this medium and it's possible to achieve great results and effects without much mess (unless you consider being knee deep in wool a mess)...

Here are a few basic skull beads that I made a while back. They were needled quite firmly to the point that they feel like high density polystyrene. They weigh practically nothing and are great fun to embellish with embroidery if you fancy a 'dia de los muertos' look.

I'm still waiting on the perfect project to add these to and an excuse to make even more. But for now, enjoy this sneaky peek at my geekery!

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Fabric Covered Easter Egg

A few years back I began making fabric covered Easter eggs to decorate the 'wiggily' willow branches in our conservatory. It's been 4 years since the last batch which are quite frankly beginning to look a bit tatty. So, time to get the polystyrene eggs out and begin crafting some new ones.

Here's the first one which I made last night/this morning. The egg is about 2.5" tall but the overall decoration measures 10" from tip of hanging thread to base of tassle.


I really like the style of this one. In the past I've used more pins, beads & sequins to hold everything in place - like you do with Pinflair eggs - but I'm very pleased with the outcome of this one. I'll have to make a few more in coordinating colours to use up some of my patchwork cottons!


I didn't have a filigree cap for the top of the egg so I crocheted something similar out of embroidery threads with my wee metal hook! It's only a teeny thing and my eyes were burning while I made it (and that was using the magnifiying glass on my daylight lamp!!)


The tassle was easy enough to make and although this one is less than perfect, it'll do. I used about 1/2 a skein of embroidery thread wrapped around a 2.5" piece of card. There's a wooden bead under the 'bulb' of the tassle to give it its shape which I then covered with a fabric yo-yo (of sorts) and then chain stitched around the edge to tidy it up.



Everything used was from my craft stash, apart from the polystyrene eggs which I bought in January from e-bay.

I've got a few needle felted eggs which Katie & I made in January. I must take some piccies of them and load them up. They're really sweet. Katie is quite the dab hand with a felting needle!

Toodles xx Bernie xx

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Sewing: Bags & Totes

I'm still frantically trying to catch up on posting piccies of finished projects and here's a few project bags that I made recently to keep you going. Hopefully I'll have my ISE5 stuff online very soon.

The first bag is made using navy recycled linen and a pretty co-ordinating floral lining. The drawstring is made from Rowan Cotton Glace. I added a small fabric patch to the front of the bag to break up the solid colour without detracing away from the beautiful linen. This bag was sent to Blueadt in exchange for some gorgeous Rowan All Seasons cotton.


Next is Katie's project bag. I made this using a scrap of the linen fabric and some of the 'ladybird' fabric that I used to make Ladybird Linz's needle roll. Katie needed something simple that she could stuff full with knitting projects. I lined this in simple calico with a small pocket for notions.


Lastly is this blue bag that I made Anna for her Birthday as part of the Winter Birthday Swap on the Crafty Threads n Yarn forum at the beginning of December. It's unusual fabric in that's a fleece or flannel. The print is a blue toille and I used Simplicity Pattern (tbc). There is an external pocket in the same fabric and the inside is lined with calico fabric. I also enclosed a couple of Fat Quarters and two balls of lovely yarn in her birthday swap package.

More FO's and swap piccies coming soon including my ISE5 scarf and goodies! I've been a busy bee in January. Time to knuckle down for February as we're almost half way through - eek!

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Swap: Christmas Decoration on CTnY

As it's been received I think it's safe to update this post with the who, what, when and why of this photo.

We had a Christmas Decoration swap over on the Crafty Threads n Yarn forum and this was what I made for my swap pal, Jacky. If you scroll down the post a bit you'll see the fairy hanging on Jacky's tree (as well as her two beautiful dogs standing in front!)



It's basically a spare wooden curtain ring, over which I crochet some DB Aran Tweed. The fairy is made as all my fairies except I didn't use floss or flowers for her dress - it's made from a piece of a fleecy scarf that I picked up in the Charity shop.

Her boots are needle felted and she's holding a little wooden heart (button). There was a bit of foot stomping when I sent her off so I've got another one in the works for Little Miss CB!

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Sewing: Embroidery Patch Swap (Completed)

Here is a picture of the 4 patches I received from my swap pals. This has been the second Craftster swap that I've taken part in and I'm really pleased with the stunning patches!!!

I haven't given much thought to how I'll use them though - maybe on a quilt or a bag. Maybe. I'll just admire them for a little bit longer before I decide...

And one final shot of all the patches I sent to my swap pals.

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Sewing: Embroidery Patch Swap 3B

This patch is a little extra, to be included with the 'ducky' patch.

The design is another original of mine. The shoes were inspired by the 1920's and the swirls were traced from the lid of a now empty box of Thornton's chocolates!

Enjoy!

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Sewing - Embroidery Patch No 4

This is the 4th (and final) patch for the embroidered patch swap over on craftster. Here's a scan of my original drawing...

And here's the finished piece. I've left out the wings but there's enough space for my pal to add some if she wishes.

It's been a great swap and I'll post some piccies later today of the patches I received.

Hope you're all well - we're still struggling to exorcise the 'lurgy from the house.

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Sewing: Embroidery Swap Patch No 3

Embroidered Patch No3
Originally uploaded by craftybernie

Here's my tribute to A Warhol! It's the third patch for the Craftster swap (three down and only one more to go). For more info, check out my Flickr page.

TTFN

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Sewing: Embroidery Swap Patch No2

This is the 2nd patch I've made for the Embroidery Patch Swap on Craftster. After a quick rinse and a nice hot iron, she'll be winging her way to the US on Monday.


I've used mainly stem stitch for the outlines, satin stitch for the eyes and chain stitch for the body and shoes. I thought that the french knots would add a little interest to the bobble on her hat (I didn't want her looking like Santa Claus!)

Patches number 1 and 2 are for the US. I'll be working on patches 3 and 4 next week. They're destined for the UK and will be posted in time for the end of November deadline.

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Sewing: Embroidery Patch Swap on Craftster

I'm taking part in my second Craftster swap. This one is a swap of embroidered patches sized between 3" sq. and 10" sq. We're split into groups and each member sends one patch to the other members in their group. I've got four to make and this is the first one.

Here's a link to the Gallery if you fancy a gander at the other patches being made: Swap Gallery

Although the image looks quite green in colour, it is actually embroidered onto white fabric (Irish linen or something similar). I hope my pal likes it.

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Holiday Softie Awards 2007 - Mother Christmas

This is my traditional Mother Christmas - made from Calico cloth and Alpaca fleece.

Her dress is made from green felt and her apron is a piece of gingam fabric that I recycled from an old pair of summer trousers.

I have trimmed her apron with white broderie lace and a white satin ribbon. Her dress hem and cuffs are trimmed with Christmas themed gold braid.

Mother Christmas' hair has been needle felted using Alpaca fleece. I also used the Alpaca fleece to create a softer, kinder face. The eyes and mouth are stitched using embroidery thread/floss.

I made her glasses using silver coloured beading wire and my round nosed pliers. They are attached with a small amount of embroidery thread.

I had two more items to enter but didn't manage to get them finished on time. The closing date & time was midnight 31 October US Eastern Time (which was approx 5am here in the UK). Sadly my camera died before I could photograph the other two items (major bummer). But at least I got this little lady entered on time. I think I need to take a time management course one of these days as things are a little bit disorganised at the moment. I'll post some piccies of the other softies once I find some batteries for the flipping camera!

To see more entries, visit the Flickr HSA group page. There are 9 different categories and hundreds of amazing softies!

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Sewing, knitting & winter craft projects

Looks like two crafting activites for the long winter nights ahead have been sorted.

Little Miss CB is now happily plodding along with stocking stitch and has started to chart basic knit patterns for 6" squares. She's also discovered the joy of knitting with quality wool and not those 50p balls of crappy acrylic yarn that I started her off with. Yarn snob! Hopefully we'll come up with a few squares between us for a blankie or throw. (I'd be glad with a cushion but she's an ambitious child and one doesn't want to quash her enthusiasm!)

Darling daughter has also expressed an interest in learning how to embroider. I can't remember exactly how old I was when I learned, but I was probably a big younger than she is, based on where we were living at the time.

And here's the pick of embroidery transfers that will get us through the dreaded dark months. I scored these off e-bay a few weeks ago and thankfully they've been released from their postal prison. There's a mixed bag of embroidery threads still captive in the postal system and hopefully that will arrive before too long.

Most of them appear to be reusable and they are all in perfect condition. The one piece which really intrigues me is the one to the top right. It appears to be a combined embroidery / applique transfer. I'm not sure how to go about it as there's no instructions (the only downside to not having the original magazines that these patterns were featured in). But it will be fun trying to figure it out. An interesting creative puzzle to mull over.

I also had to have this cream square table cloth with the crinoline lady. It was a moment of blind nostalgia and resembled one of the first pieces I ever worked on.

Who knows, when we emerge from the darkness in Spring we should have a few nice knit and embroidered pieces to share with the world. Guess that means it's almost time to go into crafting hibernation! lol.

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Swap: little toadstool pincushion, delivered!!!

I am sooooo happy to report that my pal, Gilraen, has received her pincushion, safe and sound. I've been dying to share this on my blog and I have literally been chomping at the bit today hoping and praying that it would arrive safely, especially in light of the impending postal strike.

Enough talk. Time for some pictures of the little Toadstool Pincushion. I've posted these pictures on Flickr, with comments and notes if you want to check them out. Just click on one of the photos to take you there.

Thanks for looking!

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Swap: first Craftster swap finished!

I've just finished my commitment on my first Craftster swap - the 'I want what I can't make' swap. It's been torture making things and not being able to share them on here for fear of being found out. It wasn't a secret swap so my pal knew everything about me and I had to keep my gifts on the DL.

So, here's the things I made for my pal. I had a really great time making them and learned some great new techniques in the process. Enjoy!!

BAGSKET: made in canvas and lined with calico. The drawstring top is part of a recycled linen blend fabric. The tutorial for making the bagsket are available on Foofangle with links to the original designer. The embroidery pattern is one of many that is available free on Knitting-And.com.

NEEDLE ROLL: made in canvas and lined in calico (as the bagsket), panel of Amy Butler's Lotus on the front and edged with blue grosgrain ribbon.

MINI QUILT: the flower fairy is a design taken in a book at home (title to follow). I embroidered the fairy onto a piece of recycled white fabric. I felt bad sending just the embroidered panel to my pal so I made it into this little quilt or wall hanging. I'm not entirely happy with it as a quilt but what the hey!

FABRIC POSTCARD: Fabric scraps, heavyweight interfacing, zig zag stitch on my trusty old Singer 507.

FABRIC FLOWER: made using my treasured & favourite fabrics - the tutorial is available on Mollychicken. It's a very simple concept but every scrap of fabric is used up - I even used the very last strip of fabric to make the flower fairy's skirt.

FLOWER FAIRY: made the same as all my other fairies, the hair is mohair that has been twisted around wooden skewers which were immersed in hot boiling water and then freezing cold water. Once the yarn was dry, unwind the yarn from the skewers and you'll have lovely curly doll hair! The skirt is made using the leftover fabric from the fabric flower above.

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Sewing: Hand Embroidered Girly Girl

I know I'm jumping the gun here as I have yet to post about our lovely holiday. But that can wait. This can't.

I'm working on a swap at the moment and I've been going dizzy trying to come up with an angle to make the project more interesting. The myriad examples of naive embroidery on the web prompted me to do some stitchery goodness of my own. Granted my Girly Girl is not 'primitive' enough for the style I was after but she serves the purpose.

She's also not an original drawing. I got the image from the pink gift bag which I photocopied and then traced using my tiny light box and a HB pencil.

I kept the design simple so that I have enough time to work some more motifs into the scheme, without having to stay up night and day to get the whole thing finished. The fabric is simply white cotton from an old blouse that I recycled (yep, still recycling/ refashioning/ reconstructing - call it what you will!).

That's it for now. Sorry it's rushed but I've got to get back to work (of course when I say work I don't mean WORK Work, I mean crafty stuff!). Lol.

I'm trying to persuade the little ankle biter to go swimming tomorrow with her pals so I can have a few hours to catch up with blogland and emails. In the meantime, it's great to be back. I love Love LOVE my bed. I'll catch up with you all soon and thanks for all the lovely comments and birthday wishes for Katie aka 'the ankle biter', aka 'little miss CB'.

XXX

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