cloth doll finished....

Oooops! I pressed the wrong button, so any one quick off the mark will have seen this post with no text!!

However, here she is - finished. It has been a while since I have completed a cloth doll and I have so enjoyed making her, that I think some more may well follow.

I spent a very late night painting her, waiting for youngest son to return from a party until I remembered he said he was stopping over! Still, settled with my paint things and iplayer on my lappie catching up with The Killing was a pleasant evening indeed. Is anyone else following The killing on BBC 4. It is Scandinavian crime drama with subtitles, which can be tricky when you are painting at the same time, but I am absolutely gripped.

Back to the doll, she is a simple cloth doll painted with acrylics with a little scene on her back, she has not got a name as yet, but I am toying with 'home' as that is what seems to be in her heart.

She stands about 22cm tall, with a slight list to the right, I think that is down to my cutting and hand sewing but I hope that it adds to her charm.

She will also be looking for a new home, as I have put her in my Etsy shop, so hopefully someone will love her as much as I do.

Happy weekend! x

wip's

A small Jenny Wren bird box waiting to be decorated, made from wire and papier mache .

A new cloth doll that just requires a little more painting before I can be satisfied that she is finished.

Hope to post photos of completed work soon!!

meeting Henry and other bits and bobs

Meet Henry, Henry has been made from a bear kit that I bought from The Old Pin Cushion on Etsy. You buy the pattern (Chopper Bear) and the kit separately, so if you wish you could make your bear in something other than bear fur material.

The pattern comes with very clear instructions and useful tips on how to distress your bear - in the nicest possible way!

Before I move on, I forgot to say in my last post that I had added to my felt stash recently from the wonderful Felt Fairy, great range of colours and fast delivery.

Spring feels like it is on its way today, we have a beautiful clear blue sky which is very welcome after the bitterly easterly winds that we have experienced the last couple of days. There are even a few touches of colour around the garden, although I have to admit the primroses were bought in from the local garden centre and so are a little earlier than normal.
It is always a joy to see the nodding heads of the snowdrop appearing and bulbs are pushing up all over the place. I made a big effort last autumn to plant loads, and I think it may have paid off. First crocus well on their way too, and yesterday the hens did me proud, with two eggs being laid including Edith's first egg. Looks like scrambled egg is on for lunch today! added later: The scrambled eggs were delicious and the most golden yellow I think I have ever seen!

the felt stash

Recently, whilst delving into the far corners of my bedroom/workroom/sanctuary, I came across a box of rainbow colours just begging me to stop whatever it was that I had been intending to do, and hold the colours in my hand, colour against colour, they were like jewels, ideas floated into my mind, and a seed was sown/sewn.... I had rediscovered my felt stash.
It was not as tidy as this when I found it, it was all higgerly piggerly, but a happy time was spent pulling out each piece and carefully unfolding and rolling into little sausages all placed together so that I could admire their colours next to one another. I wanted to make something there and then, something I had been toying with for a while and now it was quite clear to me what it was - a pin cushion. That most simple domestic tool of the needlewoman, but something that can be as plain as you wish or as decorative. I wanted mine to be like a spring posy, an early summer garden.

All pretty colours jostling together with little leaves poking through and buds half open.

This was my first, in a tiny round cardboard box, this is the one I will keep. Then more began to appear, like seedlings.

I filled tiny plant pots with felt and wadding and flowers blossomed.

Hope you like them as much as I enjoyed making them, there are some now in my Etsy shop.

refound

While I have been sorting through boxes of old stuff, I came across this drawing, havn't seen it for years and it was lovely to rediscover it, memories of college days come floating back. It seems I loved hares back then too.

chickens in the garden

I have for a long time, had a hankering to have a few hens. Whenever visiting friends who were chicken owners, I would admire them and enjoy the tasty eggs and think how lovely it would be to have some myself. Then I would come home and look at my garden and my beloved herbaceous perennials and change my mind.

Then last summer, there was a piece on the radio about owning hens, most of which I missed, but I caught the end where they were saying 'if you were worried about your garden, then go for something like a pekin bantam'!!! My interest was immediately aroused. However, I had never heard of a pekin bantam, my friends all had large impressive looking birds. So I googled them and in an instant my heart was lost. I had discovered the most delightful little hen with feathery feet and a fluffy pompom of a tail. The search was on, I scoured the Internet and poultry magazines. I read and read and read, it become my sole topic of conversation, I must have bored people rigid. one of my sons' said 'it was just like this with the dog....

That was a few months ago, during August I managed to buy to lovely young pekins and then three more in October. So I have my flock and what a delight they are. then on 29th December, Betty decided to lay an egg!! Our first egg, we all looked at it as if it were the first egg ever laid. She went on to lay two more over the following days and then stopped, obviously she must have thought it was too cold to be spring after all.

They all have names, Arietty (lavender pekin), Edith (white), Betty (black) Lottie (salmon) and Spit (the cuckoo pekin!!)


I love them to bits, just watching them and having them take corn from my hand makes me smile.

Brrrrrr!

A spring posy to brighten the day and a polar bear, as it's feels cold enough for snow!