Scandinavian Style Christmas Brooches

I wanted to share my latest design of brooches with you.

I love, love, LOVE Scandinavian style design, particularly for a Christmas theme, and I LOVE how these have turned out!

Both are listed in my Folksy shop and I'm hoping to make a couple of reindeer this weekend in the same style.

Must remember to keep one back for me though!

I have started a Scandinavian Style Christmas board over on Pinterest if you want to pop over and have a look.

How are your Christmas makes going? I've been popping onto flickr to see everyone's Monthly Makes for November and it's looking good!
Becky x

Spinning Saturday

Another month has passed and Lulus and I have attended our second Spinning Guild meeting. This time was a bit special, though, as it was her 7th birthday and she took her new wheel with her. We were so busy spinning I forgot to take pictures!

Now it has been sanded and the broken parts replaced or fixed it's a stunner! It took a bit more work than I had anticipated and I had to ask another family member to do some carpentry on the wheel itself which had been terribly over-oiled and no glue would hold it.

She is delighted with it and enjoyed showing it to everyone. She has also spun some amazing yarn, a chunky merino blend of purple and pink and another of blended blues.

 I am teaching her to crochet but she is finding it a bit tricky, unlike the spinning which she can whip through much more quickly than her mummy!

 

I got busy over the half-term break making some more Christmas brooches.

I really enjoyed making these last year and hope to extend the range with a few more designs soon.

The wet and cold weather has given me more opportunities to sit and make things and it must be said - I'm loving it!
Hope you're getting some craft time in too!
Have a good week.
Becky x

Reindeer In the Woods

We took a walk in the woods today. It was blustery and grey, the kind of day that blows the cobwebs away and makes you feel all refreshed and ready to cosy up in front of the fire.

Little Mannie discovered a makeshift seesaw made from fallen logs...

Lulu demonstrated her climbing skills...

And I spied reindeer in the woods...

leaping over logs...

rubbing their antlers on the soft moss...

prickling their noses on the holly leaves...

It was magical!
Becky x

PS Mr FP carried the bags!

Preparations for a Giveaway no.3!

A HUGE welcome to my new followers! It's so lovely of you to join me here! And of course a warm welcome to those of you who have been reading my felty ramblings for a while now! Only 3 followers to go before the giveaway and, whilst waiting for those elusive last few, I have been busy adding to the giveaway stash!
The first item is a felt heart pin cushion with pins. Something I have wanted to make for ages.

It is really soft and squidgey and doubles up well as a stress reliever!

It has a foam centre over which I loosely needle felted a layer of merino wool and then wet felted for a nice tight felt layer. The foam makes it lovely and soft, just right for pins.

The second item is a little bird brooch that again was initially needle felted and then wet felted before decorating with wire feet and a tail, seed beads on it's chest and a button on it's wing.

It's a real cutie! If it wasn't raining I would have taken it outside for it's pic'; it needs a more natural background than my table cloth!

So the giveaway pile is growing...

I plan to make a felt rose brooch next and then include some craft supplies, perhaps even some felt for those of you who have yet to dabble in the soft stuff!
Becky x

2 Projects

Project 1.
 A couple of weeks ago I gave you a little peek at my latest brooches. Well, I did a little more sewing last night and a few are well on there way...

Some are needle felted with beautiful hand spun wool and others are decorated with sari silk. I love working with the sari silk waste but it is a bit of a pain to sew as it unwinds really easily. I wrap the thread in coloured wire before stitching the spiral onto the felt flowers. It is very time consuming but they look stunning in the end.

I still have to sew beads onto this one's centre.

Project 2.

I have to thank Liz at That Fuzzy Feeling for the tutorial on her blog which I used for my next project. Liz makes the most beautiful needle felted bowls and I was inspired to have a go. Wow, it was hard work! I was so engrossed I forgot to take pics as I was going along, which is probably just as well as it was a mess! In the end I have something respectable, if a little wonky but fortunately felt is very forgiving.

The colours look much better in real life. The spiral is rose pink and actually goes really well with the baby pink and blue. I was inspired this morning by Koralee at Bluebird Notes. If you pop over to her blog you will see she loves these colours a LOT!

An upside down view - toadstool top?!

I'm not sure the outside is finished yet but I decided to quit while I was ahead. Huge respect to Liz, not sure I have the patience to tackle another one of these!
Becky x