Making Rainbows

I've admired all sorts of fibre art on social media for years, without ever having the time to have a go and make something of my own, so lockdown was the perfect time to have a go and make a rainbow. Especially as the rainbow image was being used in all the support NHS campaigns, it seemed double perfect.

Luckily, being a craft hoarder, I had plenty of wool, piping cord, and ribbon to get started, so quickly did.

I made this little one for me, and hung it in the window, which quickly attracted admiration from the neighbours (we live in a block of flats, and this was in the window facing our shared garden). 

I then made these ones, and posted a photo on social media, and quickly started to get some love!

By this point I'd run out of piping cord, but was sure I had some rope somewhere (no idea why?!?) and I quickly found a bag with lots of different thicknesses of rope! Winner! I wrapped and wrapped, and pom pom'd and glued, until I'd run out of my initial rope stash. 

Luckily our local independent DIY shop was open, and had some sash cord in 2 thicknesses - perfect for wrapping!

I bought a 10m length and was very happy, but then got so many orders, I'd wrapped the entire 10m in one day! So popped back the next day to but another length. And again wrapped the whole 10m, so popped back a third day to buy another 10m!!

By this point, the lovely shop owner enquired as to what I was doing, and why i needed so much cord!! I assured him I was not some sort of murderer/bondage fan, and showed him some photos of my rainbows!

Since then, I've been steadily making rainbows in all sizes and colour combinations, and making good on one of my lockdown resolutions - to use up my entire wool stash!!

They are very therapeutic to make, and I might sneakily add one to every window in our flat (we have 5 - haha!)

Merry Christmas Banners

I know, I know, it's only October, but if I need to sew all those letters, I need to start now.

Last year I made these banners in Red and Green, and Black and White. Any suggestions for more options....

Happy Birthday Banners

Alongside all my personalised felt name banners, I also make Happy Birthday banners (and Christmas ones too - but it's too early for that yet!!). I love the idea of having a long lasting, reusable banner that can come out again and again for everyone's birthday, and replaces all the terrible single use banners you find in party shops.

The original one I made was in yellow and grey (surprise surprise), but I've since made a range of custom ones to suit other people's tastes too!

Here are some photos...

Which is your favourite? And which colours should I make next??

A-Z of name banners - part 2

It's been a hard decision choosing banners to put into this A-Z of names. Ideally, they'd all begin with the right letter, and so would the name (e.g Hearts & Henrietta which was one of todays posts). Sadly most of them don't conform to this, so I've usually picked one of each to show off.

Here are my recent ones:

Cole & Clouds = yay! Double 'C'

And then Connie with some awesome lions!

Daniel & Dinosaurs = Double 'D' - win again!

And another cool Connie, with 2 different dogs. 

Emilia & Elephants! = Double 'E' 

Emilia is such a beautiful name, and quite popular at the moment it seems - I've sewn 5 of these banners, all in different colours, in the last year. 

Faiz with 2 different animals. Because why not?

And Alfie and Foxes. It doesn't begin with F but does have an F nicely placed in the middle!

G is for Gael, and Giraffes. Sadly not in the same banner, but they still both look beautiful!

H for Hannes and Hearts - again not in the same banner, until I got the order last week for Henrietta with Hearts - which fitted in perfectly instead!!

More to follow, we're only on H! Watch this space! 

Happy New Year - 2019 - New Ideas....

Wow, Happy New Year 2019!! How did that come around so quickly??

After a very busy end to 2018, I've already cut out pieces for 15 new mobiles, I'm ready to have a good few days of sewing and re-stock my Etsy shop ready for all those 2019 babies.

One of my favourite new designs from last year, that I can't wait to get around to making again, was an Alice in Wonderland mobile. It's so fun to read into the characters, and work out how I'm going to recreate them in felt (and which ones to use). I think this is a mobile that will always change slightly, every time I make one.

Here are some photos.....

Fish & Coral Card Cut Outs

Last year I was asked to make some brightly coloured fish and coral cut outs to be used for a Boden stills photoshoot. I was very excited to get the catalogue in the post this week...but sadly they decided to go with computer generated fish images instead of my cut outs. Nevermind!

Here are some photos of my work....