It’s a bit like the Hitchcock classic around here

Hitchcock’s, The Birds, was one of my favourite films as I grew up, the eerie notion that birds of all shapes and sizes should be overcome with an insatiable lust for human flesh, attacking young and old alike without provocation and otherwise simply sitting and waiting on some playground climbing frame for their next unsuspecting victim …

… actually, no, it’s nothing like that around here … although we do seem to have an increasing number of slightly suspicious looking birds sitting in the windowsill!  And so it was that I finished my latest papier mache birds.  My latest obsession.

In terms of scale the one in the middle is a tad over 6″ tall at it’s tallest point.  I decided to render these ones in shades of green with the now familiar pattern of white dots, I’ve got a couple more under-way as I type this, although I imagine it’ll be a good few days before I finish them – other commitments such as life tends to throw at you … like blocked drains … ugh!

As ever, these are available to buy from our shop.

Gruber ~ Demon in a waistcoat

I had promised to have this finished by April 2009, so obviously I’m delighted to have finished it before it goes a full year past my own self-imposed ‘due date’!

Like most of his erstwhile and largely forgotten friends Gruber is keen on world domination, although it’s perhaps telling that he and his cohorts are largely forgotten given their compete ineptitude when it comes to matters of actually achieving world domination.  Indeed his most well known cousin, Gravalash, was defeated by his inability to get off a high shelf and whilst such trifling difficulties are unlikely to be of much difficulty to this fellow the complexities of reaching the door handle have limited the range of Gruber and the fulfilment of his innocuous plans.

He dreams of breaking loose and running free as he once did, although he is still haunted by the nightmare of attempting to cross a field of snow that proved to be too cold for his tippy-toes, alas what else is left for him other than to stand at the window and wave at the post lady …

Gruber stands at 18.5″ / 47cm tall, is 16.25″ / 41cm from the tip of one horn to the tip of the other, and is approx 11″ / 28cm deep.

He is available for sale, to a good (and secure) home in our Coriandr shop, here – additional images are also there.

Knitted Sheep (with link to pattern)

Ages and ages ago I knitted this sheep from the pattern on the Flutterby Patch blog.  It’s taken me this long to get photos of it.  This is such an easy and quick pattern that anyone with half an idea about knitting can make one.

So, anyway, this particular sheep is called Mary.  One day Mary was out walking and came across the most beautiful felted rock and spiral basket.  Mary wished that the rock was in the basket and hey presto, her wish was granted (she’s a magic sheep don’t you know).

Mary climbed on top of the rock to get a better view of the valley below.  She smiled as she spotted some of her sheep friends frolicking through the fields.  Mary wanted to get down to join them but she worried that she might slip and fall.  Suddenly as if by magic (told you she’s a magic sheep) a pile of stones appeared.

Mary was overjoyed.  She climbed down the stones…very carefully…

… and toddled off to meet her friends and tell them all about her mini adventure.

Mary says while you’re having a look at the pattern, check out the rest of the Flutterby Patch blog…it’s very uplifting.

Tartan Owl Ornament

This tartan chap was created as a commission this weekend.  In keeping with our attempts to reduce waste, he’s made from a piece of tartan that would have otherwise been binned and some ecospun felt.  Stuffed, as usual, with reclaimed polyester stuffing.

He’s got a bit of a problem though.  Whilst out for his morning walk, he came across a very strange object.  It looked like a grassy mound but he couldn’t be sure.

At first he stood next to the mound, he thought it enhanced his green wings and the green stripes in his tartan, but after a while he became suspicious that the object wasn’t a grassy mound at all but an owl eating alien so he made a hasty retreat to his new home.

Handmade Christmas Wreath

Jolene and I spent a couple of hours last night collaborating on this Christmas Wreath for the front door last night, we’re fairly pleased with the end result even if I did get pricked so many times by the pine needles that my hands broke out in a mild allergic reaction that made it look like had small pox or some such … oh, what fun!

We actually collected the pine cones for these a couple of months ago and they have been sat in a bag waiting for us to do something with them since then, they were actually intended for the local playgroup but there were far too many and so we resolved to use them ourselves.

The cones themselves were initially sprayed silver, before a quick dash with the gold spray.  The berries are beads cut from a beaded Christmas tree decoration and the pine branches and Sitka Spruce from the garden (I was out cutting these in sub-zero temps last night.

We mounted the whole lot on willow branch (also from the garden) that we bent into a circle and twisted around itself, we used wire to secure the first layer of pine branches before using thread to secure the last couple of layers.  The pine cones were then threaded on, as were the ‘berries’.

I think if we do this again I’m going to find myself a pair of light gardening gloves!

Spring inspired bowls

I’ve been meaning to make these for an age and whilst the inspiration is very much borne of the spring time the design is based on an earlier bowl I made way back when, here. 

I don’t know about you, but as we prepare to plunge into the depths of winter (haven’t we already plunged?) it seems like a remarkably good idea to do everything we can to remind ourselves that the long dark nights and the miserable weather only last until spring … actually the weather never really improves beyond getting a mite warmer, it does at least get lighter though!

Fabric Finches ~ an alternative to the felt bird

Jolene has been experimenting with some different fabric for her felt finches and come up with these wee charmers.  On the one hand we have a wee tartan or light tweed fellow and on the other we have an adorable little fluff ball, incredibly soft to the touch made out of a deep polar fleece.

Very cute I’m sure you’ll agree!

commissions – green felt birds

This week I’ve been working on some commissioned felt birds.  These ones are a departure from the ones in the shop in that they are made from 100% wool felt and if these are typical of the results to be gained from spending a few extra pennies up front, I think I’ll be using 100% wool felt for all my future birdies.

These chaps are far sturdier and easier to work with than the ecospun felt birds that I had been making.  That’s not to say that the ecospun felt birds are poorer quality, they’re not…these ones just are easier to work with.

I’m extremely happy with these, I love the green felt, and I really wish I could afford one and find a place in the house to put one…maybe one day we’ll have finished renovations and there’ll be a special shelf just for me.

pocket pillows – boys and bears

It seems that pocket pillows are becoming a favourite of mine.  So called because they are pocket sized rather than them having a pocket, although occasionally they have a pocket too.  They’re just the right size for little hands and are perfect even for pin cushions for those with grown up sized hands.

The two I’ve been working on this weekend are a boy in green and blue (I can’t remember where I got this pattern from) and the love bear from Andrea Zuill.

These are so easy to make.  All you have to do is embroider your design of choice onto your fabric of choice – my favourite is brushed cotton for softness.  Put your embroidery and backing fabric wrong sides together and draw a line round the embroidery (about 1/2″ from the sewing).  Sew round the line (I use back-stitch) leaving an opening for turning and stuffing.  Turn and stuff quite tightly, and sew up the opening with whip stitch.  I use invisible thread for this but that’s my personal choice.

For the red bear (shown below) I upcycled a dress that had a rather fetching pocket for whatever trinkets little girls like to carry around.

These are so simple to make and a really nice way to display embroidery – go on have a go, you know you want to.

Handmade Christmas Tree Decorations

Over the past few weeks I have been busy with a couple of commissions and finalising a new idea for Christmas tree decorations.  I’m reserving the commissions for a post of their own because they took me so long that they deserve a gold plaque, never mind their own post!

I know it seems too early to be talking about Christmas but it will be here before we know it and last year it totally caught me off guard so, like all good girl guides, this year I’m being prepared…besides we have a mega craft fair two weeks before Christmas and we don’t want to be embarrassed by a lack of stock.

The christmas tree decorations started life months ago now as a rough idea for bodies and I’ve had these embroidered bodies lying around in my sewing box all summer.  With the closing in nights it was time to finish the job.  They are now a mixture of felt bodies and polymer clay heads, hands and feet.  I think the picture speaks for itself.

At this stage I have 18 of these delightful little girls.  Each one is different.  I just need to think of a name.