Fans of my tutorials will recognise this design - you can learn how to make your own here. But if you've ever wanted to own one without having to do all that cutting and sewing, now's your chance!
There's one large mobile in rainbow colours, and a selection of mini mobiles with three butterflies each. They're all available here.
Then I got to work cutting out lots and lots of shapes, leaving lots of colourful scraps left over. I never use a pattern, just mix shapes and colours freehand to make each mobile unique.
Then I arranged them into strands and stitched them all onto their ribbons ready for hanging in their new home:
Finally I took lots of snaps to record the piece before I put it in the post to its new owner!
... sewing together a "new" mobile (the pieces were actually cut out way back in March!) whilst catching up on episodes of America's Next Top Model missed during the past month - if anyone tells me who wins before I wanted the finale I will be very unhappy!
I wasn't doing very well with my "design a day" challenge anyway, and then no internet was just the last straw so I put it on hold and turned my attention to batch-making. Some got started from scratch, and others I'd been working on for a while in spare moments and I just needed a big push to get them all finished. I worked my way through most of my dvd collection whilst beading this lot!
It's great having a nice stock of the poppies, and lovely to have a pink version in small, medium and large.
I really do love that pink, I've been wearing my pink poppies much more than I wear the red or white ones (though I do love them, they just don't match my wardrobe quite as well). I'll be taking close up pictures of the pink poppies soon and adding them to my Etsy, etc, but the battery charger must do it's thing first...
So many different shades of green, yum yum. It still needs trimming and backing neatly, but the creative part is finished... I've also cut out the pieces for blue and pink/purple versions - you can just see them on the table in this photo:
This is what happens when I get absorbed in my work, you see... I neglect to tidy up and the felt starts to take over our living room! I'm trying to get all the pieces I've cut out neatly pinned (or even stitched) together so I can pack them all up and take them out one project at a time and be a bit more tidy... but I don't know that this will actually happen. Most likely, tidying these things away will just make room for some more mess. Oh well.
... and also with just enough sunshine to take a few pictures of the mobile I finished last week:
It's designed to be used as a mobile, but because the reverse is plain it's perfect for use as a wall-hanging. I may have to re-take the photos soon, as they're still a little dark, but for the moment they will suffice.
... rather a lot of felt, in fact! 160 pieces for one mobile, another 160 for another mobile, and a few more pieces ready for other projects. Every single piece was cut out freehand, no patterns and no fancy cutting machines, just me and my eyes and a pair of scissors. I had meant to only cut out 96 pieces for the second mobile (making it one-sided only) but I was rather half-asleep and kept accidentally cutting out two of all the pieces so I just went with it :)
... and a couple of my flower brooches were picked for Dawanda's (English) spring accessories feature. I was also dead chuffed this morning to see that my ribbon brooch get a mention over on the Craft blog. A few other sweet people have mentioned my work recently, but I have temporarily misplaced the list I wrote! It's probably buried under pile of felt. Oh well, I'm sure it'll turn up. All these nice features and it's sunny today. Wonderful stuff.
I managed to sew a few of the discs together before I went to bed, but there are still lots to do! I also managed to get a small batch of cloud brooches finished and relisted, though I wasn't totally awake and managed to sew one of the clouds on the wrong way round! Very annoying. I shall probably list it as a slightly discounted oops or something, there's nothing technically wrong with it... it just doesn't look quite right to me & it certainly looks different to the photos in my listing! Ah well. Must pay more attention next time! Here are the clouds nestling amongst the pastel discs - I think the grey looks quite nice next to the pastel colours...
I also did a little bit of dull work on my accounts last night, which is why my crafting 365 photo contains a calculator (resting on my snazzy accounts book - it's only snazzy on the outside, believe me!). Nothing too interesting/important, just adding up a few expenses from last month in an attempt to keep up with my paperwork!
Hurrah!
It seamlessly combines my moustache-madness and my crazy love of all things tea related making it therefore perhaps the perfect t-shirt for me. The tea love has also driven me to purchase this little treasure from Seaurchin:
(she is making it into a brooch for me). How darling is that? I love the thought of wearing it with one of my "I love tea" badges (I always say about those that they are "declaring my political allegiance") and I think it will look mighty spiffy on my winter sweaters :)
... new thread for my exciting schemes (pictured here with the old empty reel)...
... and just THE most exciting haul of felt:
Gorgeous rich red, soft blue, lovely dark purple (I am ALWAYS trying to find nice purple felt and failing), lovely strong pink (ditto), marzipan for Kezzaroo, turquoise (of which I'd just run out), yummy lilac, and TEAL! Hurrah! I bought one sheet of this ages ago and have been using it soooo sparingly and was mourning its loss yesterday when I used the last of it for my current projects, so finding it restocked has made me a very happy bunny. See how well it matches the ribbon I am currently using? Just brilliant.
Two dangly mobile thingummies, one long and one short, both featuring the ace crystals I got from Greygoat via the swap group (please excuse our 1960s kitchen carpet!!).
... and the larger was stitched with more decorative & visible stitching as seen in this second photo. I don't know yet which I prefer. Hmm.
I still have lots of blue&green bits and pieces to finish, including something involving this...
Trying out lots of ideas, lots of fun! - more photos to come tomorrow, hopefully!
