Show & Tell #14

One of the best bits of my job is seeing what people have been making from my books and free tutorials. I love seeing the photos of finished projects that people share with me, and I love sharing them with you guys too as part of my ongoing (though somewhat infrequent) Show & Tell series.

It's been a while since my last Show & Tell post, so I've got lots of crafty goodness to show you...

Holly stitched a fab cassette phone case using my pattern from Mollie Makes #41.

Lisa shared this in-progress photo of an angel bear she was sewing from my first book, Super-Cute Felt. Her daughter helped trace the pattern and was "very insistent that the colours are as close as possible" to the ones in the photos.

Kate bought a big bundle of felt from my shop and used it to create two colourful patchwork projects, which she shared as tutorials on her blog.

Felt patchwork table mats...

... and a rather fabulous felt patchwork blanket.

 

Louise emailed me these photos of a cute woodland garland she'd sewn using patterns from my second book, Super-Cute Felt Animals. It looks like lots of happy hours of sewing went into this!

 

Liz used my vintage felt baubles tutorial to decorate her Christmas cards last year. Look at all those baubles!

Liz said she made the ornaments "then attached them to cards using a brad, so the recipients can take the ornaments off and keep them when they are done with the card" She "made the cards from a very heavy cardstock so they wouldn't tip over" and "sewed on the coordinating borders with my machine". Such a great idea.

Linda wrote a lovely review of Super-Cute Felt Animals. "The day the book arrived in the mail our granddaughter was here and we had a wonderful time looking through the book and picking out animals I would make for her. She chose a cat and a dog"

Instead of stitching eyes (which can be quite fiddly at this scale) Linda added cute googly eyes instead.

She also stitched a pair of blackbirds using my free pattern.

The delightfully named "A Foolish Twit" tweeted photos of a whole bunch of things she's been making from my books. She said "Without your patterns I would never have got back in to crafting, now I love it!" which makes me very happy.

She combined two projects in Super-Cute Felt to make this bee needlecase...

 

... stitched lots of safari animals from Super-Cute Felt Animals...

... and made a whole army of mice finger puppets (I wonder what the collective noun would be for finger puppets?). You can also spot one of my floral projects in the bottom pic - patterns for the mice and the flowers can both be found in Super-Cute Felt.
 

My previous Show & Tell post was all about the sky blankets other people have been making, inspired by my sky blanket.

Here's Leanne's finished blanket - congrats, Leanne!

 

Amy is making a fab crochet version of the sky blanket, crocheting a granny square a day and using cheerful yellow yarn for sunny days instead of sticking with shades of blue.

She's blogging about the blanket as it grows. It's looking great, and has a surprising amount of yellow in it.

Amy wrote "I can't actually say just how much I love this project - it is great seeing how it grows, as I have no idea what colour the squares are going to be from one day to the next" ... "this blanket is bringing me nothing but pleasure" - which sounds a lot like how I felt when making my sky blanket. Such fun!

And last but by no means least, Polly stitched a tree stump pincushion using this guest tutorial shared on my blog by the talented Manuela.

Polly adapted the pattern slightly, using French knots to add the white spots on the toadstools which look great. She says "I'm really pleased I made this! I like having practical items which are also visually pleasing, and this makes me happy every time I use it." What more can you ask for from a crafty project?

You can see see all the previous show and tell posts here. My archive of free patterns and tutorials can be found here and you can read more about my books here.   

If you want to share what you've been making from my patterns (or from supplies you bought from me back when I still sold them, or when I've done a destash sale) please do get in touch. If you just want to share your work privately and don't want to be included in a future Show & Tell post that's totally okay! :)

You can leave a comment and link here on this post, send me an message via my contact form or share a photo over on my Facebook page.

Please note: the Amazon links in this post are affiliate links. 

Show & Tell: Sky Blankets!

Remember my sky blanket?

In 2012 I knitted a blanket square a day based on how the sky looked at midday. I knitted almost a year's worth of squares (360 in total) and stitched them together to make a blanket recording the year's weather. It was a lot of work but a huge amount of fun!

My sky blanket was based on Lea Redmond's awesome Sky Scarf project, and in turn my blanket project has inspired other people to start their own sky blankets. Seeing the photos has been quite thrilling and I'm delighted to be able to share some of them with you guys today...


Karen's blanket has been put to good use this winter! Like me, she chose her sky colours based on the sky at midday each day:

Alicia blogged about working on her blanket. I love how she got her kids involved with the project: "They love coloring in the little squares every day.  During the school year we kept it in the car and they took turns filling them in for me on the way to school."

 

 

Leanne has also been blogging about her blanket's progress. It's been lovely seeing updates popping up on her blog as her blanket has grown, and seeing her kitty "helping" along the way!

 

 

 

You can read all about Leanne's blanket-making adventures on her old blog, Knit Me a Cake.

She also blogged about how to knit a sky blanket square - her squares are bigger than mine and all knitted in moss stitch (I stuck to plain old garter stitch for my blanket) - and recently shared some great tips for sticking with a long-term crafty project like this.


Finally, my blanket-making inspired Laura to make a wonderful weather quilt for her niece - giving it as a surprise 1st birthday gift!

Laura used a selection of prints to represent different kinds of weather (sunny, rainy, grey, etc), using at least two different prints for each weather type so she wouldn't end up with two squares the same next to each other.

Many thanks to the ladies who have shared their wonderful sky project photos! It has made me so happy to see them xxx

Fancy starting your own sky knitting project? Click here to read about Lea's original Sky Scarf project, or click here for instructions for how to knit a sky blanket.

Show and Tell #13

Every so often I get a lovely email or a message from someone via my Facebook page sharing a photo of something they've made from one of my books, or using one of my free tutorials.

It's always awesome seeing these photos. They really make me smile and - no exaggeration - getting to see what people have been making from the patterns I put out into the world is one of the very best parts of my job!

So, today I'm sharing a few pictures people have shared with me since my last Show & Tell post...

Melodie made an iPod cosy using the mix-tape-themed tutorial I did for Mollie Makes. I love how she's imitated the magazine cover in her photo!

(It was also lovely to see other peoples versions of the cassette phone-cosy pop up on Instagram - a blue one, a pink one and, rather awesomely, one for an old walkman).

Melissa of Storybook Felts stitched a parrot from Heart-Felt Holidays (the parrot is one of the designs I contributed to this fun book). The parrot in the book was designed for Talk Like a Pirate Day, but Melissa's was used by her son when he played a pirate in a school production. 

 
Sylvia has been busy sewing lots of animals from Super-Cute Felt Animals. In the book I stuffed all the animals but Sylvia is keeping hers flat and framing them, which I think is a very nice idea.

Katrina stitched a couple of the free patterns I designed to accompany Super-Cute Felt Animals. She enlarged my templates and made a happy starfish and a couple of shells.

Rosie used my felt owl tutorial to make a whole flock of owls and then designed a branch for them to hang from - such a great idea!

Kasia has been very busy and has stitched cactus brooches from my cactus pattern...

... a flower brooch (and a fab sunflower brooch) from my flower tutorial (originally featured in Made in Felt magazine, and now available on my blog) ...

 

... and has cleverly enlarged my leaf brooch pattern to make these leafy coasters.

And last but by no means least, Nicola used lots of my animal patterns from Super-Cute Felt Animals to decorate this special gift for her friend!

Many thanks to everyone who shared their photos! xxx

You can see see all the previous show and tell posts here. If you want to share what you've been making from my patterns (or from supplies you bought from me back when I still sold them) please do get in touch. Please note that I only share photos of my blog with peoples permission, so if you just want to share your work privately you totally can! You can leave a comment and link here on this post, send me an email or share a photo over on my Facebook page.

Show & Tell #12

Long time readers will know that I used to write the occasional "Show and Tell" post, sharing some of the awesome things my customers made with the felt and other craft supplies they bought from me (back when I sold that sort of thing). Getting to see what people have been making with things they've bought from you was definitely one of the best things about selling supplies!

It's been over a year since I last wrote a Show & Tell post, and I miss them! So, today I am sharing...

a) some lovely things people made from my supplies many moons ago (photos of which have been sitting gathering dust in a file on my computer for a while - apologies everyone!)

and b) some stuff people have been making using the patterns from my books and tutorials :)

First up, people making things from my supplies...

Katy at Threadmark made some charming felt flowers:

Rodoula used some of my mini embroidery hoops to make fun Christmas ornaments:

Bigbluebed made these pretty felt flowers:

Serena at Capello A Bombetta made a gorgeous cushion:

Over at Medlar House Mice some pastel felt became some very cute mice:

And at Mad's Monster Emporium, some purple felt became wings for Phylisss:

N.B. I no longer sell felt or other craft supplies. If you're looking for some felt suppliers, check out my post about where to buy felt in the UK and if you're looking for mini embroidery hoops you can find some links here.


And now, people making things from my patterns...

Muriel at Mumu Boutique used the commercial-use version of my felt bauble pattern to make iron-on appliques, which you can buy in her shop:

Kejtiss used my gingerbread house pattern from Fa La La La Felt to make lots of ornaments...

... and used the bat ornament from my book, Super-Cute Felt, as part of a halloween mobile:

Rosie used the same bat pattern to make this glitter-y garland for Halloween:

Paula made a gadget case using the hedgehog phone cosy pattern from Super-Cute Felt, and combined two patterns from the book (a sewing-themed brooch and a needlecase) to make a sewing-themed needlecase:

 

Her daughter Lily also used some of my free tutorials to make felt jammy biscuits, iced biscuits and a lavender teabag: 

Kim from Kimbercrafts used my felt owl tutorial to make this fella:

Rebecca at Hugs are Fun made lucky underpants using my free tutorial...

... and made a whale brooch when she reviewed my new book, Super-Cute Felt Animals:

Last but by no means least Sarah used my Felt Angel Ornaments tutorial to make a whole choir of personalised angels to give as Christmas gifts. 

Thanks to everyone who shared their photos It is awesome to see what you've been making xxx

You can see see all the previous show and tell posts here. If you want to share what you've been making from my patterns (or from supplies you bought from me) please do get in touch. You can leave a comment and link here on this post, send me a message via my contact form or share a photo over on my Facebook page.