Flights of Fancy

Having mentioned yesterday how easily distracted I am from working on new projects, last night I got totally distracted from the task at hand by making these:Sweet and simple brooches, using some more of those pretty embroidered butterfly motifs.

They'll be added to my shops as soon as I get the chance to take some proper photos. I'm going to try and get the sampler brooches finished first though! Focus, Laura, focus...

PS many thanks for all the kind comments about the other butterfly brooches (which are still being mulled over). All much appreciated! I think part of my creative angst is just that I'm not used to adding "extras" to my brooches. It's taking me a while to get used to marrying pretty motifs and buttons (yes, there is some buttony goodness coming soon!) with my felt designs, but I'm sure I'll get there slowly :)

Mini Sampler Brooches

Quite often I get started on a project, get absorbed with thinking about colours and shapes and design details, and then something happens to distract me and it ends up languishing in one of my "in progress" boxes for weeks or even months.

Yesterday I turned my attention to one of these abandoned projects (started in February) - cross stitch sampler brooches!I knew I wanted to have the needlework "framed" with matching felt but wasn't sure quite how I wanted it to look until yesterday when I suddenly thought: ooh, frilly edges, I wonder...
These are still at the prototype stage and the frills especially need a bit of tweaking but oh what fun it is experimenting! The teal version of "make do and mend" is probably my favourite thus far:

Trial and Error

Lots of sewing last night! And this afternoon, too! Ah, what bliss.

I finished my forget-me-not brooches and found a couple of hairbands in my stash that matched perfectly:
I wasn't sure how it would look but having finished it I think it looks pretty cute. In a flurry of efficiency I've even managed to take lots of photos this morning and get the hairband listed in my Etsy shop.

Last night I also turned my attention to a butterfly-on-a-flower design I've had in mind for a couple of months after buying some lovely butterfly motifs. This was my first prototype:I then decided that the flower needing a bit more "something" and tried a layered look:
I love how the white really makes the red and aqua "pop" and picks up the white detail on the butterflies... but are they too busy? Umming and aahing about this I ended up making a version of the flowers without any butterflies at all!(I think this is the crafting equivalent of getting up in the morning and planning to wear a certain sweater and by the time you've put together an outfit to match it the sweater is back in the wardrobe and you've somehow ended up wearing something completely different)

I do quite like the butterfly-flowers but I'm still not sure about them. I think I may have stared at them for too long to be able to see them properly! I'm going to put them away for a couple of days and look at them with fresh eyes next week & see if I can make a decision then :)

In the meantime, look out for the red&white and aqua&white flowers in my Etsy shop over the weekend (as brooches and hairbands).

Tiny Flowers

I finished restocking my moustache disguises this week...... lots of fun to wear, but a bit boring to sew (black and brown are not the most exciting colours).

So after I finished them I quite deliberately picked a sweet, pretty, cheerful project to brighten up my workbox... forget-me-nots:
Those will become brooches like this one, and maybe a hairband or two? (what do you think?)

All those flowers were cut out by hand with a small pair of scissors (no punches or mechanized cutters). It takes a while but it's a lovely relaxing task and only becomes a problem when you're clumsy like me and knock them all onto the floor (oops). I love adding all the stitched details too and am looking forward to finishing these this afternoon...