Felt Fruit! Felt Ice Lollies! Felt Houses!

The current issue of docrafts Creativity magazine (#61) includes two felt-y projects designed by me...

There's a whole assortment of felt fruit...

 

 ... and phone cases decorated with felt ice lollies / ice creams!

 

I was chuffed to see they both made the magazine's contents page...

 

... and I was delighted to see the fruit popping up in promos for this month's issue on the docrafts Facebook page and the docrafts homepage.

These two projects were both fun to work on but the felt fruit was an especially enjoyable challenge. Making 3D shapes from flat pieces of felt can be tricky! And when you're making felt versions of real things that actually exist in the real world, the shapes have to be just right.

 

Unexpectedly, the kiwi fruit turned out to be trickiest to get right (I was totally expecting it to be the pear). One prototype was too round. One was too long. Then the third was just right. Phew! I did a highly embarrasing victory dance round the house when I'd finished that pattern.

After all that, I think the kiwi ended up being my favourite :)

Luckily for you, you don't need to faff about making prototypes and muttering curses under your breath when the shapes turn out all wonky... as all the pattern pieces are included in the back of the magazine.

Can't find docrafts Creativity Magazine in your local newsagent? You can subscribe here or buy individual issues here.


While we're chatting about magazines, the fun felt houses tutorial I designed for Creativity #58 is now available online here.  There are step by step instructions for making the houses, plus some helpful stitching guides provided by the nice folks at docrafts. You'll need to sign up to the site to download the templates, but it's free to join.

Also, is it too early to whisper the word "Christmas"? If you think it is, look away now!

The felt Christmas stocking tutorial I designed for Tuts+ got a lovely mention in the Bustle & Sew 2015 Christmas collection - a digital magazine jam-packed with festive goodness. "More than just a collection of patterns, there’s lots more to discover between the covers of this year’s Christmas special which runs to an enormouse 85 pages in total!  There are nine lovely Bustle & Sew patterns (all those featured on the cover), recipes and articles too – so there’s plenty to enjoy in between planning your Christmas stitching."

You can read more info about the Christmas collection, and flick through a preview of it here. You can find my free Christmas stocking tutorial here. 

A Walk Through Windsor

One sunny Sunday a few weeks ago I had planned to stay home and get some admin done but the sunshine was just too hard to resist, so mid-morning I decided to abandon my To Do list and instead have a local Nice Day Out in Windsor.

I thought I'd just visit a couple of small museums and find somewhere quiet to sit and drink tea and read my book... but I ended up going on a long and highly enjoyable walk round the town (and neighbouring Eton). Want to come on a virtual tour with me? Here goes...

The branch line train I caught was absolutely crammed with tourists excited about visiting the castle - plus a whole bunch of kids who were very excited about visiting Legoland (including one overexcited bunch whose mum was threatening to turn around and take them straight home if they didn't stop misbehaving "I haven't bought the tickets yet, you know! Behave!!")

Even if you don't actually visit Windsor Castle, it looms over everything and gives the town a huge amount of charm.

I visited Windsor a lot growing up, but it was mostly to shop (one of the department stores had a great toy shop with toy trains running around the walls - how could you not love that as a kid?). It's funny coming back as a "tourist" as the town is so familiar but I really hardly know it at all.

It was nice to take the time to just wander around, admiring the castle buildings and other historic bits and pieces in the centre of town.

I didn't know that Windsor is home to Britain's shortest street! Queen Charlotte Street is just 51 feet 10 inches long. I stood right at one end of it to take this photo:

Tiny huh? On one side of the street there's a fabulously crooked house...

... and nearby is one of these old Victorian post boxes. Did you know post boxes were originally painted green to help them blend into their surroundings? Unfortunately they blended in too well and people couldn't find them when they wanted to post a letter! They repainted most of the boxes to the bright red they use today but there are still a few old green ones dotted about the place (two in Windsor).

I visited Windsor Parish Church, which has some lovely decorations and a 16th century painting of the Last Supper...

... then headed to the Windsor & Royal Borough Museum (Windsor is now part of the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead and the museum focuses on the history of Windsor and its surrounding area). The museum is free to visit if you're a local resident and is a charming little local museum with an audio guide available and a nice mix of artifacts on display.

I especially enjoyed the clips of old black and white films of the area and learning about the UK's first airmail service which flew from Windsor Great Park. People bought specially designed postcards celebrating the first flight which were then sent by the aerial post and (later) posted in special blue airmail post boxes. You can buy replicas of one of the postcards in the museum shop.

I was delighted to spot the commemorative blue post box mentioned in the museum, later in the afternoon. The box stands near the former site of Windsor Post Office, where the mail from the aerial post was received. Sadly you can't actually use it to post letters.

 
A ticket to the museum also includes a guided tour of the Guildhall (when it's not in use for events). This was great! Our guide was funny and very well informed and the building has a fascinating history. It's often used for weddings and other celebrations, and was the location of Prince Charles' wedding to Camilla, and Elton John's civil partnership with David Furnish.

After visiting the museum I headed to the Long Walk. This is the famous straight path that leads from Windsor Castle to Windsor Great Park.

The Long Walk starts at the Castle gates...

... if you peer through the gates you can just make out the guards on duty.

 

The Long Walk is about 3 miles long and ends at the Copper Horse - a statue of George III on horseback.

I haven't been to the Long Walk in about 20 years, when we took part in a world record attempt here (laying the longest line of 2p coins - I can't remember if the record got broken or not, but it was a weirdly fun day).

I'm planning on coming back to walk the whole walk (and to explore the Great Park, too) but for now contented myself with walking just a little way and enjoying the views back to the castle.

 

Then it was time for some lunch, and on to my next stop: Eton! Click here to see the second part of my virtual tour :)

Unravelling: One Square Forwards, Many Squares Back

After blogging about my happy rainbow blanket plans I got all the squares out and laid them on the floor, guesstimating how the final arrangement would look when I'd added in the new colours.

And then, with a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach, I realised that some of the squares were the wrong size. In fact, quite a lot of them were. Sometimes you can get away with this when making a patchwork blanket - e.g. one slightly smaller square will stretch a bit when you sew it to surrounding larger squares - but lots of squares that were the wrong size? all sewn in colour rows so there'd be lines of large squares and lines of smaller ones? Disaster!

 

I don't know exactly how this happened, but I suspect it has something to do with the fact that knitting blanket squares is what I do when I'm ill or tired-out at the end of a long day. Half-awake, germ-filled noggins are bound to make mistakes, I guess! Ah well.

There was nothing for it but to start unravelling the squares so the can be re-knitted to the correct size. Such a faff but it can't be helped (without the invention of time travel) and after all these hours of knitting I want this blanket to look great, not all lumpy and mis-shapen because I couldn't be bothered to correct my mistakes.

As you can see I've got quite a few squares to re-knit before I can start adding all those yummy new colours to the blanket. And don't be fooled by those "finished" pink squares. They're just squares I've not got round to unravelling yet!

I have, at least, managed to knit one square with one of my newly-purchased colours. Hurrah!

I'm going to be double-checking the size of my squares very carefully from now on...

Finishing the Shaun in the City Trail + a Visit to Canary Wharf

As the weeks of May zipped by and the London leg of the Shaun in the City art trail drew to a close, I was determined to get the final 7 Shaun the Sheep sculptures ticked off my list before it ended. So, I took a day off for a Nice Day Out and got the train to London...

The trail of 50 sculptures was divided into four main trails across London with five "lost sheep" scattered a little further afield. I'd found three of the lost sheep and had followed most of the main trails, but there were a few at the ends of the trails that I'd missed as I'd not had time to complete them on my previous days of sheep-hunting.

First up, I got the Tube to St Pauls and walked to the nearby Guildhall, where The Guardian was getting a lot of hugs from happy kids doing the trail with their parents.

 
Then I headed to the Barbican, walking through the estate (which was looking fabulous in the sunshine)...

... to reach the entrance to the Barbican Centre where Counting Sheep looked like he was about to nod off.

Next I headed towards Liverpool Street, where I got a little bit lost and went round in circles a couple of times before finding the exact square I was after. On the way I spotted Candy Baa, which had relocated after the trail was extended by a few days (it was previously at Covent Garden). Spookily, it was standing in front of a giant five... which was exactly the number of Shauns I had left to find.

Eventually I found the elusive Mr Shaun...

 
... then walked back to Liverpool Street Station to visit The Pearly King.

I went round in even more circles finding the next Shaun on my list - the perils of trying to find a sheep statue you've not seen before in a place you've never been to before with just a paper map and a rough location to guide you (also, let's be honest, navigation is not my strongest skill). Stopping briefly to admire this knight on his horse...

... I eventually tracked down Ruffles. Totally worth the wait, this Shaun was one of my faves with a design inspired by Blackwork embroidery and featuring lots of traditional motifs. Just look at all that gorgeous detail!

I had just two more sheep left to find - two "lost" sheep out at Canary Wharf.

One of the joys of a trail like this is that it takes you to lots of parts of the city that you've never been to before. I'd never visited Canary Wharf and I was quite excited about going on the DLR for the first time. Sitting at the front of those driverless trains = so much fun! (I am easily pleased, I know, shhhh).

The final two Shauns were the Golden Fleece (SO SHINY) and Hello Kitty's #OneKindThing.

With a lovely sense of satisfaction at having completed the trail I had a relaxing picnic lunch in Jubilee Park, enjoying the sunshine and listening to all the water features bubbling away. 

After lunch I walked to the North Dock...

... crossing the footbridge to the Museum of London: Docklands.

This free museum housed in a 200 year old warehouse focuses on London as a port city: a hub of trade and migration from AD 43 to the present day.

Like the main Museum of London, this is a fantastic and fascinating museum! It's huge, with lots of interesting artifacts to see and lots of information to read along the way. Some of the galleries are more creatively displayed than others but it would be worth a visit just to see Sailortown "a full size reconstruction of the dark, winding streets of Victorian Wapping".

I'm already planning a return visit - to see their current (free) exhibition of photographs by Christina Broom, who was the UK's first female press photographer. 

After a cuppa and a tasty cake in the museum cafe (and an entertaining flick through the local property papers, boggling at all the prices) it was time to head home... and to start thinking about maybe visiting Bristol to spot some of the sheep on their Shaun in the City Trail... hmm...

 
P.S. You can read about all my Shaun-spotting adventures here, and read more about Shaun in the City and how to get involved here. The Bristol trail features 70 Shaun sculptures and runs until the end of August, after which all 120 Shauns will go on display in special exhibitions in London & Bristol then be auctioned for charity.