Of a Caterpillar and a Butterfly

Hello.

I've set up my machine and made a few things in the past few days. One of the first things I made was this Caterpillar and Butterfly from Abby at WHile She Naps. 

And here is the butterfly.

 I like this toy because it has a little surprise.

The caterpillar is joined to the butterfly. One can go into the other!!! Brilliant.

 My daughter is turning 6 tomorrow, so I made it for her birthday. She learned about caterpillars and butterflies in Kindergarten last year and was very enchanted with the whole metamorphosis.

 The pattern called for sewing a pattern on the wings, but I had the pre embroidered fleece left over from a coat I made Neve a few years ago. It saved a bit of work for me. Lazy as I am. :}

 Not being able to stop there, I also ordered this chicken and egg.

 Hey! An egg with feet?

 Ooooo, she did it again! They tuck into each other. I love it. So does my boy. I hope the baby I send it to will like it also. I cheated a little here too. The feet were supposed to be fleece, but I had some trouble sewing such small shapes without stretching the feet out of shape. Instead, I used some wool felt. Much easier. See, lazy. :} And no, he's not dead, he's sleeping!

Go ahead, check out Abby's Blog. She has much wisdom to impart on softie sewing. And some very cute patterns too!

Cheers,
Amanda

pluggin' along

I'm very late with a newborn present for my friend who's baby was born last fall. But I wanted to do something with a little extra oompf, as i know she will appreciate the extra time. I've decided to make a better version of my
Eensy Spider block

I'm taking my time and making extra stitches. I want this project to be for me. Not a rush to get something into some one else's hands and check it off the list.
Oh, and when you leave your camera lying around, you never know what will show up. Like I said, Club Penguin is big around here.

It's a raging snow storm outside. I don't know how long it is to last, but I'm home a lone, in the silence and warmth and will now go to my sewing room to create.

have a good one,
Amanda

baby blocks set

While in Nova Scotia, I made my annual visit to Atlantic Fabrics. It has such cool cotton prints and I always find something interesting in the wood section. More on that later.
This time, I couldn't resist the Urban Zoology line of prints. I bought some fat quarters, even though I had no plans for them.
Enter: the baby block and taggie blanket.

Those animals are so cute.

For the cotton blocks, I used an iron on interfacing to help make it stiffer. For the fleece blocks, I used a non sew, stiff interfacing and sewed it to the squares by making the shapes.

One for a girl.....

One for a boy...

Don't forget to put a bit of crinkle ( chip bag) in the taggie blanket and some sort of sound maker in the block. I bought a cat toy with an enclosed bell.
have a great one...
Amanda

roving butterfly bird mobile

G'day!
I took my love for the roving birds and butterflies and made a mobile out of them.

I made them mini compared to the regular size and tried to stay within a colour scheme.

The wind was having fun blowing them in a circle.

And watching them from below gives the eye view of the baby it's meant to hang for.

I'm still working on how to tie the top.

happy happy wings of flight!

have a good one!
Amanda

eensy spider block

The eensy weensy spider

went up the water spout.

Down came the rain

and washed the spider out.

Out came the sun

and dried up all the rain.

Then the eensy weensy spider went up the spout again.


good night.
Amanda

Chicken fish?

Furry chickens. Fuzzy photos. ugh.
A few works in progress.






And the ball version.


Hard to keep it round and still give some personality. Working on it.

I'm a woman of few words today.
Have a good one.
Amanda

How much is that doggie in the window?

The one with the waggly tai-a-a-a-ail! C'mon everyone join in....
How much is that doggie in the window? I sure hope that doggie's for sale!

Another needle felted ball, just bigger than a tennis ball. It's felted very firmly and it has good bounce.

It's so nice to see them come to life. I wonder if I should add a bell or something inside, but there are 2 reasons I'm still on the fence about it:
1) it's harder to felt around a bell or shaker maker
2) I want them to be pure. just wool, nothing else. Oh, and a lot of elbow work.

The ball is not all the outside colour. Rather than use up all of a certain colour, I take a few strips of colours to make the ball, then wrap the required colour on the top in a few layers.

Next up, a pink ball waiting to be a piggy come to life!
Stay tuned.

have a good one,
Amanda

owl ball

I needle felted a ball for a little toddler I know.
Disclaimer: crappy photos from my phone

just added layers of roving and needle felting each layer.

There are a lot of layers. When it was big enough, I thought to make an animal out of it. This one is supposed to be an owl. I only had 10 minutes to work on it as we were late for the party.

I want to make another as a dog. Stay tuned. This has a bit of bounce to it, which was a surprise. The little boy loved it.

I think next time I'll try to wet felt the final layer. I don't feel as I 'lived' with this toy long enough before I gave it away. But now that it was made, I can do another. Why not try it? I heard wool balls are also good to use as dryer balls to help with static?

thanks for looking,
Amanda

fabric baby blocks

A dreary, warmish, rainy day. thus poor photos!
But I'm not in the mood to retake them, so here ya go!
All those pregnant friends I talked about in the fall are having their babies now. Some prezzies are in order.
The large one was cut at 4.5 square out of cotton fabric. I put a letter C on it for the baby's name, reinforcing it with some heavy iron on interfacing and a small zigzag stitch. I put 3 jingle bells in some mesh, much like an onion bag, sewed it shut and put it inside the stuffing.

The middle size is cut at 4 inches SQ out of fleece. I stitched some shapes on it to give a sort of relief. I like it. To keep the shape of the block when stuffing, I ironed heavy interfacing on the squares before I sewed the shapes and the places together. It works much better than leaving it plain. In this one, I put some beads in a small watchmaker's tin from Lee Valley and taped it shut. it makes a great sound.

The last cube is cut 3 inches SQ, I think. I made it last year when I ordered my first batch of felt from Feltorama. It's a bit of a joke, as when I was making it in the park, the mother of the baby asked what i was doing it for. Why was I making a block? She'll get a chuckle that I had her in mind. At least, i hope so. This one has a cat toy with a bell inside and is stuffed with wool roving.


A few little things to put with a welcome baby gift.

Ciao,
Amanda

more felt block

As promised, here are the 3 remaining sides to my block..

The owl with personality. He needs a name... hmmmm


My rainbow. Yeah, I know, the colours are not in the right order...


And the little fishy with da bubbles.


As you can see, I've started to put the pieces together to make a block. I'll put in a bell (one that is in a cat toy, then the bell is protected and won't be stilled by the wool) and stuff it with my freshly carded wool.

Will we have another day at a park soon? I think so. We went to the Ontario Science Centre today. I love this age of the kids. good day all around, only, they still have energy and I'm ready to drop. Someone ask me to lie down with them to go to sleep , please...

thanks for looking,
Amanda

felt block

I have a new/old project to take to the playground/wade pool/splashpad. The felt block as seen
here
Only this time, I'm using wool blend felt and will stuff it with sheep wool. Better quality.


Interesting to see how I made the items this time. i didn't have my pictures to look at as a guide. A few variances from the original. A lot. Loving this tree though.

Shadowy pictures on a bright sunset. I still need to put some dots on this mushroom.

And Mr. Owl is going to get some personality.

The pink background on this sun is very hot pink. can't capture it here.

And the sun in the sky is very hot here too. We are in day 2 of a 4 day heat wave. Yucky! We met our friends at the splash pad. The local news truck came up and took footage and interviewed my son. He was on the 6 o'clock news. Then we spent 2.5 hours at the hospital for Neve's finger appointment. All is well. At least it was air conditioned. And we ate. I tend not to eat well when I'm hot. I usually go to an air conditioned restaurant to get my body temp adjusted and then eat. 3 of these sides are hospital sides! lol

thanks for looking.
keep cool
Amanda