Wednesday, May 28, 2008

I Have Discovered Little Wee Felt Folk



Little Wee folk and particularly fairies are something that have always been close to my heart. Thankfully both my daughters share this same love and fascination. My youngest still makes special fairy recipes from flowers and other treasures she finds in my garden, and I often come across a small dish with her latest offerings amongst the toadstools. Because as all knowledgeable fairy lovers know, that's where fairies assemble for their fairy parties!

With her birthday fast approaching I was thrilled to come across a wonderful and very special book written by Salley Mavor. It's one of those books that you could ponder over for hours, enjoying the magical world of Salley's Felt Wee Folk.

The book arrived on my door step a few weeks ago and I eagerly opened it up and was mesmerized by what each page had to share.

A few days later I clutched the book with excitement as I journeyed to my friend's house for our regular craft get together. I knew that all the group would fall in love with what I had to share with them. As they "gooed and gahed" over each page, excited by the possibilities of what they saw, a serious wee folk sewing day was decided upon.

Our day was held yesterday and I'm pleased to report it was a huge success with little fairy wee folk appearing from all directions, even our craft friend with 4 boys got in on the act. She was impressed that the book offered ideas for wee pirates and medieval kings!

I just have to share with you our delightful little fairies, they will capture your heart.
Here are some pics of them:








Aren't they adorable? There are different sizes in Salley's book although we opted for the smallest size, they stand about 8cm in height.
Sewing their little clothes was so cute. I felt a bit like Cinderella making clothes for the mice. Here are some wee felt jackets in progress:





And I must show you the creative mess we get into. You've just got to laugh!
I'm ashamed to say the sad looking sponge cake was my effort and probably the worst one I have even cooked but my lovely friends ate it all the same. I shouldn't have said anything because you are now going to look for it on the table, aren't you?.



One of the nicest things about these "crafty get togethers" is the swapping of resources that goes on. The red hair used on some of the fairies was something I bought about 10 years ago...thank goodness it finally had a use. The creation of little wee skirts was a combination of artificial flowers we had each bought and one resourceful friend even found some cotton beads which were perfect for the little wee heads which we painted using water colour pencils.

As we admired out fairy creations one friend glanced at the clock and exclaimed "quick time to pick up kids". There was a scurry of hands and our creative mess was cleaned up within seconds. An amazing accomplishment in itself. I couldn't help but smile as they all hurried out the door cupping their little wee folk in their hands over joyed at the day's efforts.

My little fairy is now hidden in a special timber draw waiting patiently for my daughter's birthday. I hope to make some fairy friends for her. Just one fairy is not nearly enough. I thought it would be nice to have a fairy for each season so I need to secretly keep making of an evening.

The great news is that I have tracked down the book for you just in case you would like to start making wee folk as well. Maybe you have a young daughter or grand daughter who would love their own little fairy to play with. Or maybe you have a young boy in mind who would like a fee felt pirate for his pirate ship, or maybe a knight for his castle. There are lots of ideas in the book and there are also some cute little felt purses and brooches to temp us as well. I can see another day being planned very soon.

Here's the book cover and some links of where you can get your own copy to treasure.
The picture on the cover is a wall hanging that is also included in the book. I'd love to make this as well!



Here's the link for Australian buyers
Felt Wee Folk: Enchanting Projects

Here's the link for Amazon as well:
Felt Wee Folk: Enchanting Projects

I can highly recommend this book. It's one of those special books that I am proud to have in my collection and I'm grateful to be able to share it with all my friends.



Happy wee folk creating!
Warmly Lenna

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Sneak Preview...New Block of the Month Quilt

I'm so excited because my new block of the month quilt is starting to take shape. This is a huge relief, up until now it has been floating around in my head.

As pencil and eraser finally come out and patterns are drawn up, my creative side seems to smile at me as if saying "Thank goodness it's about time!". I fear it had been caged up far too long! Other pressing jobs have been taking up my valuable time and alas my designing has suffered a little. The good news is that my creative side is fighting back and ideas are bursting forth in their dozens, how I wish I had more than one pair of hands and twice the number of hours in a day.


As the ideas flow the journey begins, fabrics are chosen and threads are carefully matched. Slowly but surely stitch by stitch the new quilt starts to evolve.

The best news for you is that I'm about to take you along for the journey. I'm a bit nervous because I've never done this before. I've always hidden away out of sight and not shown anyone projects I am currently working on, except my family of course . They don't really have a choice in the matter and have to put up with living amongst my mess and sewing clutter in the process. Now and again they will peer into the maze of creation and offer words of approval which is always reassuring.

Today mid way through my journey you too can caste an eye on what I have been doing for the last few weeks. I've put together a slide show, especially for you that I hope you will enjoy. I've included glimpses of some of the blocks so that you can have a sneak peek and I also show you some things that have given me the inspiration for this quilt.

The program will take a few minutes to load. For best results select full screen. If everything is working you should hear some music as well. Simply select the Esc button on your computer when you are ready to close it down.

So here it is...a special peek into my world.

I hope you enjoy it. I on the other hand shall get back to my sewing.

Click to play New Quilt in the Making
Make a Smilebox scrapbook



I'd love to hear what you think so feel free to leave some comments.

Until next time happy stitching!
Warmly Lenna

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