New Patterns

I have been rather remiss with my blog recently - in trying to do what all the books *and well known blogs* tell you and 'write great content' or 'write about topics your readers really want to read about' I've ummmmed and ahhhhed about what on earth to write about and consequently written nothing at all!

But. While the content might not be what's considered 'great'... I do have some lovely piccies to show you!

These first 4 are all PDF Patterns and can be found in my Etsy and Craftsy Shops

Mandala Penny Rug Pattern

Spooky Haunted House Wall Hanging

Rainbows & Wellies Penny Rug Pattern

Christmas Tree Gift Box & Ornament Pattern

Then there is also the first of my Sew Your Own Kits, which I have also released as a PDF Pattern:

Sew Your Own VW Campervan Kit

VW Campervan Ornament PDF Pattern

If you'd like to find any of these in the shop, click on the caption under the relevant photo and it'll take you straight to that listing.

I will hopefully be back with some more wordage next time!!

PS. Do you remember that post I wrote about Penny Rugs a while back? No? And you have no idea what a Penny Rug is? Then have a read HERE xx

The (Felt) Penguins Have Arrived!

Last week on Facebook I shared a picture that almost drew itself:

I know it's not the right time of the year for most people to be thinking about Christmas and cold weather creatures, but since making my first Penny Rug pattern I've been rather obsessed with the idea of them, so when this popped into my head last week, I knew I had to make it straight away.

I like making patterns as I go along with making the first of an item as then it's fresh in my mind as to what works and what doesn't and thankfully wool felt is very forgiving if you do sew something and then decide that it doesn't work and need to remove or change it!

The listing for this pattern has just live in both my Etsy and Craftsy shops and is £3.50 (USD: $6.00)

Welcome to Spring!

Well, it's the 3rd of April, so Spring is definitely here and hopefully we'll not have too many April showers as we've seen quite enough of them for a while!

The Penny Rug Pattern I was working on last week is now finished, you can find in my Etsy Shop

I really really enjoyed making this and I hope to start creating more of these gorgeous candle mats, or if you'd rather just good old household decorations... I've all sorts of summery ideas buzzing round my head now, but in the mean time have a lovely batch of orders to work on, including name banners, wedding campervans and baby shoes:

In other exciting news.... I've got an Easter Tutorial up my sleeve which hopefully I'll be publishing early next week - Yay!

Felt Penny Rug Pattern for my 100th Blog Post!

UPDATE 20.12.15: I've decided to take an unusual step for me and update this post as it's all of a sudden received a lot of traffic, bless the heart of the lady who pinned the link to it :-)

So I thought I would add some pictures of the penny rug that I went on to create and maybe a couple of others.

Morning!

I knew today was auspicious and I've just discovered this my 100th blog post - so that's a pretty good start! (Can't believe how far I've come since that 1st Blog Post back in 2012!)

I'm working on something completely new for me - a penny rug (candle mat) - for those who haven't come across penny rugs before, they were made popular during the Civil War in America, when women would use scraps of material (clothes, bedspreads, etc) and using pennies (hence the name) and other coins, they would make table decorations, runners, bedspreads, wall hangings, etc with patterns made out of the cloth circles, all sewn together.

These are examples of some of the early penny rugs:

Source: The Savvy Seeker

Source: York Mountain Mercantile Blog

Source: Primatives By The Light of The Moon Blog

These early style penny rugs are very primitive and don't necessarily appeal to that many people nowadays, but the more modern style is very popular in America and is starting to filter over here (the UK) with the increase of hand crafted homewares rising in popularity.

Here are some beautiful examples that I've seen whilst doing some research for creating my own pattern:

Source: Flickr

Source: Pinterest

Source: Etsy

As we're approaching Easter, I thought I'd try an Easter Bunny Rabbit pattern for my first Penny Rug pattern.... here are a couple of work in progress shots:

Please excuse the 'not-great-taken-with-my-phone' pics, but I'm keen to get on with it and try to finish it up today... Hmmmm....!

Hopefully I'll have the pattern ready for my Etsy Shop by the weekend.

UPDATE 20.12.15:

And here are some pics of the finished Easter Bunny Penny Rug:

I was really really pleased with how well this turned out for a first pattern and my Mummy was the recipient of the sample rug and she said she's had lots of lovely comments about it.

There is a link to it in my Etsy Shop and also my Craftsy Shop

If you want to have a look at the other Penny Rug patterns I've created since, they're all in the Etsy shop too.