On my desk today,

Hello, long time no post..., it's been a mixture of a missing camera (now found, don't tell the husband I mislaid it!), being a bit on the poorly side (on antibiotics) and a flood in the kitchen resulting in the book giveaway being left open for a bit longer than originally planned (leaking washing machine hose, fixed now but damage has been done).

Have all you Blogger bloggers noticed the new template designer feature?, it's fab, been a long time coming, but very welcome now it's here.  Also, static pages, look, see the tabs up at the top ⇡⇡⇡.  The pages are still blank, and I'm not done fiddling around with the layout yet, too much to play with!

Like this, which is in progress on my desk.  It's my new pattern for a Mole.  This is the second body as the first was not quite right (too big, although they could end up as Mr & Mrs Mole) and now I'm having trouble deciding on how to create the claws so in the meantime am tackling an easier part and adding the tummy.

Right, book giveaway winner.  After weeding out all the spam comments (is anyone else getting loads or is it just me?!), the winner is...,

number 53, which is Alibobbles.

Now, back to sewing Mole claws!

Owls...

I will shortly be doing a little housekeeping in my Etsy shop, some things will be coming out, and going off to the 'Softies for Mirabel' charity auction, to make way for these...

With the school summer holidays approaching, I will aim to drip feed Etsy with some small items which I will announce here beforehand.

Thank you for all the lovely owl egg cosy comments, you are all so sweet!.  I need to set some time aside to go visiting everyones blogs.  I'd also love to see any egg cosies that have been made, check these out, here (scroll down) and here, I may have to start another Flickr group!.  And a big thank you to Craftzine and Whip Up who both featured the tutorial.

Well, Friday 13th June has passed, unlucky for some, but it should have been a lucky day for all (66!) toadstool swappers.  Please do let me know if there are any problems, however small.

You can check out all the toadstools made so far in the Flickr group pool.  Right, I'm off to do some 'Etsying'!

Off on a tangent...

Well, while working on the new idea I gave you a sneaky peek of last week, another idea popped up, which kind of took over.  And here it is, a parcel pincushion.

The address says 'pins & needles, the sewing box',

...the only problem I had with the design was what to stuff it with.  Felted wool has a lot of give, which is great for the rounded shapes involved in making animals, but can be a bit of a problem when it comes to anything requiring hard, straight edges.  The only solution I came up with was to use foam, a block of seat pad foam cut down to size.  Any other ideas??

I kind of like how it's turned out.  Think I'll be making some more of these for Etsy asap!

Mother Nature is so not my best friend!

3.00pm for me is about time to go on the 'pick-up' school run, and more often than not, this is how the whole experience unfolds...,

3.00pm  sky starts to go grey,

3.05pm  gets darker still, wind picks up,

3.10pm  just as I set foot out the door, the first drops of rain start,

3.20pm  arrive at school, a bit wet,

3.30pm  pick Luke up from pre-school, it starts lashing down,

3.35pm  Lucy's classroom door opens, it starts lashing it down even more,

3.40pm  scooters/bikes collected, begin journey home in the rain,

3.41pm  kids complain they are wet,

3.42pm  kids complain they are wet,

3.45pm  I yell at them to get a move on as we're all getting wet,

3.50pm  kids complain they are wet,

3.55pm  arrive home (thank goodness we have a porch!), WET!,

4.00pm  wet coats, clothes and shoes chucked on floor.

It's 2.30pm now, and oh look, surprise surprise,  the sky is starting to cloud over...,

please tell me it's not just me this happens to?! 

Owl egg cosy tutorial

'Hey, little egg, why so sad?' (notice, it's a stunt egg, not a real one!), 

'What's that?, you'd like a little jacket to keep you cosy, well, look no further, how about an owl egg cosy?...'

You will need felt (various colours), patterned fabric, 2 buttons, embroidery thread, pins, needle, paper, pencil and scissors.  First, print out the templates below so the owl body is 10cm wide at the bottom.

Using the templates, you will need to cut, 2 body, outer eye, and eye shapes in felt, 1 beak shape also in felt, 1 tummy shape in patterned fabric, and for the wings, cut 1 in felt and 1 in patterned fabric, then flip the template and cut the same again.

Position the tummy fabric on the bottom edge of the front of the owl and applique on using random straight stitches,

place one button in the centre of the smaller felt eye shape, with the outer eye shape underneath.  Sew on the button and then fix the eye, again using random straight stitches.

 

Repeat for the other eye, and  then attach the beak between the 2, by firstly folding it in half, then sewing 2 or 3 tacking stitches.

Pin each of the wings together, patterned fabric facing front, felt to the back, and sew around the edge in blanket stitch.

Once both wings are complete, sandwich them, at either side of the body, between the front and back of the egg cosy and join everything together with a running stitch, through both layers, all the way round.

When you get to the bottom edge, stitch the running stitch so it only goes through the top layer which will help to anchor the fabric appliqued tummy.

And there you go, one owl egg cosy!

(Smallprint, as always, please remember any tutorials I offer are for personal use only, and are not to be used commercially, thank you)

If you make something from one of my tutorials please do join the Flickr group, Lucykate Crafts... pattern pieces, to show off your creations.