Inspiration

O.K, so not a great start.  

The best laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft agley as the celebrated poet Burns said.

I haven't finished my felt strawberries yet.  Maybe I shouldn't post until all my prograstinations have actually been burned through.

Still, I have seen a couple of things to make me feel envy? inspiration? ... perhaps a bit of both.

Firstly,  a beautiful painting with some wonderful muted sea and sky tones and peachy skin colours which contrast really beautifully.  As I live 5 mins from the sea it reminds me of the sense of being part of this most natural and wild of environments.

Married to the Sea - by Clare Elaesser - find it here

 

Secondly, a dinky but accomlished piece of crafting which can't help but put a smile on your face and considering it's Sunday night and work is looming (boo!) I need it, don't you? 

West Highland Terrier by Janet Corderio - find the item here

Both found on my browsings of the wonderful Etsy. 

Anyway,

Tinkety Tonk

Strawberry Shortcake

Today, I took inspiration from this beautfully conceived jam jar coverlet found here. 

But, COME ON, you can't give away something that adorable on the top of prosaic jam...

It needs to be on the head of a cheeky child.  Baring this in mind, I started project numero deux. 

I decided to combine the style of the brooch I made yesterday with the design of the jam cover to whip up a headpiece fit for the finest of Wimbledon finals (oh, for the heady days of summer.) 

And I say started because I haven't finished one yet.  Neither do I have cheeky children hanging round (luckily).  So, when completed, I will need to seek out my second godchild and, rather handily, neice for a high class swanky time photo shoot and show you the finished article.

The story so far:

1.  I cut a circle of about 3'' out of creamy coloured felt.

2.  I drew strawberry shapes free hand with tailors vanishing pen on red felt and cut them out.

3.  I used this fab and simple tutorial for the french knot and added some to the strawberry, randomly.

4.  I stiched the strawberry shape onto the cream felt.

5.  I added a minute amount of stuffing. 

6.  I cut out very simple leaf shapes from green felt.

7.  In a contrasting green colour, I stitched them on too.

8.  I edged the entire thing in the red cotton. (Taken at night, hence the crapola quality.)

9.  I'll put a ribbon between the front and a plain cream felt back to keep it tidy but that's for tomorrow...

Tinkety Tonk

What ho, what ho, what ho!

Well, let's not beat about the bush, shall we?

Frankly, I'm a looker at blogs rather than a reader and prize brevity more than wit.  Therefore I shan't bore you with pompous verbiage and give you some pictures of the things I've made.

Righty.  

Below you will see the front and back of the brooch I made.

I found the 'inspiration' for it here and quite clearly copied the arse out of it.

But, BUT, you'll find I did change the colours to be more suitable for a red headed middle aged woman's birthday AND made into a brooch rather than a headband. 

I attached it to a brown coloured card, to which I had added a white stitch effect around the edges and the same in a happy birthday to the bottom left of the card and then...

...and then STUPIDLY forgot to take a photo of the completed card.

You can tell I'm new to this.

Still, there you go,

Tinkety Tonk