Happy New Stitchy Year!

A very Happy New Year to all of you, and let's hope 2013 is a good one for all of us. And whatever the year throws at us, let's hope we meet the challenges head on, and with the love and support of good friends and loving family members.

The last few days has seen me feverishly stitching away at one thing or another, but mostly I have been stitching felt and/or felted wool. I had a cushion to finish off for Katy, a friend who has left the UK to live in France. She had expressed interest in the 'One Bird...upon a tree...beneath a star' cushion, which was a hot favourite at the craft fair earlier this year.

 I have already made another one for S&B friend Victoria, and thought I would do a slightly different one for Katy. For a start I have run out of the lovely grey wool I used for the background. I did however have a lovely pale blue blanket which I knew would fit the bill. I also decided that the text should be 'en Francais' so worked out the words I knew and put out a facebook call to friends I knew would be able to help with the ones I didn't. And this is the result:

Slightly different but I don't like to do exactly the same thing every time! And here's the text....sorry it was a bit difficult to catch on camera.

It reads "Un oiseau, sur une colline, sous une etoile" (can't do the accent on my keyboard.) If Katy reads this before it arrives , no worries, it should be with her tomorrow!

The other bit of stitchery I've been doing is a cover for my Molly Dancing top hat. I saw a photo on Pinterest which took my breath away...I can't put it on here, but you could google JaffaGirls and find it there. It was a top hat covered with brightly coloured felt shapes, and I just knew I wanted to do something similar. They had glued their shapes on which wasn't an option for me as my hat is on loan. And anyway, I wanted to be able to embroider mine as well. Now I haven't quite finished it, and since taking htese photos there is more stitching done, and there will be even more later today. But you can get an idea how it is going to look.

I didn't have enough black felt for the band, so this is really a prototype, the next one will be entirely on a black background.

And the top:

This is how I stitched the top on; next time I shall use black thread, I deliberately used a heavy, variegated thread which I knew would be visible. Now I think it would have looked better 'unseen'. But hey, that's what a prototype is for.

Ah, when I say variegated I mean green variegated! And next time I will applique and embroider as much as I can to the 'lid' before attaching; the stitching was quite awkward at times, despite felt being a very malleable material! However the shapes which overlap the joins will have to be added when the whole thing is constructed.

And a final view:

I have to say I am thrilled to bits with it, but am desperate to make another on black felt, with the flowers appliqued in a less 'ordered' fashion. And I have ideas for other shapes......moons and stars, leaping hares....birds......creeping vines with leaves and flowers....oooooooohhhh! Mouth-wateringly exciting ideas are filling my mind! Watch this space - I will put up a photo of the finished article with the final embroidery and added 'bits'.

I do hope you will be going into the New Year with a passion and enthusiasm for something you love. Catch up with you again soon!