Little birdie

Little birdie

Sorry I haven't blogged for a while but last week I had lots of supply teaching work (which is great and I'm not complaining!) and on Tuesday I even swapped schools at lunch time!
I spent the evenings finishing up some old favourites, the mermaids

 and a new bag design for spring - which I am also using for keyrings and needlecases. I made the bags in lovely soft pastel felt using spotty felt for the little bird.

baby blue - my favourite

lilac

and raspberry

Which colour is your favourite?
Now I'm waiting for the scaffolders to turn up, as tomorrow are having free solar panels fitted, so it could be an interesting few days - as well as being half term.
Whilst I'm waiting I'll be visiting all the other blogs over at Wendy's Handmade Monday to see what everyone else is up to.
Jo x
If you want a simple Valentine gift why not have a look at the felted hearts keyrings.

Felted Hearts

Felted heart key rings

I'm not sure if I have already told you, but my lovely sisters-in-law gave me some needle felting kit for Christmas. I already wet felt (but that tends to a warm weather activity outside, with all the soapy water used) and machine wash felt, but wanted to have a go at needle felting. I have already got the traditional needle, but to be honest the barbs are just daring me to stick my fingers in them, so for Christmas I was given a Clover brush and five needle pen. I also indulged myself in the Hobbycraft sale and bought a couple of moulds and a needle pen.
So this is the Pickle-Lily beginners - teach-it-yourself guide to felting hearts! I can not say if this is the correct way to do this, as I have been teaching myself, but I am very pleased with the end result!






Place the mold on top of a normal piece of paper on the brush.

Fill the mold with short sections of fluffed out merino tops.

Punch the tops using the pen through the paper.

This is what the reverse of the paper will look like.

Carefully remove the heart, turn it over and repeat the process on the other side, still placing the paper between the brush and the heart.

The finished hearts.

I then attached them to some normal wool mix felt to make the key rings ready for Valentines Day or Mothering Sunday.

I'm now off to order a book from the library to see if I'm doing it right!