Sewing Butterflies and dipping my toe into quilting

This is a new post as it is a slightly different type of craftiness from journalling. A while ago I spent many evenings making little felt birds in the evening and you can see the first one here and  more here. I wanted to explore felt creatures further and as butterflies are everywhere just now I decided to try my hand at one. This is my prototype. I drew half a butterfly in my notebook and then traced this half onto white card, folded it in half and drew the other side. This was to make it symmetrical but I forgot to take into account my inability to do anything in a straight neat way. I then made three card templates and cut out two bodies, and two of each wing shape. I pinned the wings inside the body, backstitched around and stuffed it before closing at the top.

I was trying out ways to photograph this but think I prefer the one at the top. I then added more bits of felt with applique and messy stitches and some buttons. I strung some beads onto thread to make feelers but would do this on wire next time. The underside mirrors the front (minus eyes) and meant I tried to be tidy on both sides. In the picture at the top the butterfly is attached to a hair slide but I think this would work as brooch or as embellishment or in a mobile which is what I have in my head at the moment and why I spent time on the underside.

Can you guess what craft I want to try next? Don't you just love the colours and the material - it is even more lush than a paper stash? My mother in law has been quilting for a few years and has now enticed  my sister in law and me into giving it a go. I am going to make a quilt from a Jelly Roll and then one from my pile of old shirts. My big concern is my problem with straight lines but I am awaiting a rotary cutter and ruler as I think these will be essential tools for me (the material seemed to fall into my online basket whilst I was researching rulers...) At least that is the plan but so far I have spent weeks reading fabulous Modern Quilt blogs and trying to decide what block and style to create. I think it will be Granny Squares but then again... If you are interested in quilts (or just the amazing colours) I suggest you follow this link to the Modern Quilt Guild as this page has links to lots of beautiful quilts. Thinking about quilts made me think about paper piecing scrap pages and journal pages and so it goes on.

Where does the time go - flies by perhaps?

This month has vanished in a flurry of stuff but I am just not sure where all my time went... anyone else feel like that? I finish for the holidays tomorrow and I can't wait. We took a group of pupils to see Hansel and Gretel today and I am beginning to feel a little festive but I am usually full of Christmas spirit at this time of year but the bottle of spirit seems to be empty. The tree is now up and I have posted some presents and perhaps when I finish tomorrow the spirit of fun and freedom will creep up on me. Aprat from working and making Christmas cards I have not been very inky. I made a batch of felt birds and created a hanging for my niece and experimented with envelope fold cushions from my son's old Tshirts (I found the tutorial for this on Joanne Wardle's blog here). These are versions of birds I have made before with slightly different decorations and colours of felt.

I sewed them onto velvet ribbons and added bells from an unwanted Christmas decoration and then then added these to more ribbon. It was originally going to hang vertically but I realised my niece had low ceilings in her room and it would be better hanging horizontally.

It was late and dark and I needed to post the birds when I took this picture but you get the idea.

The envelope fold cushions from old Tshirts are so simple even a novice like me can make them. I have a pile of old Tshirts the boys were throwing out so am going to make some more. I plan to embroider the bottom one to make it a bit more funky.