Penelope or Henrietta the Hedgehog?

I unveiled this new softie design at North Yarmouth Fair over the weekend. I was thrilled by how well she was received. I was completely surprised that each woman who purchased one had already named her. The names were absolutely hysterical, and perfectly fit each hedgies' personality.

The body is simply three pieces of felted wool sweaters. The spines are sewn in place as a complete strip and then later cut apart. I had pitched the design to Stitch magazine for their upcoming Spring issue. On Sunday morning I awoke to an e-mail from them asking me to make the hedgehog along with five other projects. I'll make her with easy to find fleece for their baby story.

I'm hoping to whip up a few more for this Friday and Saturday fairs. My sweater supply is drying up. Sewing with felted sweaters has definitely become popular this year. I found a yard of white wool suiting for the face and underside at JoAnn's. Fortunately I still have a supply of the wonderful Feltworks tm flowers sent to me from Dimensions. She wouldn't be the same without them. This time I'll make some child friendly versions without the wooden bead eyes. It'll be tricky to keep the same expression with sewn wool scraps but I'm up for the challenge.

OWLS!

These colorful owls were adapted in fabric from a felt design I originally created for the fall issue of Crafts n' Things. You can find the original pattern in the magazine. I used National non woven felt for their wings and eye accents, be on the look out for their earth friendly bamboo line of felt. Also discovered that America Crafts felt flowers were the perfect embellishment for their eyes. The black faceted button eyes I picked at JoAnn's. Their bottoms are weight with dry beans to help them stand at attention and keep an eye on the room.

Selling them at the fair this weekend!

Craft Fair Craziness

So excited to do my first solo craft fair at Casco Bay High School in Portland on Saturday. Jon's has been helping with the wood crafts and designing some great new displays. It feels like I've been stitching felted wool around the clock, my poor wrist is aching. I'm ready to give it a break and crack open the acrylics tomorrow. Painting should at least be a different motion looking forward to adding color without a needle and thread. The felted trees are a brand new design, and our favorite. They stand on real branch trunks and are embellished with felt flowers and buttons.

Hoping there will be leftovers for NYA's fair on the 5th, and Bowdoin's Sunsplash festival on the 11th. Please stop by and check out the booth, love to see some friendly faces!