The New Fox Hottie Covers are super popular and its a bit of a challenge trying to find gorgeous orange wool blankets, but   with a little help from my friends I've managed to whip up stocks of new foxes....

How bad am I at blogging?
My only excuse is that time flies when you are having fun, and i have been way too busy making to find time to blog, opps.
Heres a little look at some of the things I have been up to recently...
Back to the sewing machine I go...

I've had the concept for my new Owl zip purses sketched out in my notebook for quite some time. I recently made time to stop and draft out a pattern and work out how I wanted them to look. I really wanted to have some hand embroidery embellishments mixed in with some machine appliques ( saves time and means the finished product is not too expensive). I gathered up some pieces from my extensive  vintage blanket collections and started to play with the colours....

Each purse has a unique colourway and I've used vintage and retro mini  cotton prints for the linings. All the zippers I have used have come from my extensive collection of hoarded zips - Did I mention I  have thousands of previously unwanted zippers!

Heres a wee look at how the Owl Purses turned out...

You'll find the wee owl purses over in my felt store http://felt.co.nz/shop/zippitydoodah . They are the perfect size to fit in a handbag, and roomy enough to fit a cellphone or an ipod, or use it to store your cards and coins.


A wee reminder that I'll be at the following markets this June

Saturday June 16th  10 - 2pm Crafternoon Tea , New North rd, Kingsland, Auckland
Sunday June 24th 11am - 2pm KraftBomb, Greylynn Community Centre, Richmond Rd, Greylynn
Saturday 30th June 10 - 3pm Craft2.0 Chaffers Dock building - WELLINGTON 
Sunday 1st July 10 -2pm Devonport CraftMarket, Community House, Clarence st, Devonport.Auckland.

If there is an award for the worlds worst blogger, then possibly I'd win it. Apologies for the long wait for an update. Things have been busy in the studio with lots of creativity and dreaming and planning.  This month you can see a little of me working in my studio on Hearts n Crafts a new programme thats running on TV7, Saturdays at 6:30pm. My little piece will be on the 16th June.

With the weather turning colder, the hotties have been enjoying lots of wonderful publicity in features in Viva Magazine, NZ  and currently in Peppermint magazine , Australia. They have been zooming off to all corners of the globe and it alway lovely to hear stories about where they end up.

Today in the studio a little bit of a bird theme has been developing....

A little peek at what I've been up to over the last wee while. Its quite nice working with the vintage blankets during this colder weather.

This year is Marching on, At home we've been squirrelling away things for winter, and keeping true to the waste not want knot values, thats meant collecting tree fellings and trimmings for firewood and freezing the last of the home grown blueberries, we simply must have blueberry muffins for as long as possible.
It's also meant that I've been thinking of winter; and so I finally made up a few more Hottie cover designs that have been waiting patiently in my sketchbook of random thoughts and ideas.

Having a sketch book with all my ideas and thought that I dream up means that when I get stuck in a rut I can flip to a page and remember something I wanted to try but just didn't have time right then and there. Recently I looked at my stash of blankety goodness and found some solid pink blankets as well as some wonderful checks. I also through serendipity put one of the check blankets right next to an old favourite childhood book, and that is how the  Happy little whale hottie cover was born! I quite like the whale hottie cover it reminds me of  " save the whales" which fits in with my trying to recycle and remake to make new. Some of the new hotties have already been sent to Australia and Canada and germany, I love it when they go off on worldwide travels.

On feb 22nd I found myself distracted thinking about the Christchurch Earthquake that had happened exactly a year ago. While I was remembering I was working on my pattern for the Ellie purses, cute little elephant purses that unzip when you pull their tails, perhaps my subconcious was making me make elephants because they remember and care for their family groups. Those giant creatures really are quite special.

I hope you like my new hottie covers and blankety things which have evolved over Feb/March. Hopefully I'll remember to blog more often than I do * blush*

A late night blog post.
School went back today, which means I'm back into working regular hours in the studio- fantastic!

This week I'm making up  new things from pool table felt off cuts. A wonderful person gave me a box of off cuts. They are lovely quality thick 100% wool felt. I've actually had the box sitting in the corner of my workroom for about a month while the ideas  have bubbled away in my head. I've quite a few ideas, so check back at the end of the week to see what else has taken form...

A lot of the felt is a wonderful green ( funny that), and the pieces are mostly long strips. Over the weekend I worked on a pattern for a novelty purse/basket made from felt leaves stitched together. Each leaf is had cut and stitched before being joined together, a bit of a challenge to get the pattern pieces right and the leaves so that they would be stable and stand up around the edge of the purse/basket. My thinking was that the little bag could be used as small carry bag/ purse or as a storage basket in a room or on a desk. It could also be fun as an Easter basket, for flowergirls or perhaps dress ups.

I've also been playing with making baby croc's. Little Croc shoes made from the offcuts, still working on the pattern as I'm not 100% happy with it yet.

New purses/bags made from pool table felt

zippitydoodah.felt.co.nz

crocodile baby shoes made from pool table felt

pixie purses from snooker table offcuts

I also managed to find a bit of time to make up a few more pixie purses from snooker table felt! The pixie purses are fully lined with vintage fabric with little holly hobbie style girls sewing, and spinning. I managed to find some perfectly matching zips in my large surplus zip collection, so they are 100% upcycled, love it when that happens. Have a great week, easy when its a short week.