Quiet Book

A project I've been working on here and there for a few months is a quiet book. I've got quite a few page ideas as you've seen if you follow me on Pinterest. So far I've completed a garden page and a barn page and I'm working on a set of underwater pages. Pictures will come as soon as they are completed.

Garden Page Image 1

Garden Page Image 2 - with removable vegetables and snap-on weeds

Barn Page Image 1 - Horse in the field

Barn Page Image 2 - Horse in arena

Barn Page Image 3 - Horse in the barn

Farm Toy Update

Today I've been busy working on my farm animals. I first put all of my patterns onto cardboard to make them sturdy enough to trace around onto the felt. They were attached to a pizza box instead of something thicker and I really like the size. Not too bulky!

I decided to start with the pig toy and pulled the templates I needed. You can see below how I wanted them to be laid out.

After a couple hours I finished my first little piggy!!

Farm Style Plushies

I've been looking through other blogs as well as Pinterest for a new style of project to work on and found Erica Catarina's blog where she creates incredible felt toys that I have decided would be perfect for my next project!

Here is the inspiration:

Tonight I was able to start my sketches and make the patterns (yes I learned from my Owl mistake) for each toy I wanted. I decided on a cow, dog, horse, sheep, pig, and goat. I'm still deciding on whether I want to try making a chicken or wait - we'll see I suppose. Here are the drawings I came up with so far. Check back soon for my progress on these little guys. 

Owl Bookends

Christmas day was pretty quiet for my husband and I. While he played his video game, I was working on finishing a set of owl bookends I've seen online somewhere before. Can't find the link again but here is what they look like all finished.

I drew the design straight onto the fabric rather than trying to make a pattern (which I know I will regret later) but here is the step-by-step of how I made these guys.

Step 1: Cut out the pieces for each end. You will need:

- canvas fabric: cut out main body form (2 per side); wings (4 per side); round base (1 per side).

- brown sturdy fabric: feet (4 per side); beak (1 per side)

- accent fabric A: Cut out stomach circle (1 per side)

- accent fabric B: Cut out wings (4 per side)

- cream felt: Cut out eyes (2 per side)

- beans or other form of weight

- stuffing

Once I drew a body that I liked, I cut out multiples and found a circle that was a nice size to use for the base. I did no measuring or calculating to determine what the best size would be. (I told you that I will regret not making a pattern with the one I made!)

I then cut out a nice sized wing that was proportionate to the body I designed. This triangle was cut in the canvas fabric as well as the accent fabric B. These fabrics were sewn together with the face fabric together leaving one end open. They were then stuffed and sewn onto the body.

The stomach fabric was attached to the owl using a zig-zag stitch. I then sewed the feet with face fabric together flipped inside out and stuffed before attaching to the edges of the stomach of the owl. Once I had the stomach piece where I wanted it I attached the beak barely above to allow plenty of room for the eyes. 

Below you can see the owl coming together with all the pieces in line. 

I attached the circle by determining the center of the owl, sewing on from the center to almost the edge of the front piece - holding back about 1/4 of an inch, then went back to the center and finished the rest of the piece. 

So you can see it was wanting to stand upright already :)

I attached the back the same way as the front, by starting in the center of the piece and working to the edge. Where it met the front piece I attached the front and back - it happened to match up perfectly. AGAIN - I should have made a pattern!!

The eyes were hand sewed on before adding the 3-4 cups of beans. I had measured out the approximate weight in dried beans in a small sandwich sized ziploc bag before pouring into my enclosed owl and filling with stuffing the rest of the way.

Ready to be closed up!

I then hand-stitched the top closed and TA-DA!!! I made the two ends at the same time to make sure they looked the same when finished, this was yet another reason why I didn't think to make a pattern.

I'm going to be drawing up the pattern if anyone would like it please message me and I can be sure that it gets to you!

All In A Day's Work

Today's project has turned out to be much faster than I expected it to be. I have this pattern that I found a few years ago but is still available on one of my favorite knitting and crocheting websites - Ravelry.

After about 3 hours total I have completed everything you see below. It's really starting to come together. I can't wait to see the finished product!!

And the finished product. He's absolutely adorable! I love that he has so much character. The hardest part was getting the eyes just right - and keeping Ringo away from it once done since he believes it was made just for him to play with.