Noddy

This is the gift I made for one of my children's teachers.
During the All Things Beautiful fundraiser event, the teacher commented on my miniature knitting, and noted that I didn't have a Noddy or a Big Ears.
Filed away, I thought, 'right, challenge accepted!'.
This is the result.  Next time I make him I think I will make his legs a little shorter and use a slightly darker blue for his shorts;  but all in all I'm pretty happy.
At the NZAME convention I purchased a little miniature Noddy Goes to Toyland book. I covered a matchbox type box with a cover of the same book, and used a copy of the inside cover to line the inner of the box.
Now I just need to come up with a Big Ears and make the two friends for myself!

Sorry,  some how I deleted the photos from my blog. I did manage to find one which I took just after I made Noddy. Unfortunately as this was a gift, I can't take any more photos of the finished product in the matchbox book. Oh well, I guess I will just have to recreate it at some stage!

Mr & Mrs Claus

Today was our last miniature club meeting for the year.
I had a lovely surprise awaiting me on the display table. Leonie had finished her latest project, a workshop taken by Linda Laurenson (From Enchanted Garden) - a corner  Christmas room box complete with inbuilt window seat.
Sitting on the window seat, (pride of place) were Mr & Mrs Claus that I had knitted and Leonie had purchased one or two years ago.
Thank you Leonie, they look very happy in their beautiful new home!

NZAME Convention 2014

In Labour weekend (24 -27 October) this year the Nelson Miniature Club held the biannual convention in Richmond,  Nelson. This year the theme was 'Bon Appetit'.
Garden City Miniaturists (the club I belong to) decided to make scenes inside food containers for our display.
I decided to make a scene in an egg carton using one of my miniature knitted hens.  One of the lovely ladies at club suggested she should be knitting! 
I made everything from items I had at home,  and the TV screen and DVD container were printed using the home computer.  The only things I had to buy were the polystyrene eggs - very easy to find, as I made it well in advance for the show, at Easter!
When we put all the club members items together we displayed them as if they had tipped out of a grocery basket... titled "The Whoopsie Waterfall"!

Little Itty Bitty Hedgehog

I have had a request to knit a miniature hedgehog... here is the result!

Christmas Bling Tree

On Saturday (27th September 2014) I meet up with some friends from my Miniaturists Club to make a Christmas Bling Tree. This was however not a miniature project, and it was actually fun not having to worry about the scale of what we were making!

Jackie has made a number of these trees, from small framed ones made of sequins, to a very large one made with lots of clear 'diamond' coloured jewellery. We were there to attempt a large one!

We arrived at Jackie's where she had set up her living room full of trestle tables,  and our preordered board made by her husband. 

We had known since last Christmas that we were going to be doing this workshop,  so we had been keeping an eye out for broken jewellery and cheap sparkly jewellery since then.
Still, I knew I didn't have anywhere near enough to fill a full sized board,  so I had asked for a half size - 12 x18 inches.

We covered the board in black felt, cut out the shape of the tree and star, painted the background black. (Then stopped for a fantastic pot luck lunch!)

We then started filling in the tree with our 'bling'. I had intended to make a blue and 'diamond' coloured tree as all my Christmas decorations have a blue & silver theme. However I had taken along all my broken jewellery too. Lucky I did, as a broken hair tie with silver filigree and pink stones fitted the base of the tree perfectly.  Change of plan.... silver, blue AND pink became my design!

This actually worked in my favour, as a few people had pink items they weren't using,  so gave them to me - thanks ladies!

Home time, and I knew I'd have to go shopping again... oh well!

I purchased a lot more items from Riccarton (sorry, Westfield) Mall on Monday, and have spent the week gluing them on. It's kind of like doing a jigsaw puzzle without the box!

If you would like to try to make one if these very cool trees, check out pinterest and here are a few tips I picked up:

1. Check out markets, car boot sales, op shops (a number of ladies bought tops just to cut the bling off them!), $1 & $2 shops.
2. Use sequins, and the small decorations for decorating nails (eg micro beads etc) to fill in the small spaces.
3. Collect more bling than you think you'll need.... you need a lot!
4. Enjoy the process, everyone will love the result.

PS. I'm now into week two... only have little gaps to fill. Will hopefully be finished in a few more days! 

All things beautiful

Getting ready for my stall at the "All Things Beautiful" Lincoln Primary School fundraiser event on Thursday night this week.
Here are my felted flower fairies, tooth fairies, princesses and even a couple of witches!

More Miniature Knitted Bunnies - double frill!

I have been playing around with the knitting pattern I mentioned in an earlier blog post. I have added a double frill to the gown, and have been using different colour combinations.  I still haven't decided which is my favourite, although I am tending towards the two colour combinations - slightly more work, but I think they look pretty cool!

Needle Felted Easter Bunnies

I have just realized that I didn't post any photos of the bunny rabbits I made for Easter this year.

I think the little white lop bunny is my favourite.

Needle Felted Easter Cupcakes

After making the last cupcakes, I was looking at the wonderful creations on pinterest and found some real cupcakes decorated in Easter themes. There were many different variations on a bunny's bottom and feet sticking out looking like the bunny was head first in the cupcake. I decided to try and recreate one in felt. This is the result.
Once it  was finished,  I decided to make some little eggs in a nest cupcake. I just couldn't resist adding some sparkle to the eggs!

Needle Felted Cupcake Pin Cushions

I have seen a lot of felted cupcakes around lately,  so decided to make some myself.  I was very tempted to add 'bling' sprinkles, but decided against this as the pins would create their own sprinkle look; and when you are busy sewing, the last thing you want to have to do is constantly look at the pincushion before you thrust the pin in to make sure you don't damage the pin or yourself by inadvertently stabbing a hard sparkle sprinkle.

Tiny Mouse

I've been trying to make an even smaller mouse. This one is slightly smaller...
The squares on the mat are 1 centimetre squares.
I wonder how small I can go!

Row Counter Ring

I have just purchased  a great knitting gadget. I don't know how other knitters keep track of their rows whilst knitting, but I used to have pen lines all over backs of old envelopes, as I tallied up the rows! This is messy, and also time consuming.  I have been looking for a gadget that could keep track of my rows at a click of a button,  and finally I have found it. The electronic counter has an adjustable ring base - clear plastic with notches that click in to fit your finger. I have found it so convenient,  especially when knitting socks in the round, as I pass the stitch marker over to the next needle, I push the button. It will automatically turn off after a while, but remembers the tally count for the next time you pick up your knitting.
I found this one on www.trademe.co.nz.