some belated 2018 handmade Christmas gifts to show you

Unfortunately, December was not the leisurely, fireside, cozy crafting hiatus that I always always hope it will be. Always. Every year -- hopes dashed. It was of course (yes, of course, Larissa, you know this), a completely manic series of holiday events, graphic design deadlines, schoolwork, school events, speed shopping, gift wrapping, packing, traveling and cooking, the endless COOKING. With my birthday wedged in there in the middle.

But THIS year will be different. It's going to be magical and I'm going to have time to take it in and savor it! *squishy sound of slightly battered hope springing eternal*

Anyway, I did manage to make four small things, which I'll show you now, slightly after the fact. This pair of Twelve Days ornaments represent ALMOST the end of my serial gifting to my bestie, Robyn. I started this whole thing with the first gift to her in 2009 of a partridge and pear, so it's only been like 10 years. During the interim I designed the complete series of retail patterns, so now I feel I need to go back and redo the ones I sent her before I designed the patterns, because they don't match. She insists she does not need the redos and loves the originals, but it's really not about her anymore. LOL. No, just kidding, it is, but this way she gets a set that makes me happy and also a few extras that she can hide at the back of the tree.

I just had to redo her French Hen because this was the first one I gave her and I just like this new one so much better! I pulled in more corals to tie in her goose. These closeups show the sparkle I added in the form of glass beads and iridescent sequins.

And this is her yellow bedecked Lady Dancing (nailed it on the first try, at least until further notice), with the addition of some sparkle also.

On to the next pair of handmades:

Because I had the unbending desire to make my girls a handmade ornament that would be unique and special and different, I found myself staring at a pile of craft supplies at 1am on December 22nd (the day were leaving to go out of town), willing my exhausted muse to get off her fanny and make magic.

After some false starts, I pulled over a bin of wool balls (Benzie Design) and crafted these two Christmasy snowman... things... for my girls. They were supposed to be ornaments, but somehow ended up on mason jar lid stands. So now they are just figurines or something.

I pondered adding a clip underneath to clip them on the Christmas tree branches, but my girls say they prefer them freestanding. In that case I need to go back to IKEA and get another tiny cloche for the other one. If they still have them.

To make them, I used some acorns and acorn caps I had on hand, and these adorable painted wood Erzgebirge bunny and bird figurines I scored online a while back.

Isn't the tiny bird cute? The snowman's eyes and buttons are straight pins glued on. The nose is a cotton pipe cleaner. The scarf is a bit of wool felt.

I wasn't super happy with the finished products at the time, but maybe that was because it was 4 am and my frazzled muse was glaring at me while calling her union representative. They've grown on me since then. I think next time I make them I'll trim the bottoms off the wool balls (which are surprisingly dense) so the snowman parts can seem a bit more squashed together.

1780 carol not your jam? No problem, here's the modernizer

I modeled my Twelve Days Ornament Series after the original carol from 1780, which I love. But it's all good if you would rather stitch the more modern version of the song. I can dig it!

In fact, I just listed the supplement pattern in my shop that will make it super easy to modify your ornaments. It covers all four patterns that need renumbering (Drummer Drumming, Piper Piping, Lady Dancing, and Lord a-Leaping). All you need to do is print the sheet as is, then use those alternate pattern pieces to replace the original numbered pieces.

I hope that is helpful to you! You can find the supplement pattern right here.

Announcing Benzie Design's Twelve Days Ornaments Stitch-A-long

Photo courtesy of Benzie Design

Hey, guys! I'm a bit late posting about this! Do you need a little extra crafty motivation to dive into my Twelve Days Ornament patterns? How about a 10% discount code on Twelve Days pattern bundles from my shop (valid now through March, bundles only) and additional discounts on Benzie felt and supplies? 

Sound good? Benzie Design is running their very own dedicated Twelve Days Ornaments Stitch-A-Long! To join the party, access those coupon codes, and receive monthly guidance and tips from Benzie to help you make the series, you'll need to purchase a stitch-a-long membership from their Etsy shop. You can read all the particulars on this listing*.

You can join anytime this year, but you'll get the most benefit by joining soon! The exclusive Benzie stitch-along discount in my shop is valid through March. You probably already know I've worked with Benzie from almost the beginning of the series to pick custom felt color bundles and take the guesswork out of choosing colors. Their beautiful wool blend felts make such pretty ornaments! You can see more about my curated Benzie felt bundles here. 

Happy stitch-a-longing! 

*Please direct any questions about the stitch-a-long to the lovely and affable Crystal at Benzie Design. Patterns are purchased separately from my Etsy shop.

#bestnine2018, craftsy shakedown and BTW happy new year!

Hey, guys! Happy 2019! I resolve to craft more this year. #gratuitousresolutions

This was the screen capture of my best nine Instagram posts this year. Lots of love for the Twelve Days Ornament Series and for wool felt in general. I hope you all had a merry and bright Christmas and a phantasmagorical celebration to ring in the new year (or maybe I should say mageestical, in honor of a most amusing holiday viewing of Hunt for the Wilderpeople). I pretty much drank a sparkling grape juice around 11pm and called it a night. It's really anticlimactic to be visiting in the Central Time zone on NYE because the peach/sparkly ball drops an hour early.

From Craftsy: Good news, Larissa, you're a top designer! You get to keep your shop! Bad news, it's only four patterns 'til an undisclosed time in 2019. 

If you are wondering what in the world happened to my Craftsy pattern store, I'll tell ya. Craftsy (now a Bluprint company) is overhauling their website. They deleted thousands of pattern stores on Dec 28. Mine is still there, but it is limited for now to only four (apparently randomly chosen) patterns. Not to worry: if you have previously purchased patterns there, they are still available to you in your Craftsy pattern library. And for future purchases, a full selection of my patterns can of course be found here, in my trusty Etsy shop.

More posts coming as I unpack, refocus, and resign myself to a post fairy-light and eggnog-less reality.

no, that's not my kit at HobbyCraft :-(

I wasn't going to post about this. I really don't love putting negative posts out there. However, I'm getting so many messages about it that it seems better to clear it up publicly.

From the HobbyCraft website

In September, a kind reader noticed a kit on the HobbyCraft website called Partridge and Pear Tree Decoration that looked a lot like my Partridge & Pear pattern from my Twelve Days Ornament series. It's slightly different, but clearly a blatant copy of my design, even down to the colors I used in my samples. I opened a dialog with the store, which is based in the UK. I was directed to a Ms. Shiers, with whom I exchanged a few emails.

Ms. Shiers indicated that, without admitting any liability, they would remove the kits from their website. Which they did. However, after that I began hearing from many UK crafters via Facebook and IG who were shopping in the HobbyCraft stores and were confused to see the kits for sale there. They took pictures and messaged me about them because they could clearly see the kits were a copy of my designs. Ironically, folks even contacted me to congratulate me on collaborating with HobbyCraft, even though my name does not appear anywhere on the kit.

From a lovely crafter in the UK

I wrote again to Ms. Shiers to ask HobbyCraft to take the kits from their stores, and I did not receive a reply. So after that, every time I heard from a kind someone who is angry/disappointed about the copycat kit, I gave them Ms. Shier's email address so they could let her know about the negative impression they were getting of the store.

I just want to make it clear that I have not collaborated with HobbyCraft to make the kit, nor have I given permission to use my design. If you were confused by the kits and would like to contact HobbyCraft about it, I suggest starting with their Facebook page.

Finally, I'd like to thank the vigilant crafters who took the trouble to take pictures and contact me so that I'd be aware of the kits. You know who you are! I appreciate your having my back.

many thanks for making my Etsy sale such a success! and now back to sewing...

I'm lucky to have this gorgeous pile of Felt On The Fly greens, teals, pinks and corals on my desk at the moment. They are waiting to be turned into the last of three jewel colorways for my Twelve Days ornament series. The first two colorways are featured here and here, and are available in her shop.

I have to extend one thousand thanks to you for making my annual Etsy sale one for the MmmCrafts record books! Y'all have a bunch of sewing to do! And man. So do I. Can I panic yet? Only 25 days 'til Christmas. TOO MUCH TO DO. This happens every year. #stilldidntseeitcoming

Thanksgiving weekend sale!

A very happy and peaceful Thanksgiving Day to my fellow Americans! But you certainly don't need to be American and have a turkey and dressing to take a moment to count your blessings. It's something folks the world over can take the time to do. At church the other day a wise person said wouldn't it be nice if we all agreed to take 364 days a year to be thankful, and then set aside just the one day to gripe and complain? Yes, that would be nice. :-)

I'm hosting Thanksgiving dinner at my house this year, so when this pre-scheduled post publishes I'll likely be in the middle of a cooking crisis of some sort. Or a decorating crisis. Or a hair crisis. Or all of that. (So here's a msg to my Nov 22nd self: Hey, Larissa, it's going to work out. Phil 4:6-7. Have a coffee and put in some extra creamer.)

I truly have so much to be thankful for, and that includes in no small part being thankful for you! I can't express how all your kind comments, messages, and photos keep me so encouraged and excited to create the next pattern. The response to my Twelve Days series of ornaments this past few years has been hugely gratifying. Because I love to make them so much, it's just completely fantastic that so many of you feel the same way! And after a year of maintenance work and pondering, I'm ready to create something new for next year and introduce a new series of Christmas ornaments. (Hint: Dickens)

So Thanksgiving weekend also means it's time for my yearly pattern sale! If you've been waiting for the right time to purchase a pattern or a pattern bundle when it goes on sale, this is it! The annual MmmCrafts Black Friday/Small Biz Saturday/Crafty Sunday/Cyber Monday sale in my Etsy shop only. 20% off your purchase! No coupon code necessary. 

Gold designer collection complete and available at Felt On The Fly

Gold color story. Photo courtesy of Felt On The Fly

OK! Here's Gold, the second in my three jewel tone Twelve Days Ornaments color collections for Felt On The Fly. This one features warm, vibrant tones of gold, and corals, with splashes of teal and red. These 100% merino wool felts are just a joy to sew with! This set includes ten colors in 8x12 inch sheets:

Brick
Shrimp
Coral
Orange-Red
Sweet Potato
Gold
Raw Umber
Caribbean Blue
Turquoise
Dark Teal

You can also choose to add on Sulky Stick N' Stitch and matching flosses (which work well to sew the ornament together and also can be used for the decorative stitching with the addition of white and black flosses). Just use the drop down menu to select the option you want. Buy it here!

See how pretty the first two color stories look combined? Such beautiful, saturated colors. See this post for details on the previous Sapphire colorway! One more designer collection to go. Hint: GREENS

To buy: Felt On The Fly (and be sure to view the other palettes Janet has selected herself in her shop's Twelve Days Ornaments section). And of course, you can purchase the sewing patterns for the ornaments at my shop, mmmcrafts.etsy.com.