my new Benzie Design wool felt color collection and giveaway winners

Image courtesy of Renae Bradley, Benzie Design

I once again have the pleasure of curating a guest collection of delicious wool felt colors at Benzie Design, this time to celebrate the debut of the Flora Needle Book pattern! The wools look so pretty all in a row, don't they? Go here to view the collection in her shop.

This collection is inspired by the colors that I used in the first needle book I made. It's also a versatile starter set to have, which features a modern palette. Here's a recent book I made in the same colors as that first book, only with the new pattern:

Once you try working with wool and wool blend felts, you may never go back to acrylic craft felts. Wool felts come in such a wider array of lovely colors (for instance, Benzie Design offers 80 different wool blend colors) and the texture and durability are exponentially better than acrylic. Not to mention you can actually iron wool felt and it won't melt.

Acrylic felt has its place in crafting, don't get me wrong. I've used it plenty of times for kids crafts or decorations. Can't beat the price. But for small, detailed work, a nice handmade gift, an heirloom doll, or any project that takes an investment of time or materials, you should step up to wool.

Image courtesy of Renae Bradley, Benzie Design

Ooh. A closeup of the collection. Good enough to eat!

And you could certainly mix and match this collection in different ways than I did. I can envision a maroon needle book with orange, blue and pink applique and pink pages. A blue book with maroon, yellow and orange applique and yellow pages. A green book with blue, yellow and soft green applique and yellow pages. All kinds of color combos in there. *eyes getting dreamy far away look*

*snapping back to blog* A great thing about making the needle books is they use relatively small amounts of felt, so you could get several books made out of one bundle of felt. This is why I keep a coke crate filled with tiny wool felt scraps. Even the smallest pieces are potential floral appliques.

OK! On to the needle book and pattern giveaway winners! The Grand Prize Winner (grand prize being the choice of one of four needle books made by me) goes to: (rustling fancy envelope)

Darcy of Modern Cozy! Congratulations, Darcy. I'll get it in the mail to you soon. BTW, loving that orange and blue mini quilt in your cupboard.

And, the winners of the two free Flora Needle Book patterns are... (fumbling envelope and microphone, laughing apologetically at co-announcer Aidan Turner. Wow, he looks dreamy in a tux, doesn't he?)

Nanou! (Bonjour, Nanou, can you contact me with your email address?)

aaaaand

Little Ella Lu! You have some pretty cute puddle jumpers there!

Thank you to everyone for your participation and for all the kind words posted about the pattern and the needle books!

Flora Needle Book pattern is in the shop! (And a giveaway to celebrate.)

At last, the Flora Needle Book pattern is finished and available as an instant download from both of my shops: Etsy and Craftsy. I hope you enjoy it!

The twelve-page pattern shows you how to easily make these wool felt needle books which feature:

• Colorful floral applique
• Hand embroidery
• Button/string closure
• Grosgrain ribbon spine
• Four felt pages to organize needles and pins
• Handy hanging loop
• Light coating of stiffener to give it a more body and durability

My technique combines both hand and machine sewing so the books come together with as little fuss as possible. I'm all about getting it done. I've made a large number of these needle books so I've included all my tips and tricks to make construction uh-oh free. See Etsy or Craftsy for more details and a materials list.

I'd like to thank my lovely and generous pattern testers, Marissa, Nancy and Stephanie for their timely and thorough work. They were a joy to collaborate with! Marissa and Stephanie plan to publish a pattern review soon, so I'll be posting those links for you when they are available. I won't steal their thunder now by showing their beautiful needle books!

There were so many who wanted to purchase a Flora Needle Book over the past few years, but so few hours in the day for me to make them. This pattern was the perfect solution. Plus it meant I got to draw a bunch of awesome diagrams. Y'all know how I love me some diagrams.

And they are so satisfying to make. I really love putting the rich hues of wool felt together, and then adding the contrasting colors of the embroidery, which gives it so much pop. And of course the small scale just adds to the charm. You know how I feel about little things. You can view an inspiration gallery of needle book color combinations I've used in this Flickr set.

Soooo to celebrate properly, I thought I'd give away a handmade needle book. How does that sound? Winner's choice of one of the four final samples I made for the pattern:

 This golden yellow number if you love warm fall hues. I surely do. It makes me feel all cozy.

 Look familiar? This color scheme is from the first needle book I made which has been pinned ever so many times.

 Turquoise and orange always make me feel happy. That button is from the vintage button jar at Stitch Lab in Austin. I miss that button jar. I stayed elbow deep in that thing for about thirty minutes.

This is one of my favorite color combos. I love the way the yellows, greens and blues pop on this charcoal gray felt.

* Thanks for participating! Comments for the giveaway are closed. *

Did you make your choice? If you live in North America, all you need to do for a chance to win is leave a comment on this post and make sure you have some contact information in your profile. I'll pick the winner by random number generator on Tuesday, June 18. My apologies to those who live on other continents! The shipping is just too dear and the reliability can be shaky. (I'm still trying to locate a doll that was lost in France.)

And I'll also choose two winners to receive the Flora Needle Book pattern. Of course, shipping is no issue there so that's open to everyone! Good luck to you.

in the final stages

I had a chest x-ray the other day to confirm that I had indeed coughed up one of my lungs. It's curious, but they are both still there.

Anyhoo, the needle book pattern is finished and is now in the hands of my lovely, generous and good-looking pattern testers. Thank you, ladies! After giving the pattern a test run and any needed tweaks, I'm shooting to have it in the shop by mid-June.

Testing is always a great idea with new patterns, even though I've made so many on my own I feel I can do it with my eyes closed. Translating what you know into clear instructions for others to follow is a whole other ball game. There's an intriguing article on the importance of pattern testing over here at While She Naps, especially as relates to the craft book publishing game. I really appreciate the the matter of fact articles Abby writes on issues that effect professional makers, and all the relevant comments and discussion that they draw. I know from experience that errors are not always caught before press time, despite the efforts of the editors. Actually, most craft books have a web page that lists errata. It's always a great idea to check before you start a book project. That's what makes the PDF format so appealing to me - if I do happen to notice a mistake or omission it is an easy matter to amend the file and get it out there.

what (cough) I'm up (cough cough cough) to *honks nose*

Sewing final samples for the pattern. That's the original needle book I made myself on the bottom left there, still looks great even after a lot of use and abuse. Finalizing the pattern has been delayed because I've been felled by a bad head cold, the second bout of merciless coughing I've had within a month. First round was brought on after I had laryngitis about three weeks ago. Was just getting over that and got hit with the germ stick again, this time smack on the nose. I'm a wee bit tired of coughing. And of being socially unacceptable with my soggy piles of tissues and constant barking.

Bright side: I'm sure all this coughing has toned up my abs.

What else. School is still in session at the Holland Academy for Young Ladies. We usually go through June and sometimes into July because we take mini-breaks through the year. In Georgia it's a mercy just to have a reason to stay in the air conditioning during the hot hours of the day. We fit in plenty of evening PE trips to the pool.

Currently re-reading: David Copperfield. I'm really enjoying Dickens' vivid prose. He paints a rich word picture, that man. I'm not sure there could be a more repulsive character than Uriah Heep, with his clammy hands and his darting red eyes. All the more evil because he's so very umble about it while he sinks his skeletal claws into you. It's got me wondering if there's a great screen adaptation of David Copperfield to watch. Do you have a favorite?

And big news at the shop: You might have noticed that Etsy has recently revamped how they list PDF files so that they are instantly downloadable for you instead of being e-mailed. I cannot tell you how happy this change has made me! Instant gratification for you, no email-gone-astray mishaps for me. Oh, thank you, THANK YOU one thousand times, Etsy! So now both my shops have that feature.

Hoping to feel better soon and get the needle book pattern whipped and good. And instantly downloadable.

simple grad card

Doesn't take long to make. I used one pop dot under the mortarboard, and the tassel is made from embroidery floss.

Paula's needle book

Update: There is a pattern available for this now: the Flora Needle Book pattern, available for instant download at Etsy and Craftsy.

For my lovely MIL, given along with her card. This is the applique design I settled on for the new pattern, which is pretty much completed except for making more samples and taking some photos.

Even after making as many needle books as I have, it's great for me to have a pattern to refer to. I like to watch Netflix while I sew them and can't tell you how many times I've made a doofus mistake in the order of construction because I was too busy focusing on why Mal can't just tell Inara he loves her.

this time in purple, pink, orange and red

 

The not-as-difficult-the-second-time-round MS flower card for my sweet MIL, Paula. You didn't think I forgot her, did you? I'm so blessed to have two lovely moms in my life! However, unlike my own mom, Michael's mom is computer savvy and connected to the interwebs, so I had to keep a lid on hers until now.

I sometimes wonder how much money I've saved Michael by making all our cards instead of buying them? Mmmmmprobably not as much money as I've spent on paper, felt and shoes, so let's change the subject. 

Finished the card a bit differently this time by punching holes for a string tie, and so managed again to avoid making an envelope. (Patting self on shoulder.) Worked great!

I'm also thanking myself for buying that gift tag punch. Goodness, it's handy. I have two:

New one is the straightforward one and the fancypants scrolly punch I've had for a while. Different brands, same factory looks like. No more buying gift tags. Unless I want to.

Next post: Paula's needle book.

made it: MS pop up flower card

The moment I saw this MS Mother's Day card project I fell in love. What's not to love? It's a gorgeous and clever design. Flowers are pretty. But pop up flowers? Shazam.

I finally got around to making one late last night, and it was a squidge harder than I thought it would be. Maybe it would be best not to attempt this after 11pm. But when it came together, it made me so happy. It's fascinating to watch the flowers pull in and collapse and then open again. I opened and closed the card a lot. Well, it was pretty late when I finished.

I watched this video about one thousand times to try and decipher the way you adhere the finished flowers together. I really like her voice! In the end, the written tutorial was the most helpful for that, so I recommend you use both their video and the written tutorial. Just keep in mind each flower will be tacked in three places, except for the middle flower which is tacked on every petal.

Helpful notes for you:

• Do not use heavy paper for the flowers. I didn't have any regular 20 lb stock in pretty colors, so I ended up using a smooth construction paper, which is slightly heavier than 20 lb. It worked OK, but a lightweight paper would work the best, since you will be cutting through 8 layers of paper to cut each flower. Origami or printer paper would be the right weight.
• Instead of double sided tape, I used small dots of my favorite paper glue Fabri-Tac because I didn't have any double sided tape, and it worked like a charm. (I know, technically that's a fabric glue, but I just love it for tacking paper because it dries almost instantly and doesn't pucker paper. However, I would never use it to spread over a large area.)
• If you want to add some vavoom to the center of the flowers like me, use a soft colored pencil and add the centers while the flower is still flat.
• I added another layer to the outside of the card by adhering a darker ever-so-slightly-larger-than 10 x 6 inch piece on the outside. It gives the card more stiffness and adds some color.
• Be aware the finished size of the project is 5 x 6 inches, which does not fit a standard envelope. You can always whip up one of your own, because you are crafty like that.
• I added a faux tag in the back because I didn't want to write on the pretty pretty inside:

And I sent it with love along with her flowery needle book. Mother's Day just seems to call for flowers. (Don't worry, my mom doesn't have a computer so this post won't ruin her surprise. Yes, that's right. No computer. No smart phone. And she still manages to have a full and meaningful life.)

Happy Mother's Day to all my fellow moms out there who love, teach and nurture their children and grandchildren 24 hours a day, every day of the year. No better job in the universe.

Need other ideas?
Make a Momma Bird Card
More Scrap Cards. You Make One!
Make a Flower Card for Mom