About a Little Blanket and a White Bunny

Some Pindsvins have all the luck. Having a whole tiny hand quilted blanket to themselves made with fabulous Liberty fabrics (and some other fabrics too)!

It was a fun little item to make and the only thing I'm not 100% happy with is the binding. It's a bit uneven and the mitered corners just didn't come out as nicely as I'd hoped. Oh well... it'll keep the Hedgehog warm this winter... It was also my first go at hand quilting and I quite enjoyed that actually!

In other news: Follow the White Bunny (that would be me) is featured on a wonderful blog today called Adventures & Tea Parties.

It's a fun interview (well I enjoyed reading it even when I already knew the answers!) with some peeks in my working space too. Joanna's blog is well worth a visit anyway; full of lovely crafty and other content and beautiful photos. So head over there and let her know the White Bunny sent you! :)

From my sketchbook...

Yes, another drawing of Pindsvin. This is just before he embarks his teacup to sail the seven seas. Tea spoon ready for some serious peddling and a suitcase full of Traveling-Hedgehog-Essentials. :)

Over the next two months or so I will be doing a lot more sketching as I have just enrolled in a short online course for illustrating Children's books, hoping to improve my illustrating skills a little bit (or preferably a lot!). The subject of the illustration is Thumbelina and obviously that is right up my street. If I have any nice results to show I'll definitely share them here on the blog!

The Hedgehog and the Skirt

"The Hedgehog and the Skirt" sounds a bit like an odd Fairy tale doesn't it? This post is actually about two items I recently finished: a Hedgehog and a Skirt! I often show progress pictures of my embroideries and sewing but sometimes forget to share things I finished on my blog. I made the skirt with a lovely 50's inspired fabric, designed by Jenn Ski. I bought enough fabric to make a second Staple Dress but on second thought made a super easy to sew skirt with an elasticated waist. I followed the instructions from a book called 'Sew What! Skirts' (which I have had for years and had only made one skirt from) and added a rather cute pocket.

Another project that had been in progress for a looooong time was my Pindsvin soft toy.  For those who don't know Pindsvin: he's a character from one of my Embroidery patterns (one I need to update soon) a brave, Danish Hedgehog who travels the Seven Seas in his teacup.

I based Pindsvin on a pattern in Hillary Lang's book Wee Wonderfuls. 24 Dolls to Sew and Love  The pattern was actually for a bear but I wanted a Hedgehog. So I added quills, lowered the ears, enlarged the nuzzle and in the process accidentally sewed his limbs on in the wrong direction et voila: a rather sweet Danish Hedgehog! Julie knitted his gorgeous scarf and I think I'll make him a little blanket from a leftover quilt block or something. Not soon though as I'm busy preparing for my Sewing Retreat in London next week!

Surprise in the mail

I received the most wonderful package in the mail today sent by the very lovely Julie.  Julie is a crafty friend (follow her crafty adventures on her blog and she also writes regularly on the &Stitches blog !) and designer of beautiful embroidery and knitting patterns. As I'm terrible at knitting, Julie offered to make Pindsvin a scarf. It suits him so well and multi-coloured scarfs are his most favourite kind of scarf!  As you can tell from the photo I'm still not quite finished with adding Pindsvin's quills to his head but he just had to pose with his new scarf.  Once Pindsvin's quills are done I will write a post about the idea I launched last year. I was a little busy in the past few months but I'm hoping to do more with the plans I had for Pindsvin this Spring/Summer.

These are the other goodies Julie sent me:

Recently we had discussed Nancy Drew books on Twitter because of this awesome redwork piece based on a Nancy Drew illustration. I am not familiar with the Nancy Drew books (although I found out later some of them were released here about 10 years ago) and I was delighted to find a copy  in the package alongside some cute stickers, a pen, card and bookmark. :)

Now to plot a surprise (?) package for Julie, which is almost as much fun as receiving one!

Plus Quilts

If you are looking for a fun and easy quilt top, Plus quilts are a great option. Basically it's just squares that you sew together in rows so it comes together real quick. I made these quilt tops for my two daughters earlier this year so they would both have their own (small) quilt in the living room. I know I've shared some photos on Instagram of these but I don't think I have shown them here yet!

The quilt top on the right is for my teen, featuring some bold and bright Sis Boom fabrics (and a few fabrics that have been hiding in my stash for a long time) and the quilt top on the left is for my youngest. She chose Lizzy House's Outfoxed fabric from my stash and I added some (more or less) matching fabrics. I figured out how to do the pattern myself but wished I had come across this Plus Quilt tutorial on Jeni's In Color Order blog before I started...

For those who are interested in the progress of my Pindsvin plushie. I was just attaching his head to his body this afternoon. It was quite hard to get the stitching nice and even, not to mention invisible. I hope I haven't created a Franken-Pindsvin now! I'm not sure if it's my hand sewing skills, the felt, the not exactly matching thread colour or a combination of those things...Luckily he will be receiving a scarf from Julie so he can hide my stitches...

P.S. Don't forget to enter my Ofelia Owl Embroidery Pattern give away here , the giveaway ends tomorrow! 

Fancy Floss Storage

IKEA calls my new floss storage place HELMER: Drawer Unit on casters but I prefer to call it my Floss Cabinet. It's perfect if you have a rather large floss stash that you mainly keep in skeins (not on bobbins). I keep scissors and needles and such in the top drawer and one drawer is reserved for current projects. The other four drawers are filled with floss (still in the zip locks in which I stored them previously). 

Many thanks to all the sweet crafty folk who offered to make my little Pindsvin something (read the details here). As you can see in the photo below my Pindsvin stuffy is not finished yet, but I'm making good progress. The quills are quite a lot of work and I had to order some more felt to finish his spiky 'do'. :) 

So...for the peeps that are going to knit/sew/craft something for this little fella: I will put together a fact sheet with Pindsvin's measurements etc in the next couple of weeks so he won't end up with a tiny scarf and a huge bag or something ;) I'd really like to have your e-mail addresses so if I can't get in touch with you via your comment: please send me an email with your name and project. Thanks! 

On the 18th of October the new  &Stitches e-zine is out. In the next week me and Carina are busy putting the final touches to this fabulous fourth issue which is all about Scandinavia! A theme that is dear to my heart as I have lived in Norway for a couple of years and have fond memories of my time there. Anyways...do check out the &Stitches blog  this week (and we'd appreciate a follow there too!) because this week it's Scandinavian Week. We have a giveaway, a free pattern and sneak peeks of the (fab!) new issue. Hope to see you all there!  

Pindsvin, the next chapter

Are you familiar with Pindsvin? Pindsvin is a brave Danish Hedgehog who travels by teacup. I made a Pindsvin embroidery pattern a couple of years ago (and spotted quite a few other animals starting to use a teacup as way of traveling after that...)  and since then Pindsvin has developed into a real character.

drawing of Pindsvin (not the pattern!)

Yesterday I was 'playing' with some felt and made not very elaborate try outs of a tiny mitten and a tiny shoe. Then I thought it would be fun to have a 'real' Pindsvin to dress and make things for and to keep me company while I sew and embroider. And maybe it would be even more fun to have other crafty folk making things for Pindsvin (more about that later)

So this morning I started making a Pindsvin stuffy based on a pattern in Hillary Lang's book called Wee Wonderfuls 24 Dolls to Sew and Love. To be honest, I bought this book last year I think and wasn't expecting to use it soon but there you go..

My Pindsvin is roughly based on the bears Melvin and Marian. The ears will be smaller and placed on the side of the head rather than near the top. The snout and nose will be adjusted (still flat though) and obviously Pindsvin will need clothing fit for a sailing Hedgehog! I also need to figure out how to do this quills...

I didn't have enough felt in one colour so I had to do his legs in a different colour and his body is made of a quite nasty acrylic felt (I really need to stock up on quality felt!). So far it hasn't been too difficult making my Pindsvin. The instructions in the book were easy to follow. I traced the pattern pieces onto tracing paper which was a breeze because they were the right size so I didn't need to enlarge or anything. I always find that a bit off putting to be honest and craft book publishers should really make every effort to print pattern pieces to size.

Back to the idea of making stuff for Pindsvin...if you are particularly good at a craft then I would be thrilled if you could make something for Pindsvin. I already have an offer for a knitted scarf so that's covered. ;) Other possible items: an apple (maybe needle felted), a map or a lantern (thank you Georgia for those suggestions!), clothing, a little book, a blanket, travel items. It has to be '3D' so no flat apples etc.! I can't offer you money but the idea is that I will feature your item here on the blog and if you have a blog or a shop related to what you made for Pindsvin then I will not fail to mention that as well.  It's all just for fun and there is no hurry. As you can see Pindsvin isn't finished yet so I'm thinking of starting these features from early 2013. Send me an email at nicole@followthewhitebunny.com with your idea (so I can check if it fits Pindsvin's image) a link to stuff you make and an idea about when you think you can have your item finished. Don't start just yet because naturally the items should be the right size and I will need to inform you about Pindsvin's measurements first...Wouldn't it be fun to have a photo of Pindsvin a year from now with all the fabulous handmade goodies he 'collected' from all over the world?