Rehab in action - down on the farm...

Another week has raced by! And I've been rehabbing away, creating bit by bit. There have been a lot of thoughts on my mind about the process I'm undertaking. Strangely, though, I haven't felt moved to write about them... yet. I will. But this last week was characterised by physical craftiness & creativity.

I had the luxury of a big chunk of time last week and finally got a long term project finished! FINISHED!!! Wahoo!!

Tuesday (day 26) - Finished Matryoshka dolls!!

Ooohh this felt so good! Finally, FINALLY, the matryoshka dolls are done. :D They were polka dotted and had their little faces drawn in on the same day. They look great - just the way I'd drawn them in designs. ;) All that's needed now is a few coats of spray lacquer, but I won't be doing it as I don't want to breathe the stuff in while I"m pregnant. Then... on to the second set (for Z's birthday). I anticipate that it will be much quicker this time because 1) I'll know what I"m doing and 2) I won't have hangups about tackling certain parts because I know they're all pretty easy now. ;)

I"m planning (when I have time) to write a "how to" post on painting your own matryoshkas. One day... ;)

Look at these gorgeous ladies!

Wednesday (day 27) - model felt farmhouse

Many, many moons ago I had a project in mind. After seeing some beautiful felt cottages made by En Gry Sif (and seeing the prices!) I decided to make one for Z. I went and brought all of the materials, carted them to Rottnest, brought them back without having made anything and stuffed them all in the cupboard. This week I decided to drag them out and see what could be done with them. My first step was to make a little model farmhouse to see if the stiff felt that I'd brought was up to the job. I made it all in brown because I had more of that colour. My main aim was to test the stitching and the flip top roof. I've left this model without one of it's sides because it's going to be a dog house.

Had to put her in there cos she's so cute that she deserves a cameo!

Thursday (day 28) - felt farmhouse

Finished off the model, pretty happy to start the real thing!

Friday (day 29) - felt farmhouse - design and cutting

I did a few design sketches of the farm house to get an idea of size and styles of stitching. I also cut out the first shapes to stitch on.

Saturday (day 30) - felt farmhouse

Started stitching features onto the farmhouse. Slowly, slowly...

Sunday (day 31) - felt farmhouse

More stitching...

Pretty vanilla at this stage... will be funkified shortly

Monday (day 32) - felt farmhouse

And yet more stitching....

Tuesday (day 33) - felt farmhouse stitch sampling

I found a few different flower stitching techniques and played with those. I really like a couple of them, particularly the brazilian style leaf stitch (for leafs!) and bullion stitch for creating flowers that have a great 3-d effect. I haven't yet decided whether to go the whole hog and do all of the decoration with embroidery or whether to mix it up a bit and sew on other bits and bobs. I like the idea of pure embroidery and I also enjoy it, but... I know that it's crazy time consuming! And I wonder if little sewn on bits and pieces will create more texture and interest? Will think on it...