Flannel, who'd a thunk?

It's a chilly Monday morning here, really starting to feel like fall. This is absolutely my favourite time of year. The colours, the clean smell in the air, pumkins and gourds, coziness and long evenings, sweaters, hot stews and soups...I could go on. I think it's partly that we're getting close to winter and Christmastime, but not quite there yet, not quite close enough to see the end of Christmastime (just after Christmas is one of my least favourite times) and the truth of the long winter ahead.

In the spirit of autumn I decided to try embroidering a squirrel onto a tote. You may be thinking "but squirrels aren't just around in the fall," and you're right, but see it started with acorns, and then acorns led to squirrels. Anyway, the tote pattern is from Bend The Rules Sewing I'm satisfied with this bag. Finally, a bag that is not floppy! Amy uses white flannel as an interfacing, and wow, it's works perfectly--still soft, but no flop.

A more feathery kitchen

I was able to finish the bird mobile I mentioned earlier, and although I had made it to spruce up the living room, decided to hang it in the kitchen. I think they belong there actually, now that I see them bobbing in their splotch of sunlight. These guys were easy and fun to make, and really you could do any creature you wanted. I basically drew my bird on paper and cut out various felt colours, then made wings out of patterned scraps, filled them with polyfill and added their feathers and faces. The embroidery was the most enjoyable part. I only recently became interested in embroidery, and I'm really looking forward to learning more about it. So far I'm just making things up (as you can see, I sometimes get a little carried away with the whole "why not!" factor).









I have a tote bag to show you soon too (with a squirrel on it, yay!), another project from Amy Karol's book. You know, I really dig her book. I like how loose she is with the instructions. This may sound like a problem at first but I actually find it liberating. I have books with tons of instruction and I still make mistakes with those, and I spend way more time trying to decipher what I'm supposed to do before I do it. That stresses me out!

I hope you are having a good weekend, whoever and wherever you are.