just a few little woodland treats to brighten your day. how amazing are those owl nesting dolls?!

click on the image to be taken to the treasury, and see everything up close!

mind the squirrels!
essie xoxo

after making a couple of bibs for fruiby the other day, i got quite carried away and made one in every colour of the rainbow:

i’ve also written a pattern, so that you can make your own if you are so inclined. it’s got pictures, diagrams, and a template, and should be very easy to follow.

just watch how quickly you use up your scraps when you start making these!

you can find the pattern in my etsy shop. i hope you like it!
essie xoxo

the other weeks tie-dying adventure yielded some very bright and colourful results. have a look:

that last singlet is my favourite - it reminds me of the icy-poles i used to eat in summer when when i was little.

i will definitely be doing tie dyeing again. it was so much fun. i think next time i will try some different colours - maybe more woodsy browns and greens - just to see the difference.

essie xoxo

my baby-related crafting mojo has been somewhat lacking since i got knocked up, so i’ve decided to work my way up to bigger things in stages, only attempting small projects to begin with.

this evening i made two quilted bibs, which i hope will come in very useful. i am reliably informed that you can’t have too many of the things.

i like bibs that tie with thin string-like ties, rather than the kind that wrap around the neck and do up with a press stud or velcro. i feel like they’d be more comfortable to wear, and they are more adjustable size-wise.

these were very quick to make, and i’ll definitely be doing more. i might even write a pattern to share, if i get myself organised!

essie xox

it seems like ages since i’ve had a new pattern to share with you, and i am excited to say, that the time has finally come! may i present, ‘hardly bear’:

this pattern is a little different - it’s customizable. where the example says “sweet” is left blank on the chart, and i’ve included charts for a whole bunch of useful adjectives, such as awesome, silly, clever, cute, pretty, etc. so you can make the most appropriate crafty message for the recipient of your masterpiece.

i’ve also included an alphabet chart, so that you can put your own adjective in there if it’s one i didn’t think of.

you can find the pattern as a pdf in the shop. i’ll be re-stocking regularly, so if you don’t see it there, check back in a little while and you’ll find it.

essie xoxox

it’s still winter here in melbourne, but there are some sneaky signs of spring popping up here and there. for example, the magnolia trees are in full flower (i always think the blooms look like flocks of birds perching in the branches of a dormant tree)…

… and little orla has her ears pricked to the sound of birds chirruping outside (don’t worry, she won’t be able to eat any - she’s an indoor cat).

i’m enjoying the cosy, rainy days while i can!

in other news, my etsy shop has been re-stocked with pdf patterns, kits, and a limited supply of needle keepers.

i have some ideas for new patterns floating around in my head, and i’ll be sure to show you as soon as they come to fruition!

essie xoxox

it turns out that i am great at blogging about works in progress, but when i finish a project, i’m so keen to move on to the next one that i forget to show it off.

remember the ‘marriage of the minds’ sampler i was working on earlier this year? i finished it ages ago, and was going to wait til i’d had it all nicely framed before taking proper pictures of it. and then i forgot! it’s been hanging on the wall here in our new house for weeks!

there’s a lot of great detail in this one, so can i suggest clicking here to see an enlarged version?

i loved every moment of working on this piece, and have now become completely obsessed with the drawn thread’s beautiful, timeless designs. i’m currently working on the birth band (with important details left blank til january!), and modifying the colours so it tones in better with this sampler.

as i said in my previous post about this, my favourite part of this sampler is the bit i modified - in the original pattern the two figures at the top were a man and a woman, but i changed them to make them look like my partner and i on our not-quite-wedding day. that little change makes it all the more personal, which a sampler like this should be. the whole reason i decided to stitch this (apart from it’s general beauty) is that it features the sonnet i read to my partner on that very day.

i also love that, while most of the piece is cross stitched, it includes a range of other pretty stitches, and they add variety and texture to the overall look.

there’s a lot of symbolism incorporated in the sampler too - the two houses join through love to make one house, the rabbits are for fertility, the bluebirds for happiness, the owls for wisdom, and so on. so much love and thought has been put into every aspect of it, and that makes me so happy.

i’m pretty proud of this one, i must say…
essie xoxox

it’s weird. since i’ve been pregnant, i have COMPLETELY lost my sewing mojo. i just haven’t wanted to sew. and on the few times i’ve sat down to do something, i have been seriously underwhelmed by the results.

this has struck me as very unfair, because i love making baby things, and i held off on doing so before getting pregnant because i didn’t want to tempt fate. if i’d know this was going to happen i would have stared on the baby quilts and booties years ago!

today, however, my friend siobhan (also up the duff, though as you can see, much further along than me) and i had a go at a different kind of crafty activity - tie-dyeing!

we are both of the hippie-mama persuasion, and love brightly coloured kids clothes, so we thought we’d have a go at making some of our own. we got a whole bunch of plain onesies, muslin wraps, and singlets, and let loose with the colours!

we’re yet to discover whether they’ve worked yet, but i’ll be sure to take some pictures after we’ve rinsed them all out and hung them up to dry.

i think they’ll be ready well before i get the colour off my hands - the gloves annoyed me so i took them off, and now i think i will be mulberry coloured for the next week.

it was a lot of fun to learn a new craft, and particularly one that is so different from the kind i normally do. i can highly recommend having a go at it if you’re ever looking to try something different!

essie xoxox