Little Felted Animals by Marie-Noelle Horvath is a sweetheart of a book for beginner needle felters, with projects that are well illustrated and it gives the beginner a chance at making a charming product your first time. Create 16 Irresistible Creatures with Simple Needle-Felting Techniques by following the step by step pictures and you will be able to create one of the adorable animals or birds in this book. There is a supplies and tips section in the book that explains what is involved in basic needle felting such as tools and wool roving color palette. There is also a lesson on how to add glass eyes to these felted darlings which does make them realistic. Three dimensional needle felting is a fairly easy technique and this book gives you clear instructions for creating 16 animals and birds in miniature. These projects make wonderful Christmas decorations. Dimensions and detailed instructions are given for the following animals and birds: blackbird, brown bear, Chartreux cat, Turkish Van cat, Dalmatian, fox, Jack Russell terrier, koala bear, mouse, penguin, polar bear, rabbit, robin, seal pup, sheep, Welsh Corgi. Marie-Noelle Horvath, is a great source of inspiration offering techniques on how to shape precious small animals. I love the mice pictured above! Pick up a copy at Amazon.com if you want to learn this growing craft or win one here on Craft Gossip Felting, you will love this book. In the comment area, just type “enter me” for a chance to WIN this book by a random drawing. This giveaway will run 9-6 through 9-19! Good Luck!
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Strawberry Cross Stitch Patterns
My favorite thing about mid to late spring is local strawberries. Strawberries are fun as a graphic element, too, because they’re an interesting shape and cheerful color. Let’s stitch some strawberry cross stitch patterns.
Craft Club Co AU has this cute kind of retro strawberry pattern with a pink checkerboard background. The pattern pages doesn’t give a lot of details but it looks like is uses at least 7 colors and it says it will fit in an 8 by 10 frame when stitched on 14 count fabric.
For a classic farmhouse look, check out the strawberry pattern from Largodargento Shop. This one reminds me of little wild strawberries, and it has a bit of a mandala design with other geometric shapes.
Speaking of classics, you can also stitch a strawberry alphabet sampler from Curious Carrie Designs. It is 54 stitches square, which comes out to 3.86 inches or 9.8 cm square. It calls for 8 colors and was stitched on 32-count linen. Keep it flat or turn it into a biscornu stitched with flowers and bees.
This strawberry pincushion from The SubRosa Design is super sweet and of course could be framed instead of using it as a pincushion if you’d rather. This one is 93 stitches square, or about 5.3 inches/13.5 cm square stitched on 36 count linen as shown.
This graphic, slightly abstract strawberry design from Box and Fox is so much fun and would be great to have on your kitchen wall or in your breakfast area. It measures 98 by 141 stitches, which comes out to 7 by 10 inches or 17.78 by 25.58 cm on 14 count fabric. The design uses 6 colors.
Don’t let the mice get your strawberries! This oddly cute design from Tourmaline Pattern measures 95 by 94 stitches and uses 16 colors. I love the look of it on black fabric, because it really makes the mice and the flowers pop. On 14 count fabric this comes out to 6.7 inches or about 17 cm square.