Catching up- Caught up?

 I’m still catching up from the hectic but great time we enjoyed during my birthday “weeks” and family visits. Before my mother left, I finally finished the black bag I promised last Christmas.

 I was finally happy with it, and I think it will be good for Mum when she goes out at night, as it is large enough to fit her folding walking stick. It is a “scrumbled” bag, and although I have now made quite a few, the last two – Ruth’s green bag and this one took ages. I started them both with great enthusiasm, and then came to a sudden standstill, just adding a tiny bit week by week without making any real progress, creative or otherwise!. Anyway both are now completed, and feature lots of bullion crochet, fluffy and sparkly yarns in various knitting and crochet stitches. I made this one on a base of tapestry mesh canvas, and I found it a better and firmer base for this kind of handbag than rug canvas. And a happy surprise - I accidentally found a fake suede “cord” which made perfect handles.

 Some moths ago, I also signed up for the Trolly Dolly Club’s international pin doll swap. The theme was “All Creatures Great and Small”. The dolls had to be sent to the coordinator by this week, and I am happy to say that I did catch up and hopefully they arrived days before the deadline if Australia Post did their bit. I am now looking forward to the pin dolls I may receive in turn. My contributions were all felt – a googly eyed frog, a friendly witch, a tyvek winged owl, and a bewildered buzzy bee. I hope the recipients like them?

And having also committed to helping at Hello Dollies this Saturday, I prepared some samples of simple needle felted creatures, with polymer clay faces. I used the moulds created by Kathy Davis. I used one of the moulds to create four different faces. It even amazes me that from the one mould such different faces can be created.

 The worm is also one of Kathy’s patterns which I really enjoyed making. The photos show the creatures in various stages of progress and two experiments - a girl and her pet owl, made from needle felted balls made from scraps of wadding rolled with woollen yarn.  Wow, I have these ready a few days before the event – I have caught up! No not really – still have nothing ready yet for our month away with our volunteer project in Papua New Guinea, starting next week!