Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

En-tie-cing  Christmas tree  Advent Blog Day 19 : Accessorize Fashion Accessories ?  On Day 8 - What's Afoot  , Christmas trees made with shoes were featured. I felt I needed to give another day to these other accessories which have been used to create equally surprising Christmas trees.  Men's ties seem to be the right length and shape to create symmetrical Christmas trees in various colour combinations.   Christmas tie tree  Striped Tie Tree  You may have seen Christmas trees in hospitals made with rubber surgical gloves but what about mittens in those colder parts of the world? Green mittens tree  Woollen  Mittens  And if it rains.... Gold Umbrellas  Socks and handkerchieves  might be standard Christmas gifts, but what about trees? Women's sock tree  Sock Flowers tree  Neckerchief tree  Vintage handkerchief tree  Happy socks make h...

We have had a few days of cold, wet and wintry weather, so it seemed just right last week to create with wool. I have been making little free form pieces which I hope to transform into some of my altered bags for some individual orders amd for the Edelweiss gallery which wants more stock coming into the colder months. And, just for me, I have started to knit a pair of socks from Kaffee Fassett wool – quite an extravagance, but I can’t wait to get the lovely wool socks on my feet. My family, it seems, also love wearing and playing with wool. I made Kellie this little shrug as the cardigan I made for her last year was too big. Jim's Aunty Maureen now has the cardigan,and loves it and Kellie is much happier with her warm woolly shrug. Kellie's little son , our outdoorsy grandson, William wouldn’t be without his woolly hat in this weather. My blog friend from South Australia has been sending me lovely parcels of goodies, and in the last one, was a set of wool knitted finger puppe...

We all need some silliness in our lives. I have become an ardent fan of "stray sock sewing". I think it is or was a fad in Japan. Years ago, I made funny little toys from socks for our children, but recently I discovered a person called Daniel who has taken creative sock sewing to a new dimension. His little sock dolls aren't just dolls . As he says, they are more like little pets with unique personailies. I am completely "hooked" - I just love making these. I have called my creations - SOCKSILLIES. What is a socksillie? A "socksillie" is a fantastic soft creature made from a single sock or a pair of socks. Any resemblance to a real person or animal is purely coincidental. Each has been named and their names indicate the number in the series. For example, the twins in the first photo above, are Abbie and Bertie and they were the first two socksillies I made. Then there is Clarrie, who now has a new home in Sydney. The "contented cat" chara...