Tag Archives: ornaments

What have I been doing!

Posted on by

Sheesh, I had to put something up since it’s been a month of no posts. What have I been doing? Well, not too terribly much. I’ve been working in the garden quite a bit. Besides that though, nothing that has added up to much. I am working on making patterns for ornaments/little felt creatures. I decided to start with the ornaments I designed for West Elm back at least 5 years ago now? I thought that would be an easy place to start- silly me! Everything takes forever these days. Anyway, this is what I’ve been working on-

I’ve been playing with sizes and adjusting patterns pieces. Slowly I will get them done… There is a boy and girl fox, a boy and girl raccoon, a lady squirrel, a moose fellow, and a bear fellow.

As always, I have been a little more active on Instagram but it has mostly been pics of my garden. I hope you all are stay healthy, safe, and sane.

a newsy post to start July

Posted on by

7-1-news - 1

I am working on more ornament designs (although I hate calling them ornaments since they are just little felt figures and could be lots of things- such as tiny toys, a baby mobile, a decorative bunting… ) and as you can see, this tray of first-try prototypes are fairy tale girls. I’ve got a lot of drawing and I’m going to work on 3-d-ing a bunch of them and we’ll see what makes it to the pattern stage. These little projects mean that my sewing machine is getting a break-

7-1-news - 1 (1)

and so has immediately gotten covered with supplies. And my work table- looks like it has exploded with thread, felt, and paper!

7-1-news - 1 (2)

Speaking of patterns, I have printed up paper copies of my non-ornament patterns and am now selling them in bulk, wholesale on Etsy. This is so shops, and doll or quilting clubs can buy them. The listing is for the Tiny World pattern, my most popular, but I am happy to do bulk orders for the fish, owl, kitty, or swaddled baby, if that’s what you’d be interested in. Send me an etsy convo or email (mimik@pobox.com) if you have any questions.

And here is a funny story. My daughter was out for a walk in Chicago where she lives. As she was walking by a playground, she saw this so she snapped a photo and texted it to me-

7-1-news - 1 (3)

Now I know that most of my tattooed person art get hung up on the wall, but this lady is out and about, seeing the world- I LOVE it! Art in the wild= the best!

If you live in the US, have a wonderful long weekend! I need to get down to my library today to pick up a museum pass for the ICA in Boston. Hopefully I will get some art viewing on my long weekend.

ornaments!

Posted on by

I love when people send me photos of what they’ve made from my patterns. Look what I got in the mail yesterday- 50 whales!

11-11-ornaments - 1 (1)

I love how they look all together and it reminds me that when I was making mine, I thought they’d make a fantastic garland, a pod of whales, across a room. When I published the pattern back in the summer, it wasn’t exactly the time of year for thinking about ornaments so this is a reminder that maybe you might want to make some now! They are all available in my etsy shop, instant download. I’d love to see some more photos of finished ornaments.

11-11-ornaments - 1

other tools for ornaments

Posted on by

7:22:supplies

 

I played with some new-to-me supplies/tools when I was working on the patterns. I didn’t write them into the pattern directions because they aren’t necessary, maybe just interesting.

Have you heard of Frixion pens? They are erasable gel pens. There is an eraser at the end of the pen, but much more useful for me, the marks are erasable by ironing. That sounds like magic, doesn’t it! Well, there is a problem. Yes, the marks disappear with heat but they will reappear with cold. I would never use them on my dolls, but an ornament? I don’t think it is that big a deal if the marks came back a bit. The marks are either cutting lines or will be covered with embroidery. And, you could always iron them again. The thing is, these pens work great on the felt- so much better than the water-erasable fabric pens! I got mine on Amazon but I think they are available at lots of places. (btw- that link goes to amazon and if you buy the pens, I get a teeny tiny kickback!)

Next, Clover Applique pins. Short pins that work really well for pinning all those tiny felt pieces. You don’t end up trying to sew the equivalent of a porcupine.

And lastly, Merchant and Mills Bulb pins. I have been wanting to play with these funny safety pins. I discovered that I could pin them onto an ornament to hang it, instead of a string. And, I just wanted them.