I am so pleased to be part of the blog tour for Salley’s new book, Felt Wee Folk! Yes, we are friends, but that is not influencing my opinion that this is an amazing book.

I received an e-copy to review but I’m an old-fashioned kind of craft book reader and I was thrilled when I got my hands on the paper edition. There are so many beautiful photos and projects and so much inspiration! I love how she choose to make families of dolls and also dolls for specific occasions like wedding cake toppers and a nativity scene. There are a variety of doll sizes shown although they are all (in my doll-making world) on the tiny size- 1 1/2″ baby to 4 1/2″ grown-ups.

As I paged through the book, what caught my eye was the variety and I think anyone interested in embroidery and or doll-making would find something fun to do. There are instructions for simpler versions that a child could do and the projects ramp up to higher skill levels and detail work. My most favorite ones are the doll house family. I would have loved having them as a child or making them when my kids were small. The wonderful thing is, these are dolls that can actually be played with, not something that has to be appreciated from the shelf.

Another project that I loved was the Hansel and Gretel dolls for a candy house. You could make an entire Christmas tree covered in all the characters that Salley came up with. And that is only if you stick with her designs because I can see using her book as a jumping off point to make all the characters for your own story or adventure.

There might be confusion that it is just an updated version of her earlier craft book, Felt Wee Folk: Enchanting Projects since it has almost the same title, but really, it seems all new! I would think of it as an add-on instead. There were some non-doll felt projects in the first book that she left out and that leaves room for a lot more dolls. The photos are all new and there are many lovely fabric scenes that are what I think of when I imagine Salley’s artwork. I love this one-

So here is the fun part- there is a book give-away! Anyone can enter- US address wins a hard copy book, International wins an e-book. Post a comment on the blog by midnight (Eastern Daylight Time) Sunday, March 15 and I will use a random number generator to pick the winner. Remember, you must come over to the blog and leave a comment to be entered. I can not count emailed comments.

If you NEED the book immediately, here are some other options- Amazon

or Salley’s Etsy shop where you can get all her books, supplies, posters and all sorts of goodies.

I thought this was cool too- A Child’s Dream, where I buy lots of my felt, has put together this basket and also a felt collection, designed for these projects.

And, lastly, if you are anywhere in the Boston area, you can see some of Salley’s original work in the next 2 months- the Lexington Library in March and then the Newton Library in April. Go see it if you can- they are work a trip. If you just want to take a virtual journey, check out the other blogs on the tour- everyone is having a give-away so you can enter them all!

Felt Wee Folk Blog Tour

March 3 – Mary Corbet’s Needle n’ Thread
March 6 – Mimi Kirchner – Doll
March 10- Margaret Bloom – Wee Bloom Here
March 12 – C&T Publishing’s Blog
March 13 – Kimara – Wee Folk Art
March 15 – Phoebe Wahl