Felty love

Here is the finished project I started last week. You know, the ones that were supposed to be the Christmas presents but I forgot about them? Until January 21st??? These are little felted South African flags. I got this idea from an online shop in Cape Town. They had pictures of ones they were selling and I thought (as crafters do) "Hey, I can make that". So I bought the yarn that said it would be good for felting. And it went into the yarn closet. And I forgot all about it. . . Which is silly because these were as easy as I imagined that they would be. I knitted these off white rectangles that were approximately 4x6. I washed those little buggers in hot water with towels. I had to do it a few times to get them as felty as I wanted to them to be. They ended up coming out of the wash at about 3x5. I pinned them down to my blocking board to dry and then when they were all ready, I needle felted those stripes on. I have one more to needle felt for myself but I only have the patience for about one at a time. I'm probably doing something wrong because it takes me about 45 minutes each to do the needle felting. Not a project I'll want to do a lot but it was fun and I'm happy with the outcome.

And the reason I procrastinated so long on making these? It's because I still haven't exchanged Christmas presents with Margeaux and Suzan, the lovely ladies that will be getting these. We're finally getting together tonight to do it so I'm safe to post pictures of their presents. I made both of them iPad covers.  They both saw mine when we went to South Africa last year and asked for them. The pattern is from Amber from One Shabby Chick - link here. It's the same pattern I used to make mine with a few minor adjustments. I think velcro is the devil so I've made mine with stretchy hairbands through the flap every time and I like it better. I've made four of them now and it's a great pattern.

This one is for Suzan. She loves tulips. I bought the tulip fabric at Purl Soho last year. The plaid is from a local shop and it is a stretchy wool blend that feels really good. The wool felt on the back was a bundle I bought from my local quilt shop.

And this one is for Margeaux. She loves elephants. I had planned on putting one elephant on the front and the blocks on the back but this print from Valori Wells was so much bigger in scale than I imagined when I ordered it. It's still super cute though. Just took a little extra thinking and planning. Same felt as I used on the other case. And the checked flap is from Lotta Jansdotter.  Love that whole collection.

Off to hopefully finish a donation baby quilt today. More later.
xoxoxoxo