I've had a bad couple of weeks, I've been having problems for several years with pain and stiffness in my left foot and ankle separate from the constant pain and fatigue that was finally diagnosed as fibromyalgia late last year so on Feb 19th I trotted along to the hospital for an appointment to talk about treatment options. The appointment did not go well the verdict was its arthritis it will get worse but you don't need surgery, the consultant then went on to suggest I do a list of things including 'buy supportive shoes' and several other unachievable ones. I cried for 2 days and since then have been very depressed and really not feeling like writing at all but here I am with a trusty cup of tea and my supportive shoes telling me 'you'll be fine!' (you've no idea how hard it was to find talking shoes) and like my title I am down but not out, why am I telling you all this? Partly so you know I haven't fallen off the edge and perhaps so you know you're not alone if you've got a lot going on.
Lets turn to lighter subjects shall we or I'll be sobbing all over again! I still haven't managed between the storms and continual rain to get out in the garden yet and break in my wellies but when I was out today I saw the bright green of new leaves on a couple of trees and a few trees are blossoming already so surely spring is just round the corner? I'm determined that I will get my apple tree this year and hopefully the raspberries will reassert themselves, first however I have to persuade the Railway Man to help me do the clearing as its all a bit of a mess.
I think in my last post I mentioned the felt brooches that I was planning to make these are finished now except for the brooch pins on the back and I'm quite pleased with the result so I'll pop in a picture.
Sorry they're at a slightly strange angle I'm still working on the photography! If you like the idea and would like to make one I'll put my pattern in:-
These are shown at approx 75% of the size I made the brooches and would need a bit of enlarging or of course you could make your own pattern if you want 7 petals I've done the maths 7 doesn't divide exactly into 360 so it worked out as 5 petals at an angle of 51 degrees and 2 at 52 degrees (near as dammit) for the big flower.
What I used
Felt - www.hobbycraft.co.uk do A4 size sheets of felt in lots of colours for about £1 each, www.amazon.co.uk also sells felt though in bigger quantities and if you are lucky enough to have a local craft shop they are bound to sell some.
Embroidery Thread - Again the above suppliers, I bought a bag of about 15 colours in The Works
today for £3 which was great value.
Beads - Hobbycraft, Amazon, The Range which is where I got mine even John Lewis though theirs are expensive
Brooch backs - The all important brooch pin again I believe hobbycraft has them also Amazon does though they come in larger packs.
To make the brooch I did the embroidery and beads on the larger 2 flowers and just the edge embroidery on the little one, then I layered the brooch together how I wanted it then I attached the centre beads sewing through all 3 layers to hold it together, lastly I lined up the second large flower and blanket stitched round the edge this was both to make the brooch stronger and hide the back side of the embroidery, then add a brooch back and you're done. I have made them as mothers day presents and will make little boxes for them.
I also think they could be a great thing for kids to make with a few adaptions if they don't sew, the layers could be decorated with glitter glue and little flat backed gems or any other little thing that takes their fancy which could be stuck on with PVA glue, the layers could then be stuck together with PVA though it would have to be set aside to dry properly. It could then be stuck on a piece of card instead of sewing on the backing flower and a brooch attached with hot glue (cue the adult) I don't have any small people to test it on but it is the sort of thing I'd have tried with my brownies back in the day. I will however give a warning - it will be messy! (but they'd probably have a great time), if you do try this please leave a message and if you can a picture so I can see how it turns out. Now I'm off to bed, it's late. Next time I'll be putting up a pattern for reusable face scrubbies as I am trying to be more sustainable this year and I've finally made some I like :) also I'm crocheting an Alpaca but we'll get to that x.