Floe, the happy penguin.

On the cover of Inspirations 123 , Floe, the Fairy Penguin captured me immediately.  I loved the concept, the embroidery, and the felt medium. I also have a friend who loves penguins. I bought the kit. Once my major knitting projects were completed I decided to treat myself to making it. 

Carolyn Stanton, the designer, has an Etsy shop, with lots of felt projects. This one, however is only available through Inspirations.

Cutting out was fairly straightforward. The instructions for transferring the design seemed to me unnecessarily complicated, so I copied the pattern markings by hand, using lead pencil on the white and chalk pencil on the black. I had, of course, to either work fast or keep renewing the pencil marks on felt, but a combination of both worked well.

There is a variety of threads, including several different wools and silks. Getting the right one for each stitch kept me focused.  (Would it matter? Not sure.)

The trickiest part was getting the curves right while stitching it together.  

      

Without a beak and flippers it took on a slightly sinister look which I could only pray would disappear when finished.

The stuffing, however, had to come first.  I decided against the recommended filling of either rice or oven-hardened beans. I figured the chance of a doorstop getting wet was too high, so bought a bag of stones from Bunnings. These went neatly into the base in the kit-included cotton bag. Filling the upper body to make it firm took a significant amount of wool fibre stuffing, but worked the required magic on the shape as I stitched over the back join (not in the recommended colour!)

I am delighted with the result. 

As I had hoped, the beak and flippers turned it immediately into a recognisable penguin. 

Floe emerged in all her splendour, with plenty of personality and anxious to get to her real home.

She didn't  fit into any of the standard Australia Post boxes, but I had one that had already travelled the world and packed her in using bits of bubblewrap, shredding, tissue and paper bags. She travelled overnight and reached her new home this morning.

She is already at home and welcome. My friend refuses to put her on the floor and she has found her new niche at eye level.

I really enjoyed the challenge, both stitching and construction. It isn't a project I would recommend to an embroidery beginner, unless in a class or group with help, but with a bit of experience it is a really satisfying project.

I'm glad I went with the Floe.

Penguin Bling

I have a friend who likes penguins. She and another friend from university days visit Adelaide for a few days each year. Earlier this year a kit of penguin Christmas tree ornaments caught my eye in one of Herrshner's weekly sales so I bought it and worked on it in between other projects.

I rather like these felt ornament kits - pretty simple to do, take shape in front of your eyes - and exceedingly blingy.



They are all absurd - carrying candy canes, wearing top hats, scarves and bow-ties - and hurling snowballs.

The connection of penguins to Christmas? Snow, I guess. Given that penguins are Southern hemisphere animals and snow is a Northern hemisphere phenomenon in December just adds to the absurdity - in for a penny, in for a pound of absurdity I say.

My only complaint about this kit is that it comes with a reel of nylon thread, assuming that all the stitching, not just the beading and sequins, will be done with it. I persevered with the nylon thread for several penguins before digging out some stranded cottons and using it for the remainder - much easier on the eyes, and much less slippery in the needle.

My friends were in Adelaide last weekend - and  Pat was very pleased with her penguins. I reckon anything that makes us smile as these do is well worth making.