Book: blog tour: Country side softies

Very happy to have the honour of kicking off the book/blog tour of Amy Adams new book Countryside Softies: 28 Handmade Wool Creatures to Stitch published by Stash books. So welcome Amy!

Writing a craft pattern book has it’s ups and downs.  Some days the ideas flow to a point where you realize you can’t possibly fit all this into just one book.  And then, once it’s all over and with the publisher, new ideas pop up which make you think ‘why didn’t I do that at the time!’.  The pond was one of those new ideas, and I’m delighted to offer it to you as a free pattern here…

You will need:

• Blue felt for the pond (plus extra or another colour for the base)
• Light blue felt for additional pond area
• Green felt for the lily pads
• Pink or white felt for the lily
• Selection of embroidery threads in blues and greens (I used pearl cotton 8)
• Small button for the centre of the lily
• 1” (2.5cm) of Velcro
• Sewing needle, pins, scissors and the patterned out templates
• Plus: A Riverside Softie made from the book ‘Countryside Softies’ by Amy Adams (Otter, Swan, Kingfisher or the Duck) [or maybe the dragonfly which is offered as a free pattern via the Stash books website]
• Pattern/template

What to do:

First, print out the templates provided (use the scale indicators to check you have them the correct size) which will help you work out exactly how much felt you’re going to need. Cut out the blue pond shape, and also the largest lily pad.  Position the pad on the pond, and fix in place by stitching some veins on the leaf in backstitch.

Stitch blanket stitch around the edge of the lily pad leaf.  This will make the edges of the leaf curl up slightly.

Next, cut out the lighter blue pond area, and anchor in place onto the pond base with some backstitched wavy lines.  Add a few more ripples to the pond in other areas too.  Cut out 2 small lily pads, and also sew them in position by adding backstitched veins to the leaves.

To make the lily, cut out the 3 petal shapes, place them in a pile in order of size with the largest at the bottom, and secure the flower in place by sewing a button in the centre through all of the layers of felt including the pond base.

In the centre of the large lily pad, attach one of the pieces of Velcro.  The other piece will need to the sewn onto the base of your chosen Softie to attach it to the pond.

To finish off the pond, cut an additional pond shape, place it underneath the pond, and secure the 2 together by sewing blanket stitch all the way around the edge.  I used the Otter Softie on mine (he is one of my favorites from the book!) and finished off my pond further by making a little fishing rod from the stick.  I attached the fish (the pattern for this is in the book) to one end with a little embroidery thread, and also added a ‘No Fishing’ sign to the other end.

Naughty Otter, I don’t think he can read!

• April 18: whip up
• April 19: bari j
• April 20: blue nickel studios
• April 21: fat quarterly
• April 22: ric-rac
• April 23: syko
• April 24: lucykate crafts (the author)
• April 25: treefall design
• April 26: i heart linen
• April 27: sometimes crafter
• April 28: plush you
• April 29: allsorts

Disclosure: Whipup.net was provided with a pdf review copy of this book, and the link to Amazon is an affiliate link.

Tagged as: blog tour, book, review, tutorial