Felt Frenzy!

A few months ago Marigold at hideous! dreadful! stinky! called for a craft exchange.  I had just participated in one over at Craftaholics Anonymous that was pretty fun, and so, without reading the fine print very well, signed up.  Turns out it wasn't a big old nameless, faceless exchange, it was a pretty intimate exchange just with Marigold.  She set the rules, picked 5 crafters and let us at it.  Well, it took me a month to just decide what to give her, and I was quite pleased with the results!

First of all, it could only cost $15.  I only spent $1.87, because most everything I had in my stash. It had to fit in a 6x9 bubble mailer.  I didn't want to buy one of those, so in an attempt to reduce and reuse, Eli and I used some of the carpet samples from our flooring shopping and wrapped up the gift.  I think it turned out to be about 6x9. It also had to take less than 3 hours.  Well, I'm pretty sure mine took a bit longer than that, but there was no way of telling since I did 2 minutes here and 5 minutes there over a few weeks.  I ended up sitting down finally and finishing it while I watched a movie, because I couldn't seem to find time to do it during the day.


So, here's what I finally turned up with, and I was quite pleased:

And, because I had it, and because her name is Marigold, I also sent her this, framed in an old frame I found in my storage unit:

In Michigan I found road signs of the names of almost every person I know.  We found this Marigold sign in Lansing, Michigan when we went there for Jared's grad.  I love decorating with names, and with a name as rad as Marigold, how could I resist!


This banner was a labor of love. If I had been allotted more than three hours it would have been a lot more polished, but I still had a hard time sending it off, because it just looked so good slung across the mantle.  I got the inspiration from the felt crown I made for Eli, and I used the idea from the leaf inspired garland for the circles in between the flags. I really loved how it turned out.

In return, from Marigold, I got the cutest package, all wrapped in tissue and everything (made me feel a little dorky for wrapping mine in carpet samples and an old brown paper bag.)  Inside was a great little notebook that she made a personalized cover for, personalized with the silhouette of a horse! Honestly, I love it.  Little did Marigold know, but I carry around a notebook wherever I go.  I always am thinking of things to write down, or see a quote, or think of a good idea, or just need to write down a number.  I love note books. The greatest thing about this, is I can reuse the cover on the same sized little book. I totally love it.


The tissue holder couldn't have come at a better time.  Our whole family was stricken with the worlds worst cold the very week she sent it.  I was getting pretty sick of snotty sleeves! Not I've got this cute little tissue holder in my diaper bag ready for any snot emergency.  I am blessed!


I loved doing these craft exchanges to see what other people come up with, and what talents others have. It was great how Marigold did something so personal to me, with the horse cover.  Maybe after Christmas I'll do something similar.  Until then, I've got a whole lot of knitting, sewing, and other such endeavors to do.

I love working with felt. For other projects I've done with felt, check out these links:
Felt Inspired Garland
Black Apple Dolls
Felt Flowers
Felt Crowns