Crafts

Amigurumi

I make some of the cutest Amigurumi in the world or some of the oddest. I take care and take a great deal of time when making these unique super lovable little ones. I think they are adorable but others think they are freaky. They are a bit like Marmite, either you love or hate them, depends what rocks your boat. I've been brought up on Anime so don't have a problem with creatures that look a little odd with strange big beautiful manga eyes. But if you aren't used to that form of art then you could think they are creatures from the black lagoon.

The Japanese call these creations Amigurumi but in the past they would have just been called little crochet dolls. They appeal to both children and adults. I think they satisfy the need in some of us to pick the tiny weak little puppy from a litter, it's not the one that we should what or pick but we just have to have it.

Little blue MJ Henry is the most adorable pale sky blue, his hair has been crocheted on separately so that it flows in the direction of real hair which is still on the round but slightly back on the head. This creates a tiny dip like a soft spot so looks very natural. The hair is in a complimentary colour to the body of the blue doll and is tan brown. The wool used for the hair has long mohair fibres, I used a very small hook to get as many fibres into the hair as possible. There are so many individual hair strands that you can actually brush and style it. I placed the bear on a deep pile cream sheepskin rug, he looks comfortable. The bear is 9 inches tall. His head makes up 3 inches, he has half circle sticky out ears, his eyes are big black beads sat on a circle of black felt. When light shines on the beads it makes it look like he has glowing eyes. He has a little black note which is just a few stitches in a 5mm rectangle and a little crooked mouth which gives him a cheeky grin, these are on a little oval of white felt set slightly above the eyes. Setting the nose slightly above the eyes is what gives him the cute traditional amigurumi look. He wears a scarf, hat and has big boots which are in a lighter tan. When you take his boots off he has proper little shaped feet with toes. The toes are my favourite bit of him and are mega cute.

Blue MJ Henry
Little amigurumi bear.
He has removable hat, scarf and boots. When you take his boots of he has little toes.

Blue MJ Henry with his hat and boots off

I chose to make a rabbit as 2011 is the year of the white rabbit and my Nan made me a rabbit with a pink dress and bonnet when I was little which I adored. She has massive pink cheeks like someone blowing on a trumpet. She is the largest Amigurumi I have ever made at around 17 inches tall. She has massive blue eyes with thick black eyelashes. Her eyes are hand painted felt and they have a strong fleck of white reflective light. Her mouth is a tiny red dot so she looks like she is saying ooooooh, or pouting. Her big floppy ears stick out of her pink bonnet which is tied under her chin in a big bow. She wears a pink pinafore over a white shirt. The pinafore has hand painted and embroidered wild flowers all over it in blues to match her eyes and the shirt cuffs are edged in cream lace crochet. Under her dress she has a very frilly underskirt with layer after layer of cream lace and of course she has frilly lace undies. All clothes are removable and she has a good set of underwear, apparently that's essential. She has brown fluffy hair with the soft spot. Her hair matches her big boots, the boots were bought and are proper boots with laces. It's always good for a child's toy to have shoes to practice lacing up. She also has bought proper socks. Around her waist is a blue tie which bows at the back, into this tie is tucked the little MJ Henry bear. The little bear is so tiny he doesn't have hair, he is a traditional brown bear with a big pink bow under his chin to match the rabbit's dress. It was a very sunny day when I took the picture and light spills casting great shadows. I stood her on the pot of my big chilli plant which sits on my living room window sill.

Miss Polly Bubbles and her tiny MJ Henry bear
This is an amigurumi rabbit I made for my cousin's little girl as 2011 is the year of the white rabbit.
She turned out so cute that it was hard to give her away!

The wool used for the hair has long mohair fibres, I used a very small hook to get as many fibres into the hair as possible. There are so many individual hair strands that you can actually brush and style it.
The hair has been crocheted on separately so that it flows in the direction of real hair, which means it is still on the round but slightly back on the head. This creates a tiny dip like a soft spot so looks very natural.

I have no idea why I started to make Amigurumi, it just happened one day.
I give almost every amigurumi I make away, well what would my house look like if it was full of them!
But I don't have a problem finding happy recipients.

close up of Amigurumi rabbit felt flowers on dress

close up of Amigurumi rabbit's little bear

Baby Caterpillar.

She hasn't got a name yet.

I haven't seen many baby caterpillar amigurumi out there, she's a little unique.

Sometimes I start to crochet with nothing in mind and a creature just appears.

She is still just a caterpillar at the moment, I still need to create her wings. When you untie the green pompoms she'll emerge as a butterfly when she's completed.

Cute Amigurumi crochet baby caterpillar, with beautiful big manga eyes, she looks sleepy. It has felt flower garland around it's head. Bright green body with Irish Crochet flowers, the flower are full beadwork, she has a bright pink dummy. Pompoms tie under her neck

Ebony and Ivory

Little amigurumi cupcake bears

Cute Amigurumi crochet cupcake bear,Ebony

Cute Amigurumi crochet cupcake bear,Ivory. Source shows Ivory

Red MJ Henry

Tiny little amigurumi bear

Cute Amigurumi crochet red bear, MJ Henry

Three Juicy Strawberries

Little amigurumi strawberries.

Cute Amigurumi crochet strawberries. Three Juicy Stawberries

The Werewolf and the Vampire

Super cuddly Lichen and Nosferatu.

Wearable Crochet

Sometimes wearable, sometimes to throw on the couch.

Chunky Irish Crochet, close up of rose and leaf medallions

Irish Crochet Rose medallion. Traditional thread crochet

Crochet and felt Daisy chain with buttercups.

Crochet and felt Daisy chain with buttercups, close up of removable flowers

Felt and Crochet flower bracelet, close up of flowers

Peach and Pearl Felt and Crochet flower bracelet, close up of flowers

Crochet granny square blanket, 3 layers of colour in centre surrounded by black then white to make up each square. These have then been sewn together to form a blanket. Blanket then edged with white lace stitch. The colours in the squares are completely random

Crochet granny square blanket, another corner of the blanket showing different coloured squares

Crochet granny square blanket, close up of the lace edging

Crochet shawl, chunky wool with contrasting lace edge. Colours go from dark aqua to light aqua through different shades of blue

Two Wrap crochet scarves. One is white the other is tan through to blue. They both have a loose crochet stitch and are tied around you with cords which end in pompoms.

Close up of tan through to blue Wrap crochet scarf pompoms.

Two crinkle edged crochet scarves. The first is earth green with flecks of tan the second is dark tan

Close up grey crochet scarf, very plain stitch.

Multicoloured crochet scarf with fringe edge all the way around. Colours are blue, turquoise, vivid green, orange, red, purple, pink. Should only be worn by someone very brave.

Pixel Art

Pixel Art crochet scarf, Dig Dug and enemy dragon.

Pixel perfect!

Pixel Art. Scarf with Dig Dug. Dig Dug. Dragon. Fire. Fygar breathing fire. By Artist The Oracle EJHamilton. E J Hamilton. Hamilton. Edinburgh. Scotland.

Pixel Art. Scarf with Dig Dug. Dig Dug. Dragon. Fire. Fygar breathing fire. By Artist The Oracle EJHamilton. Edinburgh. Scotland.

Perler bead Sprite Pixel art

Pixel art made out of perler beads. These are different colours of little plastic beads which you place on a pin matt and iron to fix in place. You can make up lots of different retro gaming sprites. This is a collection of 32 of my favourites. Including pacman the pac man ghosts and all the fruit to collect in the game and sonic and wizball sprites plus lots of others

Pixel art made out of perler beads. Close up of sonic

Pixel art made out of perler beads. Close up of mario

Sock dolls

Odd little critters

Applique and quilting

Some of my quilting projects

Hypolimnas dexithea from the Nymphalidae family of butterfly. Black and white butterfly with tan lower wing and a flash of blue on the top wing. The edges of the wings are striped black and white. The hand appliqué is on a light tan background.

Hypolimnas dexithea from the Nymphalidae family of butterfly. Close up of appliqué stitching.

Bees, machine paper pieced quilt. Has basic pattern of 4 bees surrounding the word bees which is done in a modern graffiti type of font. Tiny little pieces of fabric make up picture. Flying geese pattern surrounds the bees

Bees, machine paper pieced quilt. Close up of triangle edging of quilt

Traditional Amish quilt, squares are made up of two shades of pink, green, blue and purple. The corner squares which tie the design together are dark green and dark maroon. Contrasting detail and border is black. The pattern looks like little bows.

Machine appliqué with butterflies and tree. Foreground is long grass and background with large sunshine and clouds

Machine appliqué with butterflies and tree. Close up of two butterflies between the leaves.

The pond studies

Frog on a lilly pond leaf. Machine pieced and quilting. Pieced are extremely small

Frog on a lilly pond leaf. Machine pieced and quilting. Close up of quilting on back of frog

Shubunkin fish, hand appliqué and quilting

Shubunkin fish, hand appliqué and quilting. Close up of the hand stitching on the fish’s fins

Chocolate oranda fish, hand appliqué and quilting

Big pink pond lily with red centre and white tips to the petals. Yellow pond lily with orange centre

Big pink pond lily with red centre. Close up of hand stitches and painted flower stamen

Pond life, blue shubunkin fish hand applique and quiliting. Close up of stitching on the fish’s eye and fin

Pond life, Commet goldfish hand appliqué with lily leaf and pond lily bud

Pond life, young black moor fish hand applique, to be quilted

FanArt

Graffiti machine appliqué throw. I don't know who the original Graffiti artist is! Please let me know if you do so I can give them credit as I am a massive fan of their work. Dedicated a quilt to my love of it.