Some things old, something new...

To start with, I thought I'd share a couple of pieces of treasure today. 

First of all, something that had been lurking behind the desk for a year (or maybe even two!) waiting to be given a new piece of glass.  I bought this beautiful tray on ebay, but sadly it was not well packaged and arrived with the glass smashed to smithereens!  I got a piece of glass cut for it quite quickly, but it was too big, and so it wasn't until I needed glass for last week's tray that this one was cut to size.  Here's the result...

I should have taken photos of the embroidery before putting it under the glass!  It is really beautifully done - incredibly neat.

Next, another crinoline lady.

I bought this rather shabby little tea cosy a couple of weeks ago. It's about half the size of a normal tea cosy.

  The first time I saw it in a local Antiques Centre, I resisted temptation, even though I was fascinated by the technique used to create the flower border.  A week or so later, I found myself driven to return, hoping against hope that it would still be there.  

I went to the room where I had seen it and was crestfallen not to find it...

But just as I was about to leave, I spied it out of the corner of my eye and swiftly scooped it up!

The flowers are all made from minute pieces of felt, some of them intricately cut into petals.  Embroidered detail has been layered on top.  You can see that there used to be paving stones drawn on, and possibly some other 'painted' bits - or perhaps this is just colour run from the felt?

Today, I decided to have a go at recreating the felt flower border (if not the armless, half-neckless lady).  

I got a hole punch and cut tiny circles from lots of different colours of felt scraps, and cut other shapes free-hand.  Then I created my flowers and stitched them on.

And here is what I made...

A great way to use up the tiniest of scraps!

I'm now dreaming up other things to decorate with these miniature felt flowers!

In case you haven't read my last post, just to let you know I'm doing a giveaway.  You can read about it, and how to enter,  here.  

One of the prizes is a 'Beach Hut, Bunting and Daisies' Needlecase.  Just in case you're not a red, white and blue kinda gal (or fella, as the case may be!), here's an alternative colourway.  The winner can choose which they'd prefer!