Fantails are cute

This week I took part in my first ever craft swap, participating in the In Stitches Christmas tree ornament secret Santa swap.

Now that the secret is out, I can reveal that my recipient was Emily. Here are the results of my extensive initial research:

1. Emily is from ...I want to say Colorado, but now that it comes to committing it to the page, I'm worried I might have just made that up. Emily is from one of the United States.
2. She likes tramping and gardening.
3. Perhaps most importantly, her favourite colours are brown and tan.

So upon beginning my project, my first question was: what's cute, brown, quintessentially New Zealandy and looks good in a tree?

I did come up with more than one answer but really, it had to be a fantail.

Somewhat naively, I decided to make it 3D. I figured there would be small 3D bird making instructions all over the internet, but this proved to be slightly optimistic. And so I embarked on a mission to create my own pattern. It wasn't easy. There may have been small pieces of felt thrown down in frustration and there may have been name-calling. But after all that, I think he turned out quite well.



Motivated by the outcome, I am currently working on a small flock of fantails, so I will take more photos this time around and publish a "Making of...". If you leave a comment on this post, I may even be persuaded to publish a tutorial.

So tied up was I in the production of my ornament, that I forgot that I would get one too! I had the good fortune to receive an ornament from the lovely and supremely talented Millie, who gave me a gorgeous and as yet unphotographed tiki. I will add a photo of it installed on the tree this weekend.