felt baby toys

Wow, it has been a while! I thought life would get easier after finishing my dissertation, but between teaching, doing research, and preparing for our new addition (due in December!) I don't seem to have a whole lot of extra time right now.

I did manage to find some time this past month to make some colorful felt balls for the baby. They are all about the size of a tennis ball, or slightly smaller, and three of the four have bells inside so they rattle. They are amazingly easy to make. I used a core of white wool roving and agitated it repeatedly after dipping the mass of wool into a bowl of hot soapy water. The ones that rattle have a small cat toy on the inside. I added the colorful outer layer the same way, and then needle felted polka-dots and stripes onto them. I gave one to my sister for her baby-on-the-way, and still have three of them. I'm tempted to make more but don't know how many felt balls a baby realistically needs!

Also in the category of felt baby toys, the gorgeous felt block below was made for me by my friend Rachel. It is made from wool felt and stuffed with bamboo stuffing, so is perfectly safe for a baby to gnaw on...but I think I might love this block too much too much to let my baby chew on it! Each of the sides has a different bird sewn on it...Northern Cardinal, American Goldfinch, Wood Thrush, Black-capped Chickadee, Common Raven, and American Robin. I am quite the bird-lover, as I have devoted the past 10 years of my life to studying birds, so it is a pretty appropriate gift. I can't stop looking at it!