Doris the hedgehog and an autumn table mat
Lyn
The nights are drawing in and heralding autumn. The leaves have started to fall and the plants are looking sad.
Gardeners will already be clearing away plant litter, but I urge them not to be too tidy – leave a little mess for our garden friends to shelter in or under.
We had a hedgehog hibernate under a mound of leaves in our garden and it inspired me write a ditty and felt a picture – it’s wet and needle felt with some hand stitching – 28x18cm (11”x7”).
DITTY FOR DORIS
I help you with your garden plants
I eat the slugs and snails and ants
So help me when it’s cold and bitter
Look closely when you rake the litter
Please check that I’m not in my bed
With fallen leaves around my head
Lyn
Annie
I wanted a small but interesting textiles project to help me get back into the swing of making things again after a busy year has kept me from my fibres, and since autumn is my favourite season it seemed like a good subject!
I decided on a small table mat with an autumn leaves design. I made a sample set of leaves but actually they might end up being the final ones. I chopped up and arranged some small squares of open weave fabrics
then flipped them over and laid corresponding colours of fibres over the fabrics so that I could felt it to prefelt and then cut my leaves from the prefelt.
Leaves cut from the prefelt.
Here’s a close up of three of the leaves.
Not sure what the next stage is but this is as far as I have got!
18 thoughts on “Doris the hedgehog and an autumn table mat”
Love Doris and all your lovely autumnal leaves Lyn and the Ditty is great. I always worry about hedgehogs come Bonfire Night – how many people remember to look under the bonfire before they light it I wonder?
I might take issue with the line in the Ditty about them eating the slugs etc. I can remember a long time ago seeing a hedgehog in my back garden sharing a saucer of milk with the biggest brown slug I’d ever seen 🤔 That of course was before I knew that you shouldn’t give hedgehogs milk because they can’t digest it (like most cats – though not my two who love it)
Annie hurry up and finish your table mat. I can’t wait to see what you do with all those lovely leaves.
Ann.
You’re right about the milk Ann – apparently hedgehogs love cat food! Yes I fear that many hedgehogs meet a sad end on November 5th – they are already classified as ‘vulnerable to extinction’.
As hedgehogs come into our garden at night (we see them on our garden cam) it’s difficult to see what they are eating. However, I can vouch that frogs eat slugs – it’s quite a sight!
Thank you for your kind comment on my felted picture of Doris and the Ditty, and I will chivvy Annie along with her project!
Lyn, such a lovely hedgehog and I’m glad that you left her a little home place in your garden. The colors of the garden behind Doris are scrumptious. Annie, your leaves are looking gorgeous and I look forward to seeing the table mat, perhaps a lovely fall tree 😉
Thank you Ruth. When I made two autumnal colour pieces of pre-felt, for the background and the leaves, I wasn’t happy with them but they turned out well once cut up and in place. I had fun making Doris with pre-felts, needle felting and stitching.
Annie is tied up this week but she is itching to make her table mat as soon as she can – her design will evolve as she goes – as always!
Hi Lyn, Doris is an absolute sweetheart and she and your poem would be a welcome addition to any hedgehog rescue centre. Gosh it must be over 15 years ago in autumn that one of my neighbours rocked up to the house to tell me that she saw two babies on our cul de sac. She knew that I had taken in rescued hedgehogs that were ready to return to the wild. They would spend a month in an enclosure here eating all the bugs they could find (supplemented by pet food in accordance with the instructions from the rescue centre). I digress, these were real babies and there was no sign of mum. Inn the end I over wintered them in the spare room where we set up a run for them. Kept us up at night they were so noisy (they were too tiny to let hibernate). They weighed in at over a kilo each when we released them. Not a word from them since, not even a postcard to their adopted mum! lol
Annie, as usual you have produced the most exciting array of leaves. Can’t wait to see what you do with them.
Helene x
You are so kind to be a foster mum to hedgehogs! It’s such a shame that our modern life is squeezing their habitat and safety as they negotiate our roads etc.
I’m glad you like the felted Doris and the Ditty !
I love that hedgehog!!
Thank you Regina!
Thank you for stopping by my blog! I look forward to getting to know you through our shared interests. xoxo Regina
I hope others get to see your blog via this thread – fascinating read!
That is a super sweet thing to say! ❤️
the hedgehog is so cute. We don’t have anything like them here. Habitat loss is a big problem here too.
Love the leaves. They have lots of potential.
Sorry Ann … forgot to hit reply 🙁
Thank you Ann. The hedgehogs we have around here are really cute so I’m glad you think my felted version is too.
I’m looking forward to seeing what Annie does with her leaves 🙂
Wow, wonderful Doris complete with ditty, and from Annie those amazingly colourful leaves begging an outcome for us all to drool over.
Looking after orphaned hedgehogs is time consuming, they do make quite a racket & the little critters, when finally released, never look back at their foster parents ☹️
Keep up the wonderful work both of you x
Thank you Antje! Autumn projects are fun and make us use a different colour palette from that we use in the spring/summer.
I hope some gardeners will see Doris and the Ditty and be careful and considerate when they tidy their gardens.
Loving your Doris. There has been a hedgehog in my garden in previous years, but he/she has not been spotted this year – yet. Quite a few have been seen in the neighbourhood though. I love your leaves, such lovely colours.
Thank you Marie! Hedgehogs aren’t always easy to spot as they prefer night-time outings – we’ve only seen ours this year so far on a garden cam (night-time).
Annie’s leaves are lovely – she achieved a great effect with the nuno felt.