Wednesday 27 March 2019

The New Zealand Leaf Pattern Blanket and Rug Review - Twig + Tale Patterns

Twig + Tale Patterns are whimsical and magical.  

As an adult, they bring me to a more innocent time - with classic soft touches to each pattern, and a multitude of options - meaning one pattern = a zillion options and designs.

Lisa and the team from Twig + Tale has done it again - with a collection of New Zealand Leaf patterns inspired by Lisa's daughter after watching a David Attenborough documentary.  

Her daughter was inspired to make a difference to animals - by helping to restore their habitat by planting trees - and a portion of sales will go towards her dream! 

I had the fortunate opportunity to test with Lisa and her lovely testers again - and this one means the world to me and someone very special to us.


There are 5 leaf options and 3 size options, including:
- Rangiora
- Puka
- Kawakawa
- Kowhai
- Makomako

The leaves can be used as a travel mat, outside blanket, dress up cape, pet rug, play mat, and so much more. 

As soon as I heard about the pattern...I know it was meant to be. 

We lost our Gideon on January 18, 2019 from an aggressive osteosarcoma (cancer in his leg that was in his lungs by the time we discovered it in Early December 2018). 

All of us had been sleeping in the living room on the main floor for almost a month - all of our pillows and comforters splayed through the room - in order to prevent Gideon from suddenly and painfully breaking his leg where the tumour was (a high possibility) and to give him the comfiest last days we could. 

After his passing, we slowly started taking away pillows and comforters - a few at a time - off the ground to be washed and to gain some normalcy back to our house. 

Fynn, our youngest Ridgeback, loved laying on the comforters that were on the ground at this point. 

And then the pattern testing came out. This would be a good tribute to Gideon, leaving Fynn with the comfort he had grown accustomed to. 



This is the small rug - it's pretty teeny, but makes a great throw rug, or even wall hanging!  

You can sew the leaf veins in by machine, embroider them, use iron on fabric, and whatever your imagination desires. 

I opted to sew felt veins and made some cute dragonfly accents (self drafted pattern). 

The fabric is an old curtain we replaced a few years back when it got colour stained from the sun. 




The next is the medium sized leaf - I used a fleece fabric for the main layer, and an old sheet the dogs had torn with their claws for the bottom.  

A piece of Gideon with each of these rugs. 


I made a self-drafter felt ladybug thanks to my handy glue gun, and sewed the veins into this one. 

Fynn lays on this rug in my sewing room. 




The large rugs are amazing - they take up the majority of our living room, but are well worth it. 

Again, I used the old blanket as the backing, and used some old fuzzy warm blankets given to us from Husband's Aunt for the main surface. 

Fynn Did NOT want to leave the blankets as I was taking photographs - I mean, look how cute he is! 




The paw prints are hand drafted from felt - from the numerous ink prints I took of Gideon's paw pads over the last few weeks he was with us. 

There are 4 paws per rug. This is my tribute to him, and for Fynn to know his brother is still with him. 



Fynn LOVES these rugs - even I get down on the ground with him for a snuggle!

They were an easy sew - with a couple layers of quilt fleece lining inside.  The most tedious part would be the creative part - the veins and any add ons. 

You can be as creative or follow the pattern to the T - and as you can see, they are a great use for old torn blankets.  




Share your love for the environment, a little girl's dream, and a puppy who is just darn stinking cute by purchasing the Leaf Blanket Pattern!

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