I used the turtle pattern in Aranzi Aronso book ISBN4579109783 as a starting point. I decided I wanted to make a tiny felt turtle instead of the big floppy fabric turtle they feature in the book. My turtle easily fits in the palm of your hand.

I planned on doing some geometric embroidery on the shell, but when the time came, I had the urge to sew flowers. I put in the stems and leaves then I added the flower tops one color at a time. I like the way the flowers are spaced and balanced - it looks like I planned the embroidery instead of improvised it.

This is the first time I've used sequins for eyes. I LOVE the way they look. I put a medium black sequin over a pink sequin and attached them with a french knot. The french knot has to be very big and tight to keep the sequins on, otherwise they *boing* right off the turtle's face and go hide in the carpet. Black seed beads would work better than french knots - I need to get some. The shiny sequin eyes have a glint and give the turtle an impish personality. I have a ton of sequin sizes and colors - I can't wait to try out other combos!

The pattern would have worked perfectly for a floppy turtle. It wasn't perfect for the stiffer felt. When I stuffed the turtle the belly bloated out, so I had to sew the underneath of the legs to the belly a little so they point down instead of straight out like the turtle is flying. I didn't attach the head and legs as the pattern suggested and I ended up having to make the bottom circle 120% bigger (thank you Photoshop). I'd like to design my own turtle that would work better in the felt.