Bunting

Had a busy few days getting things ready and organised for the Christmas market I'm selling at on Saturday.  I've decided to go for a plain white tablecloth as my bags are all pretty colourful in their own rights.  The only thing I didn't have was any way of showing who I was, so yesterday I started making some bunting with my company name on it.  I finished it this afternoon, and here it is:

and here is a close up of one of the flags

The letters are cut out of felt and bondawebbed to the flag, and then I stitched around the outside of the letters to make sure they stayed in place. A cheap and cheerful way to make sure any customers know who I am.

If anyone is in the Wimborne area on Saturday, then come and say hello, I'll be at Honeybrook Farm from 11am - 4pm.  Have a look at the website for The Anonymous Travelling Market for more details.

Saturday Night and time to Party!

Have had a busy couple of days making more stockings and then adding them to my shop.  I've only got a limited number of them as I've now run out of fabric, so I thought I'd try them online before taking them to the craft fair on Saturday.

I've also made a few more Christmas purses:

 So they will also be added to my shop tomorrow. 

I've also been to Fabricland again today (I know, I know, its an addiction!) and this time I bought some white fabric to cover my table at the craft fair. I also got some pink and red ginghams to make some bunting for the stall.  I may have a practice run of arranging the table and see what works.  I've never done a craft fair before so its going to be a learning experience, if anyone has any tips of things to do or take, then I'd love to know.

Right off for some birthday cake as it my husband's birthday today.  One of my children made it and another of them iced it, so am looking forward to a slice with a nice cup of tea.  Another exciting Saturday night in the country!!!

6 Degrees of Separation and Christmas Purses

Had quite a fun day today playing 6 degrees of separation with Emma over at It's all about The Fabric, small world that it is, we managed it in much less than 6 people - 1 to be precise!

Other than that I've finished the tutorial for Sew Hip, and emailed it off.  Then this afternoon I decided to make some crazy patchwork purses, but this time I thought that instead of making them flat, I'd give them each a bottom!

I made this one first:

Then I made this one:

and then because I cannot bear to waste even a scrap of fabric, no matter how small I made this one:

When does crazy patchwork tip over into insanity? I think I may be nearing that point now!

More for Sew Hip and Christmas Decorations

I've spent most of today making the second of my items for Sew Hip magazine.  So again I'm going to say you'll have to wait for the magazine to come out to find out what I've been making, but I think I may be able to give you a clue.  These are the leftovers!

I know as clues go, its not a very good one, but you can rest assured it is very colourful!  Obviously when the relevant issue comes out I'll let you know so you can all dash out and buy a copy!

While I was sitting at the table needle in hand, my daughter and her friend decided to do crafting too.  Luckily I'd been to Hobbycraft yesterday and bought a few Christmassy craft things so I could pull out the wooden decorations and let them loose with colouring pens.  Even my two sons came and joined us, so we spent a lovely hour chatting, crafting and singing along to the radio.  This is one of the wooden decorations my eldest son coloured:

I got each of them to write their names and the year on the back, so when they're married with a Christmas tree of their own, I can produce these ornaments for them to inherit! 

Christmas Stockings

Decided that today was the day I was going to cut into my beautiful Christmas fabric, and although it was hard to do as I love it so much, I'm pleased I did.  Here are the results:

I followed a pattern at Seamzine blog.  I printed it out at an A3 size and then added another 3" at the top as I wanted it to be slightly longer than their pattern.  The pattern itself was pretty easy to follow, although I do still have to unpick one seam on the blue one as I managed to stitch the lining in back to front, but that was just me having a ditzy moment, nothing to do with the pattern.  I've got enough fabric to make another 4 or 5 so it looks like my stall on 20th November may have a few stockings to sell.

The good news with doing festive crafts this early is that I'm getting into the holiday mood a bit earlier than usual - maybe this year will be the year I finally get organised and not have to dash around the shops on Christmas Eve, but then again maybe not!

A Monster Effort

Yippee, have finally finished making the monsters and bags I started weeks ago!

So, a family portrait of them all:



I'm hoping to sell them at the Christmas Craft Fair I'm doing in Wimborne on 20th November.  However I will probably take a couple up to the local country market on Saturday and see if anyone is interested. 

Am also turning my mind towards Christmas decorations and am wondering what I should make.  This year I'm at a bit of a loss.  I've bought some gorgeous fabrics from Fabricworm,

but they're so nice I really want to make something special with them.  Am leaning toward Christmas stockings, but just wondered what anyone else was planning on making this year?  Has anyone found any gorgeous patterns? 

Purses and Scarf Knitting

Quiet day on the crafts front today, because my youngest 2 children have been off school with a tummy bug.  Luckily the sickness part of the bug had finished by last night, so although I had to be on hand, I was not needed for any yucky stuff!

My 6 year old loves crafts so she was happy to sit at the table making cards for her friends and writing stories while I  made a couple more purses for the market on Saturday.

I saw crazy patchwork somewhere recently, (and can't for the life of me remember where I saw it) but I liked the look of it and thought I'd have a bash with the contents of my scrap bag.  I made both sides similar, here is the reverse:

I've lined them with white poly cotton, and added a bit of ribbon on the zip.  Quick and simple to do with children around.

The other thing I've been doing of an evening is knitting myself a scarf.  I saw this wool in a shop on Sunday and thought it would make an interesting scarf.

Its not very clear from the photo, but its quite lacy.  The reason being is I used larger needles than recommended  (I wish I could say because I'd aimed for a lacy look, but really it's because I get bored quickly & wanted to knit something quickly).  Its about half as long as I'd like, so hopefully a few more days & it should be done.

Just thought I'd leave you with an image of a card my daughter made me while we were sitting at the kitchen table together - its lovely & cheerful and was just what I needed.