Craft Fair for Trinity Hospice

Thursday 21st November has been marked on my calendar for a long time as it was the Trinity Hospice Christmas fund raiser.  There were 18 stalls and over 300 visitors enjoying Stollen and  Mulled wine as well as buying treasures for Christmas.

Irene and I set up our stall (nervously) ... we had a lot of goodies and not much space, but we squashed and squeezed it all and managed to get it on display.  I think we might have to limit what we choose to take to the next fair so that we can display things with more impact.  

Irene has some stunning pictures that were on the window sill behind the table which were difficult to see as we were standing there blocking the view.

  

It was a great night and I'm so pleased that lots of funds were raise support our local hospice.

Flowers

Now that the evenings are longer I have been keeping myself busy sewing in front of the TV.

I have used ice dyed calico for the background of each picture and a range of threads and buttons to create a floral design.  I think they are quite cute.

Tiny red flowers.

Rhubarb and Custard

Pretty pinks

Pale and interesting.

Playing and creating.

Today I was in to mood for playing.  I took a piece of space dyed muslin, folded it and stitched using a variety of different threads.

  I over laid it with a piece of champagne coloured organza and stitched long rows of  randomly spaced stitches. This give the whole thing a sheen and I really like it as a base fabric.

Then I found the first ever experiment.  This is calico with metallic paint dropped and squirted all over.

  I cut circles and some stem shapes and then machine stitched them on to the base.

With the addition of a frame I have created a pretty picture for my stall.

Wind and fire.

I made some felt last week using 100% mohair fleece and I loved it.  It was so soft and the wool retained the curls from it's life on the sheep's back.  Some how I felt that the piece had movement.  So I selected some threads and had a go at free machine embroidery on to the felt.  I have not been successful in the past so I took my time.

 First of all I backed the felt with a piece of sheer organza.  I predicted that it would prevent the felt from getting tangled in the feed dog area of the machine. (Event thought the feed dogs were dropped for this work.)

I used a combination of yellow and orange threads, so 2 threads through 1 needle to create a beautiful mixed thread.  I also used some copper thread to create a little more interest.

On the greeny part I used a blue/green variegated Sulky thread.  I adore this mixture, but again have really struggled to get it to sew without breaking.  Today I would the bobbin in the same mixture as the bobbin and I had not trouble at all!

                                           In my mind I had a water or wind idea for this stitching.

The end result is a wall hanging.

I can see wind and fire here.  Let me know if you have any other suggestions for a title.  

It's going to live on the wall of my bedroom.

After a successful trip to Ikea yesterday I have managed to get back to creating and making again today.

Last week I had a go at stitching honesty on to tissue. 

I've had a few more rehearsal and have managed to make 2 pictures and 2 cards.

This is stitched on to 3 layers of coffee coated tissue paper.

I am especially pleased to have used some paper that I made in the summer using Clematis fibers.

Honesty

 Earlier this week I watched one of the talking thread DVD's  produced by Colouricious.  I really enjoy these as they job my memory and often give me some new ideas.
Di Wells demonstrated a technique using tissue paper, acrylic wax and honest seed cases.  So I decided I'd have a go myself.

I scrunched 4 pieces of tissue

Flattened them

Painted coffee on to one.

 

                 

Left it to dry.

The sheet on the  textured chopping board.dried and could be used .... the one left on the work surface stuck like glue! Whoops.

All of the pieces were then ironed on a cool heat.

I prepared the honesty seed cases by coating them with acrylic wax.

Then I stitched them on to the paper using the free machine embroidery settings and a fine needle (size 60). The needle needs to be fine so that the honesty case does not shatter.
At first I pressed the foot peddle hard and moved that paper quickly, which resulted in torn paper and threads that were not attached.  So I knew that I needed to work much more slowly.  This is quite different form lots of the other machine embroidery techniques I have tried.

Argh ... It's not looking good!

A better attempt.

 So, I had another go pressing the food peddle gently and moving the paper slowly so that each stitch was quite large.  I ended up with the seed cases attached and outlined with black thread.  I would like to practice and make a much neater version so that I can create some pictures for my home.  

I just love the natural materials and the simplicity of this piece of work.  Some how 'Honesty' feels like the correct name for it.
                                                                                 I hope you like it too.

I wonder ...

   Today my friend and I  I have made some felt using the wet felting process
                     I have yet to decide what I will make with it.  

The yellow and green on is made using 100% mohair and I adore the crinkly effect.

Irene from Sew Stitch Knit is doing a distance machine embroidery course and we were discussing the fabric dying with tea that she was doing earlier in the week. This led on to a conversation about colouring fabric using food/ drink products.  So I looked in the store cupboard and gathered some spices, wet a piece of paper and sprinkled some onto damp paper.

My favourite is the smoked Paprika.

We couldn't leave the experiment there so Irene suggested that we could make silk paper and try adding the spices to colour it.  So, I dissolved some smoked paprika in hot water. laid out the silk tops and added some paprika water, covered it with baking parchment and ironed the silk.

The end result was a lovely piece of silk paper which I intend to embellish with honest leaves.

I wonder how long it will be before the paper stops smelling of smoked paprika?

Peter Pan Story Cushion

I have recently had an order for a story cushion with a Peter Pan theme.
I wondered what to do. I thought about the pictures of the characters such as Captain Hook, the crocodile and the Lost Boys .... but then realised there were a lot of faces to stitch and I'm not in my comfort zone with faces!

I also knew the cushion was for a boy and knowing how fast they grow up I wanted it to last a while.  So I decided that a map would be a good starting place.

I began by using free machine embroidery to create a map of Neverland on some calico.  This took about an hour to do and I really enjoyed myself.  I have stitched in some of the details by hand.

I then aged it using tea.
Then next step involved my friend Peter.  It has taken a long time to trace and make each individual part of the Peter character using bondaweb and felt.  I am happy with the shape so I stitched it onto the background.

Then I made the pocket to go on the back which is larger enough to fit a story book in.  I also stitched the name of the person and then machine stitched the whole cushion together.

You might notice that the face is still not there!

Here is the final product and Peter Pan is smiling.

Crafting with the Kids

The half term holidays have hijacked my sewing time completely!  It's been a whirl wind of a week.  However, my kids have gone back to school today and I've just had the pleasurable company of my 2 nieces (Aged 8 and 10.).  The good new is ... they have not yet overdosed on crafting and even asked to "Do something fun!" ..Ahh, I do love them.

So, we decided to make a garland of Christmas trees.  
We made a template ... just a big triangle but we understood the necessity for similar sizes if the end result was not going to look a total mess.

The girls chose a variety of fabrics .. with much oohing and ahhing ( It was music to my ears.)
Then drew around the template and used my best fabric scissors to cut out their shapes.  



After some carefully demonstrated sewing the girls took turns to sew their trees together inside out.  They trimmed the corners and turned their triangles back the correct way.  Then the tree trunks were added.

Getting the corners poked out was tricky and the girls nimble fingers were just perfect for getting the stuffing in perfectly.

After making a few with contrasting fabrics they wanted to play with the different stitches on the machine.  So they had a go.  Some of the stitches were more successful than others because the fabric got caught in the feed dogs at times.  However, it was all part of the learning curve.

 I think they have done a fantastic job of making the trees for their 1st Christmas garland.

Tooth Fairy pillows.

I rummaged through my fabric stash last night and set about making another load of Tooth Fairy pillows to sell at the next craft fair.  I'm really pleased with them.  I have had lots of requests for these ... I think the Tooth Fairy must be really busy!

Later today I need to make the rhymes to go in the pocket and I'll be ready to go.

Wet and Windy

We've bee to the lakes to close out caravan down for the winter. We intended to stay a little longer but the weather was dreadful.  Stormy winds and lashing rain meant that outings were brief and once snuggled inside the 4 of us ... and the dog were a little closer together than was strictly comfortable. 

Today we closed the van down completely till next year and set off for a lovely walk along the old railway tack near Threlkeld.  It is a favourite spot for us at the dog can usually have a swim.  The pictures tell the whole story .. the river was too fast and full for even out hardy dog to manage a real swim and I can tell you she was very disappointed. 

River Greta in full flow.

My Son ..who is 16 on Friday! My daughter and husband.
xxx

We're looking forward to next year.