hello sunshine!

I had a flash of inspiration on Wednesday and have been busy sewing, cutting and having fun with it ever since...I'm not ready just yet to show what I have been making but the sun was out this morning and it seemed a shame to not take photos, so I snapped a couple of the colorful supplies I have been using!

brad news

lots and lots of people have asked when pink brads will be back in stock...and I can't tell you for sure but it should be by the end of the week...I'll be sure to keep you posted!

(I'm not being secretive, I'm just at the mercy of my American suppliers, who are all celebrating a Thanksgiving Holiday!)

photos are of some new felt flowers that I put into my shop yesterday

scarf parcels

These four little fellas have been sitting in my workshop for a little while now, patiently waiting for scarves and finally the scarf parcel came!

They were patient a little while longer, whilst I made the scarves and again whilst I took photos ... now they have to be a little bit more patient & wait to be purchased!

I did lots of fun workshop things today (it's a day off the day job day) including decorating my wooden trees....

some might say less is more ... I say the more the merrier ...:-)

spare moments

at this busy time of year sewing for my shop seems to fall to the bottom of the to-do list (below packing orders, visiting the post office, answering emails, paperwork, special orders...you get the picture!)

I LOVE being a virtual shop keeper and there's no task that seems like hard work, but I do miss my hours of sewing. That's when spare moments come in handy...for the past week or so I've been snatching a few minutes here and there to make some Fir Trees for my shops...isn't it amazing that 'no time to sew' can produce 10 fir trees? (and bags under my eyes, but that's another story!)

workshop purchases

a very un-glamorous but necessary purchase was bought today.

At Wickes.

my new dehumidifier, cast in the chief role of Felt Protector (the damp shall not be allowed in, no matter how hard it tries!!)

Much more enjoyable shopping took place late last week at Paperchase (online) ... I had to re-arrange my shelf wall to make room for them...

...wooden tree displays!

perfect for showing off my ornaments & decorations

I can't wait to fill them up!

packaging

my new Christmas packaging is here!

pretty paper bags

the cutest Christmas bags I have ever seen!

plain bags, for little items...sealed with ::

pretty pretty stickers

and a new batch of Thank You cards, all printed, chopped & folded.

I like packing orders as much as I enjoy making them!

Christmas Tutorial

I tried to think of something simple...you know, a quick & easy craft for Christmas.

But in fact this tutorial is time consuming.

And addictive.

Please consider yourselves warned!!

as a few of you guessed, this tutorial is for Felt Chains!

based on the all-time-favourite ... paper chains ... but these are Mini Felt Chains!

hand stitched from felt!

in which ever colours you like :-)

my first chains were red & white...an easy two colour chain.

the pattern piece was cut by eye and I just measured it and it is 1" wide and 12cm long (a truly continental pattern!)

cut out as many pieces as you need (my red and white chain has 25 loops)

fold a piece of felt in half and start to sew a blanket stitch...I like my knot to be on the inside so it can't be seen.

blanket stitch along the edge (ignoring the fact that I need a manicure!)

at the end, turn it around and blanket stitch the folded edge too

now you are ready to make some loops

overlap the ends by 1cm and carry on stitching around the edges

keep on looping and sewing

and soon you'll be addicted

you could of course use glue.

pah! why glue when you can stitch?

I like stitching.

and these little labours of love will last for many Christmases to come!

I hope you try these, and enjoy them...Merry Christmas!

sneaky peek

there's a felt-y Christmas Tutorial in the making.

it'll be here tomorrow...see you then!

counting

I've spent the past couple of evenings counting and packing buttons ::

lots of lovely new colour mixes in bulk buy bags::

and lots of new polka dot & gingham buttons too ::

my supplies shelves are looking very full

...and very colourful !!

PRESS

Yesterday a kind customer let me know I was featured in this months SEW magazine ::

and after a very windy & rainy walk to Smiths I bought a copy and here I am ::

Another friendly reader told me I was featured in the storque (needle case) ::

so then I checked Heart-o-matic and found my penguins in a gift guide ::

THEN (as if you weren't bored already!)the local paper came out and I'm featured in their Christmas Gift Guide ~ woohoo!!
(picture overload coming up!)

stockings, notebooks & a pouch in the 'kids' section ::

mini felt rainbow, kits and more stockings in the 'stocking filler' section ::

and I'm on the contents page too !!::

I have a seriously BIG grin on my face right now!

feeling festive

it finally hit me today....you know... that Christmas feeling....I wasn't feeling it at all, despite making Christmas items for the past few months (maybe because I have been making Christmas items for the past few months!)

but this morning my smiling Happy Trees looked SO festive in the sunshine.

Then today at the Day Job the Christmas boxes came down from the dusty top shelf (SO many baubles to have fun with) ... the decorations aren't up yet, but Saturday is official Bauble day!

and THEN on the w-i-n-d-y walk home from the workshop there were Fairy Lights being put up in the trees in the town centre!

Definitely a Christmassy day.

Ho-Ho-Ho

perfect sewing weather

Don't you just love this cold dry weather?

It's absolutely perfect for snuggling up under a blanket with some hand sewing and stitching away the hours!

I've been doing just that .... I've completed some Christmas embellishments

and I am half way through some polka dot Happy Trees

... I've gone a little polka dot crazy and ordered some new tissue paper for wrapping up my festive orders...

...there are more packaging supplies on their way too...it would seem this cold weather is good for a spot of online shopping too :-)