Lara's Special Memory Journal.

Hello my lovelies, I've been waiting to share this felty make with with you until it's new owner had taken delivery of it. It's a bit like awaiting the delivery of a baby, I need to make sure it's safely delivered to it's new mummy in it's new home before I can send the photos out free into the world, lol, mad eh!

This piece was commissioned by the lovely Lara and her family in celebration of her 21st birthday. 

Lara requested a felted book cover for a special journal that would be used to record all those precious moments of her life so far. What a lovely idea!

This is the part where I stand and bite my nails...cutting the felt. I measure and measure and then measure again. A cut in the wrong place and I'd have to start from scratch and make a new piece of felt, wait for it to dry naturally and then spend another day machine embroidering it, so I really need to take care. There really is no room for error!

Phew! Perfect! What a relief.

Before I set about it with the sewing machine again shall we take a closer look. This side will be the front.

And this side is the back.

My signature hidden in the greenery.

One pretty but naked journal awaiting it's new coat.

After even more stitching the whole thing has to be turned inside out. It's no mean feat squishing all that thick fluffy felt through a small gap.

 Will it fit the journal?

 Have I measured correctly?

 Will it be too baggy? 

Have I left enough room for the book to close properly? 

Much more nail biting.

Ta-Daa!

A neat finish.

 Here is the front. 

And the back.

A perfect fit!

YAY!

And I'm very happy to say I've had the most lovely email from Lara.

Yes she's 'incredibly happy with it!'

Till next time

love Fi x

Slim Jim

 This is the sofa in the kitchen, a fine place to dump all of my bags of Merino wool when I'm felting. I store them all in a large sack and when it comes to felting time I very unceremoniously up-end it and dump the contents on the sofa. Well it works for me and saves me grovelling about on the floor. 

 This wall hanging is a tall slim size, made to exhibit behind me at a designers and makers market recently. I didn't know how much wall space I would have, if any at all so this seemed a more reasonable size. It actually measures about 45cm x 75cm and is one of two. You may just spot a nosey hen through the kitchen door who shouldn't even be in the garden never mind sitting on my doorstep!

 And here is the finished article....TA-DAA! 

 As usual plenty of machine embroidery.

 pretty colours and happy shapes.

 and I can't resist adding a good dollop of wonderful, wiggly, Wensleydale tops and then following each undulating ringlety curl with the sewing machine.

Oh, and before I forget...

Thank you for the needle case love on my previous post. Mum was thrilled with it so all the last minute speed stitching was well worth it. In answer to your questions, yes the fabric was Liberty Tana Lawn and yes the tall flowers were made using ordinary French knots.

I'm very excited and can hardly wait to post again as next time I have something to show you that I'm very pleased with. I'm just waiting to see if the lady who commissioned it likes it too!

Till next time 

love Fi x 

Embroidered Needle Case.

The last week of April was my Mums birthday. That was April the fourth month of the year.

Way back in January I remember sitting with my friends at our weekly sewing group, watching two very talented ladies working hard on some traditional hand embroidery. Both create exquisite, precise neat and sometimes quite complicated embroidery stitches. Absolutely beautiful work.

It was while I was watching their nimble fingers I remembered something my Mum had said about one day she must get around to making herself a needle case, one with labelled pages for different types of needles.  

So way back in January a little idea pinged into my teeny tiny brain! I'd make my Mum a needle case for her birthday. Yes! I had lots of time, four whole months, no rush then.

Fast forward to April, a very busy month for me stitching like mad in preparation for two craft fairs. Suddenly I only had two days left before Mum's special day! Aaaargh! Where had all that time gone, who had stolen almost 4 months away from me!

Well much frenzied stitching ensued. Even on the day of my arrival at Mum and Dads house I was very relieved to find that my parents had a hospital appointment and would have to leave me home alone for a couple hours before lunch. Perfect! That just gave me time to finish stitching the last two labels onto the pages inside and add the date to the back, phew! You can still see a slight purple fuzz around the date where the air erasable pen hasn't had time to vanish. 

I just had time to take a few quick photos before carefully wrapping it in tissue paper and hiding it away.

And yes, she loved it. All the rush and frenzy was well worth it in the end.

Till next time

love Fi x 

Designers and Makers Market, Richmond

 Hello all, a big thank you from me for all of your well wishes for the Designer, Makers Market last Sunday. You must have all had your fingers crossed because it worked, I had an excellent day and sold lots!

This is a sneaky pic of me setting up in the morning, taken by Wonderful Man who was true to his name all day. He diligently recorded every sale and kept me supplied with liquid refreshments which I certainly needed as I did a heck of a lot of chatting to a lot of lovely people. 

The tables were a little bit smaller than usual which meant there was a fair amount of head scratching, squeezing and squishing to fit it all on. 

But I think it all looked okay in the end. Well it must have done as we made a fair few people smile as they approached our table. There was a lot of 'cooing' over bunnies and 'aahing' over tea cosy's  and you wouldn't believe the amount of deliberating over pretty brooches!

 The Station at Richmond is a lovely venue. It was busy all day with people using the restaurant,

 visiting the on site bakery and later in the day families arriving to see a film at the cinema.

All of the tables looked fantastic,

and each one very different.

All beautifully displayed.

Gosh! I appear to be in full flow in this picture. As 'wonderful' as he is, he's very sneaky with that camera!

And next time... we'll be embroidering a birthday needle case.

see you then

love Fi x

 Hello my lovelies, just bringing you up to date with some of my recent makes. 

This is a miniature piece of embroidered wet felt for your delectation.

Only 2 inches tall! Now what can you do with a mini piece of art like that?

 Well you can wear it! 

 These are delicate little brooches. Carefully machine and hand embroidered.

These little gems and my circular felt brooches are for sale in Chapel Gallery and shortly they will be available in my Etsy shop too.

I've also been spending time repackaging my little Fat Owl Kits.

 This has taken waaaay more time than I ever thought. Finding just the right box to create the look I wanted has been so difficult but I think I've got it right now. Fingers crossed, I'm hoping to create some more kits along the same lines. Watch this space.

Next Sunday you can find me at The Station in Richmond, North Yorkshire taking part in the 

Designer Makers Market. Please pop along if you are in the area and say hello.

Till next time

love Fi x

LoveKnitting.com

Just a quickie to say a big thank you for all of your get well wishes, they're much appreciated. 

As you can see it's been all systems go here in the attic, I've been getting ready for a craft fair tomorrow at the Dales Countryside Museum in Hawes and I'm shattered, off to bed in a mo thank goodness.

I just thought I'd mention I'm the blogger of the week over at LoveKnitting.com. The lovely Helen asked me if I'd take part in a little interview and results can be found here if you fancy a peek. While you're there be prepared to be side tracked by all the lovely yarn and gorgeous knitting goodies they supply. 

Till next time

love Fi x

Miniature floral art.

 I think it's about time I apologised for the hit-and-miss blogging around here over the last 3 or 4 months. I've been...hmmm...not under the weather exactly but not really myself since the beginning of the year.

  I've been to the doctors more times in the last few weeks than I have in the last 6 years and after some tests and scans hopefully things will get better over the next few months, don't worry it's nothing serious but I just feel my 'sparkle' has been 'dulled' and you've not been getting the best of me of late and I hate not giving my best!

Anyway chin up Fi!  

What do you think to these little embroideries then?

They're little embellished felt brooches.

They're about 2 inches across, 

made from my wet felt and then hand embroidered with threads and ribbons.

pretty?

Maybe I should try a different shape...

Staying on the subject of brooches, I've also made a few larger ones.

These are quite delicate,

and have lovely buttons, some vintage, stitched in the centre. 

The fabric has a lovely iridescent quality and catches the light beautifully.

And just because I thought this was amazing,(yes I've lead a very sheltered life).

Here are two of my aprons that I brought in from the washing line. Just look what the wind has done to the ties! You've got to agree, that's some spectacular knotting and braiding! I wonder what the wind would make if I hung out an unravelled ball of yarn....

Maybe not.

Till next time

love from a very droopy Fi x