A Crafters Christmas Tree, teehee!

 It's been a bit rushed...if you don't count the four years it's been a project in waiting! lol. But 2013 has finally been it's year. 

What is it? 

Well it's woolly, and it's round. It's tall and it's green. And it won't be to everyone's taste but it suites me down to the ground.

It has sparkly bits,

and big woolly pompoms.

It's my crafters Christmas Tree.

The family have been surprisingly complimentary about it, but then I suppose even a crochet Christmas tree is better than no tree at all. It still needs a few more pompoms but it'll be a lot easier to pack away than the usual type.

I cannibalised a small lampshade for the top so that I could pop it over our standard lamp base as I didn't want to hang it from the ceiling. When I take it off after Christmas it should collapse down nice a flat. Bish-bosh done!

Merry Christmas

love Fi x

Edited to add: I can't take any credit for the idea, it came from a picture I saw on the Internet. You can see the original picture of a much more magnificent crochet tree on my Pinterest board - Yarny Goodness.

Foxy Fowler II

Hello or maybe it's time I said Merry Christmas! 

 Tis mighty dark and stormy here in the hills tonight. The tops of the fells have a dusting of snow...brrr.

Sneaky dog is curled up on the sofa next to me and I'm trying to resist my 3rd mincepie of the day.

 So... Let me introduce you to Foxy Fowler made with love and fluff.

 He's been designed for the lovely Rowena, to remind her of her Nan and a childhood memory of 'Foxy Fowler' a moth eaten fur stole! I'm sure you'd love the story but it's not my tale to tell unfortunately.

 He's not only a felted wool 'painting', I snipped and sewed him into a unique shoulder bag too. Lovely long handles as requested.

 And Autumnal shapes and colours.

Hmm I think he's spotted something interesting...

Maybe it's my Christmas cake, unwrapped for it's final 'feed' before the festivities!

Merry Christmas 

and

I look forward to seeing you all for a look back at 2013.

love Fi x

Violets and Pansies

 Hello my lovelies, I'm playing catch up with my posts again. I'm having trouble keeping up with life at the moment. It's travelling way too fast for me!

 This piece of felt (shown here at the start of the felting process) was a commission for the lovely Alison. She requested a small bag with a flap and a long strap to go across the body. And the theme was violets, pansies and anemones.

 So that's what I made her! 

 I have to admit I was stumped for a long time. 

Inspiration eventually came while out in the car one weekend. We passed a couple hill walking (not unusual here in the hills) and the lady was wearing a purple fleece and the gent was wearing bright blue trousers and there swinging back and forth between the two of them was a bright green plastic carrier bag (probably had their butties in it.) Any way that was all I needed, PING! 

Thank you Alison for being so patient with me and giving me room to wait for the creativity to flow.

 I think it was worth it.

Till next time

love Fi x

Market Day

Here am look pensive. Will they come? Will they like what they see? Will they want to buy anything? Will the day be success?

Wonderful Man and I set up our table at the Designer Makers Market at Richmond Station at the weekend. We stacked and sorted, we piled up and priced.

 One of us also did a lot of pinning (thank you Wonderful Man) and then we held our breath.

 But there was nothing to worry about. 

 There were plenty of customers!

The Station is a lovely venue, it has a really nice feel to it.

 And there was some wonderful foody smells wafting around all day.

 There were also some interesting things going on outside.

Something for everyone! Although I think you'd have trouble slipping one of these into a Christmas stocking!

Making bunnies for market day.

 Hello all. It's been a while since I made bunnies but I have a craft fair in a couple of weeks and I often get asked for these beautiful bunnies so I thought I'd be a good girl and get cracking. 

 I really should be making felt as I have 4 commissions to do but I'm just not in the mood. That sounds awful doesn't it but I know they won't turn out right if I not in the right mood to do them. Let cross our fingers and hope the mood returns...very soon!

 Now bunnies...that's a different kettle of fish so to speak. Bunnies are pretty much just following my pattern although I have been tweaking their ears. Not in a nasty way you understand, I would never hurt a bunny but I must admit their ears are very fiddle-some. 'There must be an easier way!' I said to myself. 

 So after experimenting on 4 sets of bunny ears I think I've come up with a better way of doing it, I just need to alter my patten pieces and have a couple more goes to see if my plan works. 

 So you can be assured there will be more bunnies in the pipeline or should I say in the basket. These four are awaiting their heart embroidered tails.

And here they all are finished and posing nicely for their photographs to be taken ready for my Etsy shop.

OO! Nearly forgot to tell you. I now have a Marmaladerose Facebook page here for anyone who prefers fb!

Till next time

love Fi x

The mind bloggles

Just had to share this with you - came home to find teenage daughter baking. V unusual in itself but the strangest thing was that she'd photographed the recipe from the recipe book so that she could read it off her phone!????
Right, I'm off to spend my weekend stocking my Etsy shop.
Glad you all enjoyed Yarndale. Lets do it all again next year.

Fi x

To Yarndale and Back with Love.

 Early on Saturday morning Wonderful Man and I loaded up our car and set off for Yarndale.

 We couldn't have asked for better weather.

Or a more scenic journey to the pretty market town of Skipton. Luckily I'd been able to set up my stand the day before with the help of my lovely parents, so there was only a bit of twiddling and pricing up to do when we arrived on Saturday morning. 

I had good intentions of taking lots of photos for you all but it turned out to be far too busy, in fact I didn't manage to escape from my stand to the loo until about 5pm! Luckily we hadn't been able to drink too much (just one cup of tea that my Dad had queued for) as the queues for the cafes were huge too so in an odd way it worked out quite well, lol.

This was the entrance hall on Friday when I went to set up looking fabulous. Festooned with some of the crochet bunting sent in by all of you lovely crafters. I'd been told that over six thousand crochet flags from over thirty different countries had been hung up. I received a lovely welcome from members of the Yarndale team when I arrived and I was very surprised that they already knew who I was when I walked in. 

This is Lucy's (Attic24) corner in the knit and natter lounge looking colourful and cosy and  ready for guests.

 And she had plenty of those! 

And there she is, the lovely lady herself. 

 The auction mart at Skipton is huge. That wooden structure behind the orange flag is the knit and natter lounge and this is only about half way down the mart.

 It was certainly busy on Saturday. We heard reports of the traffic tailing back from the auction mart to the A65 blocking the roundabout. I don't think the organisers expected it to be quite as successful as it was, I believe several thousand people turned up on Saturday and by 11am I felt like they'd all visited MarmaladeRose! lol. 

 I was overwhelmed by all of the lovely bloggers and blog readers who turned up to say hello to me. It was wonderful to be able to meet you all and put faces to some of the names that have been popping up on my comments list over the last 6 years.

(picture couresty of Yarndales face book page)

Talking of MarmaladeRose...would you like to see my little stand?

 The response to my felt art work was amazing! People seemed completely bowled over by it...which was wonderful to see and hear! I met so many lovely people and many of them eager to tell me where else I should try exhibiting my work. I was invited to two or three Embroiderers Guilds to give talks or do workshops. In all it was a real confidence booster. 

Wonderful Man was kept busy all day with sales and did a wonderful job of manning the stand single handed while I escaped to buy some wool. In fact I did wonder what he was doing as each time I came back he always seemed to be surrounded by women, lol. Unfortunately we did loose a couple of large sales as there was no cash machine at the venue and there wasn't enough Internet connection for mine and other stall holders card machines to work. We decided it must be all of the people outside tweeting that they were stuck in the traffic queues! 

Here's Wonderful Man brewing up on Sunday. We'd learnt our lesson after Saturday and made sure we had a flask with us. lol.

OO... it's looking a bit dishevelled and empty here but it was the middle of Sunday when I took this. 

As I sit here tippety typing away on my laptop and looking at my MarmaladeRose banner in the photo I've just realised something I'd completely forgotten about. 

About eight years ago I visited the Knit and Stitch show in Harrogate for the first time. I remember looking at the trade stands and reading their business names above and wondering what I would call my little business if I had one, not that I ever dreamt for a moment that I would. You know one of those little flights of fancy. Well it's just dawned on me...I've done it! I've realised my little dream without realising it, if you know what I mean. 

Gosh! 

Somebody pinch me! teehee!

Before we knew it, it was time to pack up and head home. We may not need something the size of the Yarndale shuttle bus but we certainly need something bigger than our little Volvo if we're going to do this again!

The journey home was just as stunning as it was going.

We headed home tired but very happy.

We had a wonderful weekend in so many ways. The team at Yarndale did a fantastic job on their first Festival of Craft but most of all, it was all of you who made the weekend special. 

Thank you for joining us and making it a truly magical experience.

You were all lovely.
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If you like to see more lovely Yarndale pictures visit Linda's Crafty Corner blog here