After the Craft Fair

Wow! I thought I was a late night trouper, with lots of experience at the Burwell Bash but these last two days of the Letheringsett Craft Fair have left me really, really shattered! Early nights both days and still I have been tired today. It's amazing how standing around for seven hours can tire you out!

                    Thanks Sue for this lovely photo of me - not the most photogenic of people!

However, I can say it was well worth it. We had fairly reasonable weather - lots of sunshine but with much cooler than usual temperatures for August. The open barn we set up our stalls in was a little windy at times, but on the whole it was a decent venue. The staff at Back to The Garden were very pleasant and set us up with a free tea/coffee making station in the shop, and also came round taking requests and bringing us drinks out to the stalls, which was jolly decent of them.

I made this little chap at the last minute on Friday, based on a Mexican folk style bird. I could have sold it several times over, and eventually it did go to a lovely little boy for his bedroom!

The bangles sold well, and I sold the little sampler with the lime green ric-rac down the side. The lower "Wingèd Heart " was repeatedly mistaken for an owl so I shall have to re-think the placement of the motifs!

Red Sanderson, who organised the event through North Norfolk Arts and Crafts had put a lot of thought and hard work into getting it up and running, and was there with us most of the time, checking things were ok, sussing out how things were going and being generally supportive.This was a new

venue for Red's events so it was an interesting exercise, with lots of lessons to be learned along the way. I had no idea there was so much to running a craft fair!

                             I have a commission for another of the top version of the Angel Panel

The small blue, red-bound  quilt folded over the towel stand at the front was purchased by lovely Jane-Ann, and is to be hung in her bedroom. To think that one of my quilts has joined the works of Janet Bolton, Mandy Patullo and other noted textile artists is very gratifying indeed!

There were more visitors on the Sunday, which was nice, as it makes the time go faster, and it is always lovely to chat to people who are interested in what you do, whether they buy or not. Most of us did pretty well, if not overwhelmingly so. I sold two quilts, a large wool/felt cushion, some bangles, some fat felt pin-cushions, a stitched sampler, a Mexican folk art style bird panel, and some post-cards. I was pretty pleased, I have to say. Also there was a lot of interest in the quilts, with two possible pending commissions, and a commission for three large wool/felt appliqued cushions. Well worth the two days of selling, plus the preparation, and of course, the hours and hours of designing and stitching and - finishing off - my least favourite part of the process!

My sewing table, covered with a round two dozen flower shapes already for appliquéd to three cushion fronts, should the tentative commission be firmed up. And if it doesn't, I have more stock for the next two craft fairs!

I know there are things I would do differently, and there things about my presentation which need a good tweaking, but I was pleased with the way the Textile Treasury stand looked. Thanks to lovely Nell Pols for her photographs, and to all my friends who toddled across county to come and see and support me - you know who you are! Big thanks too to Yvonne who came and helped out for both mornings - so good to have our company Yvonne, greatly appreciated. An especial thank you to my Other Half, Jim who packed all the stands and crates into his car - no room in my little Ford Ka once the quilts and cushions were in - and who helped set up, and take down at the end of Sunday. Thanks too to Red for giving me the opportunity to take part, let's do it again some time!!

Happy New Stitchy Year!

A very Happy New Year to all of you, and let's hope 2013 is a good one for all of us. And whatever the year throws at us, let's hope we meet the challenges head on, and with the love and support of good friends and loving family members.

The last few days has seen me feverishly stitching away at one thing or another, but mostly I have been stitching felt and/or felted wool. I had a cushion to finish off for Katy, a friend who has left the UK to live in France. She had expressed interest in the 'One Bird...upon a tree...beneath a star' cushion, which was a hot favourite at the craft fair earlier this year.

 I have already made another one for S&B friend Victoria, and thought I would do a slightly different one for Katy. For a start I have run out of the lovely grey wool I used for the background. I did however have a lovely pale blue blanket which I knew would fit the bill. I also decided that the text should be 'en Francais' so worked out the words I knew and put out a facebook call to friends I knew would be able to help with the ones I didn't. And this is the result:

Slightly different but I don't like to do exactly the same thing every time! And here's the text....sorry it was a bit difficult to catch on camera.

It reads "Un oiseau, sur une colline, sous une etoile" (can't do the accent on my keyboard.) If Katy reads this before it arrives , no worries, it should be with her tomorrow!

The other bit of stitchery I've been doing is a cover for my Molly Dancing top hat. I saw a photo on Pinterest which took my breath away...I can't put it on here, but you could google JaffaGirls and find it there. It was a top hat covered with brightly coloured felt shapes, and I just knew I wanted to do something similar. They had glued their shapes on which wasn't an option for me as my hat is on loan. And anyway, I wanted to be able to embroider mine as well. Now I haven't quite finished it, and since taking htese photos there is more stitching done, and there will be even more later today. But you can get an idea how it is going to look.

I didn't have enough black felt for the band, so this is really a prototype, the next one will be entirely on a black background.

And the top:

This is how I stitched the top on; next time I shall use black thread, I deliberately used a heavy, variegated thread which I knew would be visible. Now I think it would have looked better 'unseen'. But hey, that's what a prototype is for.

Ah, when I say variegated I mean green variegated! And next time I will applique and embroider as much as I can to the 'lid' before attaching; the stitching was quite awkward at times, despite felt being a very malleable material! However the shapes which overlap the joins will have to be added when the whole thing is constructed.

And a final view:

I have to say I am thrilled to bits with it, but am desperate to make another on black felt, with the flowers appliqued in a less 'ordered' fashion. And I have ideas for other shapes......moons and stars, leaping hares....birds......creeping vines with leaves and flowers....oooooooohhhh! Mouth-wateringly exciting ideas are filling my mind! Watch this space - I will put up a photo of the finished article with the final embroidery and added 'bits'.

I do hope you will be going into the New Year with a passion and enthusiasm for something you love. Catch up with you again soon!

Craft Fair Count Down

                                                                          Bless this Mess!

I hope you enjoyed meeting Polly and (Esther) in the previous post - I'd love some feedback as to whether you'd like to see them again.

                            Amongst the mess, you can see what keeps me going - copious amounts of talking book!

This blog was set up with express purpose of documenting the events and preparations leading up to Textile Treasury's first Craft Fair. Circumstances have changed, but I decided, with encouragement from friends and family, to continue my commitment to both the blog and the fair, not knowing how I'd get on with either.

                                                Oh dear, sewing room looking like a jumble sale......................


Less than a week to go - as you can tell by the state of my sewing room! I decided to come clean and put some frank and fearsome photos up showing the extent of the mess. Truely a Room of Doom! Lots of boring -but-neccesary jobs to do, like pricing and labelling. And of course, everyday life goes on, so have been very busy, not a lot of time to dream up an intellectually stimulating blog theme! You'll have to make do with a load of diverse piccies and a few comments.

                                Stuff hanging around all over the place. Notice my macbook for dummies........

                                                             Slightly more attractive mess!


Obviously I shall have to see how the craft fair pans out, one would like some little degree of success to encourage further effort! However, the blog seems to have taken on a life of its own, which I am enjoying hugely. I've been thrilled to discover how many other folks are reading it - yes! I have discovered my stats!!! And where they are coming from - it is quite incredible that I have regular visitors from Russia, Poland, Turkey, India, China and other far-flung - and near by - places. It's even more fun when you leave me comments, as I enjoy the bits and bobs of discussion which have sprung up. Keep 'em comin'!  I still struggle a little with the techie bits, but am getting used to whipping out the camera at the drop of a hat, and jotting down snippets for later use.

                                                                    vintage textile bundles


And speaking of snippets, here are some vintage fabric bundles which arrived last week from Christine at the Sea Garden - including a lovely piece of old quilt which she popped in as a little extra - thank you Christine! Aren't they beautiful? Love the Suffolk Puffs, and have made some little fabric collages and popped them onto cards as a try-out.

                                          Textile cards and Japanese pouches...er and a bit more mess!

I wouldn't like you to think that I don't do ANY housework (No sarkey comments from close friends, IF you please!) I have tried to keep the stitchy mess from migrating out of the sewing room, but it doesn't always work out.........

                                                                        Right-hand end of sofa......

                              left-hand end of sofa...spot the Lucy Granny Blanket? Subtle colours, eh?

                 See, I do dust! Although I've just realised that there are two small angel dolls in that Portmeirion bowl!


So, only four and a bit days to go. While you lot are all enjoying the Bank Holiday weekend, sunning yourselves on the beach, stuck in traffic jams with other day trippers, cooking up a storm for your visiting hordes, or watching the dripping garden through rain-streaked windows, I shall be running around like a mad thing trying to get organised for Monday!

                         A relatively tidy pile, I feel. Notice smidgeon of my Lucy Bag hanging on door.


Next post, it will be all over. I may have brought home a HUGE amount of stuff! Ah well, it'll be less to make for the next one...........Ho Ho! Anyway, wish me luck, and I promise to spill the unexpurgated beans when I have the energy to write a new post. Have lovely weekends, and I really hope the weather is kind - to all of us!

Feed Sacks and a few Glimpses

                                                                       
                                                                              Pots

How weird is this weather? Heatwave last week, two days ago they were ankle deep in snow not that many miles north of us, and then this morning - here comes the sun again! At least we had a good 36 hours of rain, we need it here in dry old East Anglia. My poor pots are going to take a hammering as we've just been hit by a hose-pipe ban due to last the rest of the year!

Ok, I said I'd talk about Feed Sacks. These fabrics were literally used to package animal feed. During the Depression Era in the USA, people were hard up. In rural communities, women were hard pressed to afford material to make new clothes for their families. Feed sacks were taken apart and re-used to back rugs, and make utilitarian household items, and sometimes even clothes. Canny feed merchants realised that if they printed their sacks with patterns mimicking cotton prints, women would persuade their farmer husbands to buy that particular brand of feed. The trend caught on, extending to flour, sugar, salt and meal bags also. The sacks would be re-cycled to make clothes, and when these wore out, they would in turn be re-recycled to make quilts. Many of these exist today, and they have become collectors' items.

These examples are taken from a book called "Sugar Sack Quilts'" and it's by Glenna Hailey.

In the 1980's, in response to the modern quilting boom, reproduction versions of the old feed sack fabrics appeared, and a new generation of quilters discovered their appeal. I doubt if many of those users of the original fabrics would approve of this new trend, as they would represent a time of poverty, and possibly shame. We younger women hold them in regard for precisely their humble and practical origins. You will find heaps of other books on the subject, and if you search on google, you could probably write a doctorate with the deluge of information you'll find.

Now, a little about the craft fair which I'm working towards. It's to be held at Drove Orchards Farm on May 7th, the Bank Holiday Monday. If you're within driving distance of North Norfolk, the venue lies between the villages of Holme-Next-The-Sea and Thornham, on the coast road. They held a successful Christmas Market last year, and propose five more events in 2012. I'm delighted to be having a stall, my very first! Below are some glimpses of a few of the items I hope to be selling.

Phew, got a bit carried away there! Having only recently started to feel reasonably confident at uploading photos I'm finding it a bit addictive! Mind you, having said that, I know I enjoy blogs with a bit of colour and eye candy as well as the textual content. So I hope you enjoyed this small selection; there will also be quilts, bags and jewellery on the stall.

We are at this moment having an extended Good Friday breakfast. J is tackling the Independent's crossword, I'm blogging, and the sun is streaming through the dining room windows - though it is 'crisp' outdoors. A lovely easy day ahead of us before the busy week-end; my mum's 90th birthday, with meals out, family celebration at ours - and the cooking and preparation that entails...all good fun! I hope your Easter is equally busy and happy in which ever way you spend it. See you next time!

Interim Post

                                                         view from the back door


A very quick post to say that Sue is unable to continue with the venture  (adventure?) at the moment, so I will be stitching and blogging solo for a while. This is where it gets very interesting for me, as Sue has been the brains and skill behind it all; expect the odd faux pas!

However, I am still working away towards the craft fair in May, and am getting to grips with the camera and the blogging process. Expect a new post very soon!