April

It's a beautiful Spring day as I sit here typing this post. I've just had a very quick scan of my regular favourite blogs and will be back to read properly when I've finished this - it seems as though many of you are experiencing "challenges" at the moment, so well done you for managing even one post, let alone the several that I must catch up with. I'm late again, it scarcely seems worthwhile even mentioning it, as it happens so regularly these days.

However, some nice garden photos have galvanised me into action so here we are! I have actually sown my Square Foot Garden and can see the seedlings pushing through, also have a load of other seedlings in the greenhouse. I know this is very small beer to those gardeners among you, but to me it is a tremendous step forward, and I'm immensely proud of myself! No photos yet, though, as there isn't much to see.

I probably take the same photos every year, the garden is looking so fresh and pretty at the moment I can't resist.

This "Mystic Moonlit Hare" cushion was bought at the Fakenham Makers' Market last month by my lovely blogging friend Kathy Black, from Norwich, and having seen it on my face book page, someone has commissioned me to make a similar one for them.

Still got the detailing to stitch, and the two woollen disks at the right side are the hand-made buttons for the back. I'm also working on this one:

And completed this one last week :

Sorry not the best of photos. Here's the reverse, showing the hand-made buttons :

Also, in a burst of activity over the weekend I bought some chalk paint and wax and painted our kitchen stool. It is duck-egg blue, which is not the shade I'd wanted, looking for a soft, pale green, but I quite like it.

I bought the pale blue and a soft pink, and I have two dining room chairs I need to get my hands on - I've been gradually painting the four of them over .....erm....... two years!

I didn't do the craft fair this month, but I am about to apply to do another couple soon. Oh! And I can't finish without thanking my kind-hearted blogging friend Dc from frugal in norfolk blog, I know many of you follow her avidly. She has been to see me a couple of times now, and made her way, DH in tow, to bring me a bag full of lino boards and lino cutting tools, having had the conversation with me about lino-prints many months ago - you'll have to search back for those posts! Thanks so much Dc- whose name I shall never now forget but which I wouldn't dream of publicising here!

So a very Happy Spring to you all, and those of you who need it, I hope you receive kindness and support in your lives.

Christmas Craft Fair

I know! I'm sorry to have mentioned That Word already, and it's only September - but there are some things you need to prepare for, and I have about SIX WEEKS to get some stuff ready to sell. I have spent nearly three weeks finishing the Large Wool Cushions, which may or may not be taken by someone who spoke to me at the Letheringsett Craft Fair. I just don't know when to stop once I start embroidering!

Still waiting to get round to finishing these three large cushions, buttons are made, they are all cut out and ready. I set to and completed this Blue Bird cushion over about three days hard stitching, as usual, my camera does not show the green up very well.

 My thoughts turned to Christmas wreaths, and I am working out how to make them in felt, yet have a little bit of weight and substance to them. Yet for what I could charge for them I don't want to spend too much time and energy making them! With that in mind I began on a prototype this week....it needs tweaking a bit, more appliqué, and a swifter way of construction. I'm not too sure about the background colour either, but it can't be green or red..... decisions, decisions!

 Cards are another option, I need to speak to my friendly local printer who is very amenable to all kinds of ideas. Tons of ideas run through my head the minute my head hits the pillow, but there really isn't too much time to be experimenting with things which may not work and need to be rejected. Felt tree decorations are one idea, but to be honest, people are not prepared to pay more than a couple of pounds for a decoration, and so they would be pretty sparse and mean-looking to make them worth making. It really is a fine balancing act between materials cost, and effort, and what you can ask for your wares.

I have an Angel panel commission too, and I should like to make some modified panels for the craft fair. Meanwhile, I've begun work on another smaller cushion .

Entirely removed from sewing, I'd just like to say,I sat up and watched all but the final hour of the Referendum last night/this morning on BBC Scotland Live. Fascinating. Personally I am glad we still have the United Kingdom, as I believe we are stronger together, but it is time the politicians pulled their fingers out and opted for BIG CHANGE. More transparency, more accountability, less cronyism, less cosying up to Big Business and doing deals  behind doors which do not benefit the citizens of these fair isles. But there are a lot of Scots out there hurting at the moment, so much passion, emotion, hard work, on both sides, and so many dreams dashed. I hope the breach can be healed and we can move forward to change government for the better.

Have good weekends, be creative, be political, engage!