Blue, Blue, Blue and More Blue

This week I've been working on a project involving lots of blues.

I've been choosing blue ribbons...

... cutting & sewing with blue felt, and pinning things with pins from that lovely blue tin...

... and shopping for blue threads (and more ribbons).

Even my relaxing- evening-knitting is blue at the moment!

Lots of Crafty Goodness in my Shop!

Pssst - I've added a whole bunch of stuff over in the Craft Supplies section of my shop...

There are wheels of rainbow pins in leaf, heart and flower designs:

Bundles of colourful ribbons I'm clearing out from my craft stash, including lots of pretty polkadot ribbon:

Some fun sheets of printed felt - in camouflage & zebra prints:

And remember when I was making all those felt buttons back in March...?

Well, I've finally got them photographed & added to my shop, hurrah!

There's also one last set of "not quite perfect" giant buttons (and lots of "perfect" giant buttons too)...

 ... and a whole bunch of other "destash" listings, including buttons, hat elastic and grip seal bags (which are super useful for packaging or for storing small supplies or pattern pieces).

And remember, there are still lots of handmade goodies available in my SALE section... sale prices start from just £1. Click here to see the full range of treats in stock.

Scraps and Supplies

I've been working on some colourful new things... here are some of the leftover scraps:

I can't show them to you yet, but I thought you'd like to see some of the bright supplies I've been using to make them. 

Embroidery threads...

... sewing threads...

... and (of course) lots of colourful felt:

P.S. I scheduled a few posts in advance this week and for some reason Blogger posted this one a few days too early! Oops! Apologies to anyone who has already had this post pop up in their blog reader / email / etc, and sorry if you left a comment on the earlier post that has now vanished. Not the most organised way to start off the year, huh? :)

Current Works in Progress

Wanna see some of the stuff I've been working on recently?

I've been sewing something very colourful using these pretty supplies...

... and doing a bit of research (and lots of sketching) for something new.

I've also been sewing a couple of sets of gingerbread cookie ornaments using the patterns from my book, Super-Cute Felt. These are going to be Christmas gifts for my sisters (they asked me to make them, so I'm not spoiling a surprise by posting this photo, don't worry!).

And I've made a start on finally finishing one of my oldest WIPs - a quilt I started making back when I was a student, about 10 years ago. All the squares are hand stitched and I'm planning on hand quilting it too, so there's lots of hours of work still to go!

A Secret Something

A quick snap of the supplies for something ribbon-y I've been working on this week!

Threads and Glitter

I'm still feeling a bit ill (pesky germs!) so I've been trying to balance the demands of my to do list with the need to rest / put my feet up / generally take things easy so I can get well soon. This can be quite tricky at this time of year, but luckily things like sewing can be done while curled up on the sofa.

Also very luckily, my dad can be bribed to go to the Post Office for me (so all my shop orders are going out as normal) & to give me a lift to the local craft shop when I need to pop out to buy some emergency supplies.

I needed to buy some sewing thread...

... and I also picked up some silver & gold embroidery thread and some glitter, for a few festive projects that I'm working on at the moment.

I'm looking forward to making lots of very sparkly things this winter!

What's In That Tin?

Over the years I've collected lots of boxes & pretty tins to store my craft supplies and other stuff in my studio. Would you like to see what's in some of the tins?

This is one of my "random projects in progress" tins. These aren't projects I'm currently working on, it's more like a sketchbook of ideas that I'll go back to at some point. There are also a few things in here (like the Good Luck card) which are leftovers from old projects. This tin & the next one were part of a set from John Lewis, with a teacup design by Ella Doran.

Lots of felt beads!

Most of my embroidery threads are now neatly wound on bobbins making them super easy to find & use, but I always have some spare skeins and they live in this tin along with some mini embroidery hoops. This tin was one of Sanna Annukka's Christmas designs for M&S last year.

Another "random projects in progress" tin, and another M&S purchase.

A small tin full of my paper patterns (another of Sanna Annukka's designs for M&S).

Some of my current work in progress (mostly just old designs I'm restocking), in yet another M&S biscuit tin (they really do make the best tins!).

Last but not least, my most recent M&S purchase which now houses my camera, the camera battery charger and the USB cable for connecting the camera to my laptop. Not exactly "crafty" supplies, but very vital bits of kit for my job!

Rainbow Threads

My old flat used to be walking distance from three sewing/fabric shops, two craft & haberdashery market stalls, a craft superstore and a cake shop with a whole wall full of pretty ribbons. Lots of places for me to buy thread when I ran out of a certain colour... or to dash to for emergency supplies when a deadline was looming.

My new home town just has one small sewing shop, so I've got to look a bit further afield to source lots of the crafty bits and pieces I use for my projects and I'm going to have to make sure I stock up on things more so I don't run out of crucial supplies at critical moments.

To help me shop for embroidery thread online, last week I ordered a DMC embroidery thread shade card so I can pick the colours I want and then order skeins as and when I need them.

The colour guide is a super duper practical object - it's made up of swatches of all the threads so you can match colours really accurately - but it is also soooooo gorgeous.

Just look at all those colours!

It is quite hard to resist making an "oooh" noise every time I fold it out, and also very hard to resist ordering extra colours I don't need simply because they look so lovely.

The sparkly threads are particularly tempting... I may actually have to invent some projects purely to justify buying some of these shades!

A Rainbow of Embroidery Thread

I finished winding all my embroidery thread onto those cardboard bobbins...

Next came the fun part: sorting it into colour order to make an embroidery thread rainbow!

The rainbow is pretty (oh so pretty!) but also practical as I can see at a glance what colours I've got in my stash.

If you fancy organising your own embroidery thread stash, I've added some boxes to the craft supplies section on my website. There are large boxes...

... and small ones too:

Each box comes with lots of card bobbins for winding your thread, but I've also got packs of card and plastic bobbins you can buy separately if you fancy organising your threads neatly but already have a box to keep them in.

Over in my Etsy shop you can buy sets of boxes + embroidery thread: a large box & 72 skeins of thread, or a small box and 36 skeins of thread. Here's one I wound earlier:

Rainbow Ribbon

Check out the yummy, colourful ribbons that arrived yesterday!

I'll mostly be using them to tie the colour-themed felt bundles I sell in my shops, but they'll be a useful addition to my supplies stash too.

It was quite hard to resist the urge to buy a reel of every colour available, but I was strong :)