Two Very Useful Things

I got two new things this week...

1. A compass.

I haven't owned one of these since I studied for my Maths GCSE which was rather a long time ago! I don't remember throwing my old one out but I probably thought "what would I ever need this for now I'm no longer doing Maths?"... and now here I am designing and making things for a living and drawing lots of circles.

I have a really useful little template (stolen from my dad) for drawing small circles but have (rather embarrassingly) been drawing round circle-shaped things in my house (rolls of tape, small glasses, coasters, etc) whenever I've needed a larger circle for a pattern. Finally buying a compass feels great, and I've already used it a couple of times this week. Next up: getting round to buying a protractor!

2. A "new" mobile phone.

Yes, that is a Nokia 3310. My previous mobile lasted me about 10 years, getting very occasional use when I needed to send texts like "my train is 30 minutes late!" when meeting up with friends. It served me well for many years but recently texted its last text. I ummed and aahhed about upgrading to a smartphone but decided that I just wanted to stick with something simple, not least because I'm already finding it hard keeping the distractions of email and social media out of my non-work time as it is without being able to access the internet on my phone!

Then I borrowed my dad's old Nokia to use during a recent weekend away, remarked to him how lovely and simple and back-to-basics it was and he surprised me with one of my very own. He is the best! This phone is great! I can send texts, check the time, set an alarm, what more could a girl need? :) 

Giveaway: Felt Circles

Many moons ago I used to cut out little felt circles from all my felt scraps... I found a whole bag of them recently while having a clearout:


I don't have any use for them, but it would be a shame for all that lovely colour to go to waste! So I thought one of you lovely folks might like them for your crafty projects :)


One lucky crafter will win all the circles pictured. The largest ones are a mere 2cm (3/4 inch) across, and there are some really tiny ones in there too. They're cut from a mix of acrylic felts and wool/synthetic blend felt. Because of the small size of these circles, please note that they're not suitable for use in crafting with very young children.

Here's a pic with a spool of thread for scale:


They're not completely perfect circles as they were all cut by hand, but you could have lots of spotty dotty fun with these!

As always, I'm happy to ship internationally, so anyone can enter. Just leave a comment on this blog post for a chance to win! (If you're reading this on my Facebook page please click through to my blog to leave your comment on the original post).

Leave your comment before 10pm on Saturday 4th June and I'll pick a winner at random on Sunday 5th June.

Please make sure you leave a name or pseudonym (no anonymous comments please!) and leave a link or email address so I can contact you.

Circles

I'm working on a few things at the moment which involve drawing circles.

Whenever I have small circular pattern pieces to draw I use this super-useful circle template:


I pinched it from my dad many years ago (what a terrible daughter I am!), it's getting a bit old and worse-for-wear now but my goodness it's a useful bit of kit.

I'm also thinking of buying an old fashioned school compass for drawing larger circles and maybe even a protractor too. Such excitement!

How To: Wallpaper Snowflakes

Back in October I posted a snap of something I was working on involving cutting out lots of circles...... well, the circles turned into this:A curtain of snowflakes (or oversized Christmas baubles!) made from wallpaper, silver paper and card.

This project was specially designed for the winter edition of UK Handmade - a fantastic little online magazine from the UK crafts scene. You can read the whole issue online here (my project is on page 59).

I've not had a chance to have a proper read yet but there are some lovely festive projects including delicious cupcakes, a stylish floral arrangement for Christmas and (for you felt fans) this completely adorable felt angel from Kirsty of Paperfish:

Show and Tell (C365/361)

Lots of lovely pictures to show you today! First up, here's the product of last night's sewing session:
Sprigs of mistletoe! It's lovely to be making these again this year, and it's always interesting to revisit old designs. This year's are sewn onto thicker red felt to make them a bit more sturdy and I've decided that I rather like the bolder, more solid shape made by leaving the middle bit of red as it is. Of course I only worked this out when I'd cut out the first one and had it side by side with the others for comparison! Ah well. I may list both options and let the customers decide which is best!

Next up: some shots of a few special items I've been working on recently...

I got a fun custom order this month to make an embroidered teabag - the reverse is embroidered with details of the occasion & the reverse of the tag (rather obviously) says "tea". A simple but very sweet idea for a gift I think!
I also finished some long-delayed gifts made as a "thankyou" to the girls who did some felt modelling for me back at the start of the summer... some sets of hairclips...

... and a couple of snowy owl brooches:
Here's a peek at some of the owl sketches I've been doing since making that last brooch (I'm plotting a whole little series of owls for my shop) - this was pinned to our noticeboard today by my boyfriend who was slightly annoyed and greatly amused at how I'd scribbled all over his to do list in my owl-sketching frenzy: "typical!"

An English Summer

It is absolutely chucking it down with rain outside (as it has been all weekend) and it's making me very glad to be stuck indoors with lots of sewing to do! Not great weather to take photos in, but luckily it was quite sunny for an hour or two yesterday morning and I managed to take a few product shots and also (finally) get some pictures taken of my beard disguises being modelled (this is what happens to you if you owe me a favour...) :
It was actually so sunny outside that when I tried to take pics of myself modelling one of the necklaces I made with all those circles (well half of them anyway) I ended up scowling into the sun rather too much (less "fierce" and more "slightly frightening) so a dark and grainy indoor shot will have to do: In half decent light, this is the full necklace:
The black cord is elastic, to make it easy to take on and off. I rather like the collar effect - it's not shown off very well on my t-shirt but it would look ace with something with a scooped neckline. And then this is the necklace I made with the rest of the circles - the've been sewn onto a long loop of ribbon, very dangly and fun: The observant amongst you will notice that I skipped a day's blogging (sorry about that). I was going to write about those necklaces yesterday evening but we went to a BBQ instead (an indoor one, obviously, given the rain!) and then afterwards I watched Doctor Who and did some sewing and forgot all about it (oops). I didn't actually get that much sewn during Doctor Who because I was a bit absorbed in the excitement of the finale (literally can't wait for the Christmas episode now...) but I did manage to get a few teacup brooches sewn and to try them out in blue which I've wanted to test out for aaages and just not got round to it...

UPDATE: sew your own little felt teacup brooches - printable PDF pattern now available from my shop, or in my Patreon pattern library.

Subscribe to get instant access to a growing library of PDF embroidery patterns and craft tutorials, and updates when I add something new! 

Rainbow Circles (C365, 300)

Hurrah for hitting day 300 of my Crafting 365 project! It's so awesome to think I've spent 300 days crafting (and most of those blogging about it, too). I know I've fallen off the crafty wagon a couple of times & I've had a few enforced absences from this blogging lark (no internet, no camera, etc) but boy does it feel good to hit that big number.

My task for day 300? Sleepily cutting out lots of circles which are destined to be muddled up and sewn into one big circle-y necklace:
Another big number is in sight: I'm only 12 items away from 1000 items sold in my little Etsy store. I am genuinely planning a small party for when this occurs, and the buyer of my lucky 1000th item will be getting a whole parcel of presents in celebration. Big numbers always make me smile (Flickr stats and shop hearts and blog views and things like that really help me build up confidence in my work) but hitting 4 digits? That will be pretty special.

(Someone hurry up and buy 12 things already! Haha)

In other news: I have finally started taking proper product shots of all the new items I've been building up over the past few weeks... Expect lots of shop updates over the weekend. I may go a bit goggle-eyed staring at the computer screen for so long, but I am itching to get those babies listed... Here's another shot of things to come - lots of yummy fat pincushions:
Oh, and check out the awesome sewing scissors my mother-in-law bought for me in Paris: scissors in the shape of a bird! Fantastic stuff:

Sneak Peeks

Hello again!

I've been very busy doing lots and lots of sewing - some restocking, some finishing off of odds and ends from my wip pile, but also some new designs, hurrah!

Tomorrow my new camera and I will be getting properly aquainted but for the moment here's a couple of quick shots of some of the new stuff, including necklaces, hairbands and brooches: More news & pictures coming soon!

PS for my mum because she missed it and was most annoyed (with thanks to bombus and memake for the screenshots!) ... click to view larger:
UPDATE: My robin design is now available as a sewing pattern! Visit my shop to see all my printable PDF patterns:

Seeing Spots (365/276)

Last night was mostly taken up by a staff meeting for my "proper job". I did manage to squeeze in a bit of sewing after dinner though, decorating another pincushion top: this time hot pink circles on grey:
I love the bright colour on the more muted background. Sometime soon I shall have a binge of sewing and stuffing pincushions - I certainly have lots of felt scraps to fill them up with!

365 / 259 - Covered in Felt!

Last night I spent a lot of time doing dull things like catching up on Etsy feedback, but I did manage to watch the end of America's Next Top Model and finish this:
I like to think that watching 10 whole seasons of ANTM has instructed me well in the art of modelling... but perhaps not!
Hopefully (fingers crossed) I may have some volunteer models soon so the rest of the designs I'm planning can get listed without me pulling silly faces at the camera and relying on a bit of blur to hide many a blemish!My boyfriend thinks I have gone off my rocker (110% loopy bananas) with this one, but I think it's pretty awesome. It's designed like a garland, so you can loop it round yourself or hang it in your house (I wanted to make one of these for a felty Christmas but never got round to it).
Smaller and simpler versions of this should be coming soon but you've got to start with the showstopper, right? (in ANTM vocab: this one's couture, ready-to-wear is coming soon!).

365 / 222 - Hundreds of Circles

I was a bit sleepy yesterday and spent the whole evening curled up on the sofa watching videos, and cutting out teeny felt circles from my stash of felt scraps...
... colour therapy at its finest! In other colour-related news, I bought some delicious plants yesterday to add a bit more colour to our balcony and am most annoyed at the rain we're having today cos I can't get outside and plant them... plus: we're busy picking paint colours, starting with a blue for the bathroom. The bathroom has a blue carpet, so it's going to be blue walls to match. Test patches are drying as I type, and so far we're leaning towards this one, the imaginatively titled "blue sky":
Not too dark, not too pale, looks half-decent with the carpet, etc etc. I rather liked the look of this one... .... but it ends up darker than that and we definitely want the whole room painted one colour, it could be quite oppressive (though it would make a lovely and chic accent colour). Named "stormy sky" it may have similar effects on the emotions as real life stormy weather, and paint colours that seem likely to cause Seasonal Affective Disorder are probably a bad idea, haha. Also the boyfriend thinks it rather revolting and has vetoed it completely! Hopefully we'll have some sunny painting-friendly weather sometime soon - the bathroom does look rather funny at the moment covered in blue patches.

365 / 217 - An Assortment of Circles

I neglected to adjust my camera's white balance whilst taking photos today, and by the end the light had changed completely and so today's Crafting 365 photo is rather yellow:
As unsatisfactory as that photograph is, it will have to do because it is effing freezing today and I'm not going outside again to take more photos! Brrr! Instead I am warming my hands up with a nice mug of hot tea and shall tell you about yesterday's crafty efforts...

Yesterday was all about circles: stitching together the pink and blue textile art pieces ready for backing another day; starting work on the pastel mobile I cut out last week; and stuffing the remaining pincushions. I've used up a fair bit of the felt scraps I was hoarding (I maintain that I am "tidying" by making these pincushions but the boyfriend is having none of it), but there's still plenty lying about the place so there will no doubt be more to come. Here's the finished collection:So many circles! They'll all be listed in the shop this week - one is already parcelled up to go to a new home when the Post Office reopens tomorrow. I'm trying to work out the best way to adapt the circles-within-circles idea for a textile art piece but I've not yet settled on an idea I'm happy with so it'll have to wait. I'll let the idea percolate for a while and come back to it another time. Plenty to keep me busy in the meantime...

365 / 216 - Stuffing Pincushions

Ah, stuffing pincushions is such an enjoyable task! Look how chunky they are:I finished four pincushions yesterday (whilst rather gorging myself on Poirot dvds) ...
... and have four waiting to be stuffed...
My favourite is probably the navy blue & teal one, but it's so difficult to decide. Note to self: I must remember to take some pictures of the pincushions actually with pins in them! It helps so much in judging the scale of them (they're a massive 8.5cm in diameter - that's just under 3 1/2 inches). I also finished the green textile art piece, giving it a backing piece of felt and photographing it nicely for the shop. Here's a shot including my hand to give you a good idea of the scale of it:
We went out to an Easter lunch today (lovely) and I wore one of my felt brooches and chatting to someone was asked if I sell my work "oh yes, I have a little online shop" "cool, have you ever thought about listing on Etsy?", rather amusing! I am finding that more and more people have heard of Etsy, though I have yet to randomly meet another seller... no doubt that time will come!

365 / 215 - Scrap Pincushions

Staying true to my tendancy to be easily distracted by shiny new projects, last night I temporarily abandoned the textile art to begin some pincushions...
... I'm appliqueing large circles with little circles cut from the "waste" felt from my other projects. Small scraps become circles and the teeny tiny scraps will become pincushion stuffing! I made a start on this at Christmas, but have totally neglected it and with all the felt I've cut out this week I was starting to get overrun with scraps "to be used at some point"... so it seemed a good time to get started on them.
I'm very happy with how they're turning out so far - they're just how I pictured them in my mind, and the different sizes of the scraps mean the circles are turning out pleasingly random sizes which makes for a very natural looking scatter across the pincushion top. It's lovely to be able to put all that delicious colour to some use at last.