More Creative Chaos

First thing on today's To Do list? Tidy my desk!

Creative brainstorming and testing out ideas can be messy stuff. No time to tidy! Must! Make! More! Things! Immediately!

I am actually sitting on the floor to type this, as it's the only place in my studio which isn't completely covered in craft supplies, haha :)

Creative Chaos

Crikey, the past few days have been hectic.My working day finished at 2am last night!

Okay, so I was sitting up watching DVDs and doing lots of sewing which isn't quite as bad as sitting at the laptop until the wee small hours but still, ugh. I will definitely be getting to bed earlier tonight.

I'm also going to be tidying up my workspace as it currently looks a little... chaotic.

My desk:

My studio:

The sofa:

The living room floor:

Sketching

Here's a quick snap of my desk today:

Well - part of my desk, anyway. There's been lots of sketching going on, and erasing of messy pencil lines!

If you look closely, you'll see that I really really need to buy a new pencil eraser :)

This Time Last Year

This time last year, I was working on my new book, Super-Cute Felt Animals. Exciting times! :)

 

I cut out lots of felt...
 

 
... did lots of stitching with colourful thread...

 

... and worked my way through a To Do list that was so big  it was actually a To Do chart:

I designed and stitched lots of felt animals...

... I took over the coffee table in the lounge so I could sew while watching all the old movies on over the holidays...

... and the cats helped! (well, they kept me company while I sketched and stitched and scribbled).

Thanks to everyone who's bought a copy so far and/or said kind things, you are all awesome xxx

You can read more about Super-Cute Felt Animals HERE and find a whole series of fun free tutorials to accompany the book HERE. 

My New Pinboard

After wanting one for ages I finally got a pinboard for my studio last month. I took some photos of it a few weeks ago to show you guys and when I was editing them I realised there were a whole load of projects in shot that I'm not allowed to share yet! Oops. So, finally, here's a photo:

It's so good to get all that paper off my desk! My lovely red desk is next to the window (you can just see the corner of it on the left in that photo) so no room for a pinboard there, but this is the next best thing as I face this wall as I work.

I've also found new homes for the bits and pieces I was keeping on the top of that small shelf unit, so I can use the space as a sort of extension of my desk, with "in progress" piles of paperwork. It's great to have a dedicated space for this stuff instead of just having it cluttering up my desk or the coffee table or (being honest with you here, folks) in a messy heap on the floor.

It's also nice to have a space to pin up a few pretty postcards - though the board itself is currently mostly taken up with boring work stuff like to do lists and bills I need to pay, I've used some polkadot washi tape to stick up some postcards along the side of the tall shelf unit.

I bought these on days out last summer, choosing a postcard or two from each place I visited as a memento, it's nice to have some of them on display instead of stuck in a drawer somewhere...

... and they're a great reminder that I need to plan some more days out this summer!

Studio Tour

Thanks to a trip to IKEA to buy some extra shelves and several hours spent moving furniture and boxes, my new workspace is now (almost) finished!

It's a combined office / craft room / living room... plus storage space for all the stuff from my old flat that's currently packed up in boxes. It will also be serving as a guest room as I'm currently occupying my parents old guest bedroom, so I'd better keep it nice and tidy, haha.

I've taken a few pictures so you can have the whole "tour" :)

I'm still technically working at the kitchen table, as my new desk is the kitchen table from my grandparents house when my dad was growing up.

There are lots of drawers full of paperwork, and crafty supplies like paper, card, buttons and beads...

... lots of crates full of felt...

... and lots of shelves for all my boxes of business stuff, crafty stuff and packed away household stuff.

If you want a closer look at what's on the shelves, I've added a few notes to the photos over on Flickr.

The spare bed is in the process of being turned into a comfy day bed / sofa type thing, with the help of a pretty vintage sheet, lots of pillows and cushions and cosy blankets. I will be doing lots of sewing and tea drinking here!

I still need to rearrange a few things and to hang some pictures on the walls but ah, what a good feeling it is to have my own space again.

A Place for Everything

I don't know about you, but I always have a gazillion works in progress lying about the place.

I've been using upturned box lids and pretty vintage trays to store my WIPs for years, but I've never had a proper place to keep them so I just end up with trays of felt sitting on tabletops, etc. which isn't really ideal, especially in a small flat!

I'm still using the trays as portable workspaces (especially when sewing on the sofa in the evenings) but I'm now using a collection of large cardboard boxes to keep my WIPs in. They used to have A3 paper in them, so they're pretty large - perfect for storing lots of projects!


They're exactly the right size to fit neatly on top of my large crafty storage boxes...


... and the third one sits comfortably on the very narrow shelf in this bookcase.

It's great being able to tidy them all away neatly at the end of the day. Just a small change but I hope it will make a big difference in helping me control my crafty chaos :)

Summer afternoons

The weather has been amazing here this week. I've been getting admin and housework done early in the morning when it's a bit cooler, and then spending my afternoons lazily sewing & listening to the radio or a nice bit of Agatha Christie...


... with a break for an ice lolly mid afternoon instead of my usual tea break. You know it's hot when I stop drinking tea!

Wednesday workspace

Wow, this is turning into a busy week! Just time today for a quick snap of my current workspace, a.k.a. our coffee table.


In progress at the moment: goldfinches, coal tits, badgers and white cherry blossoms.

I'm trying really hard to keep the house tidy at the moment and pack all my sewing back into tins and boxes at the end of each sewing session but it doesn't always work out like that!

Wolves and Mice and Swans, Oh My!

The weather here this week is so miserable, wet and overcast and generally grey. I quite like autumn, the crispness of the air, digging out all my winter clothes and blankets, and all the fantastic changes in nature. But boy, do I miss the light - especially when I have new things waiting to be photographed!

This weekend I finished some new mask designs and snapped a rubbish in-progress shot in the gloomy daylight:Mice masks! Wolf masks! Swan masks! (plus essential crafting supplies - a nice bar of chocolate).

I'm so excited to get these listed in my shops after having rough sketches of them them scribbled in my "things to make" notebooks for so very long. Fingers crossed we have some lovely autumn sunshine soon.

Felt Feathers

UPDATE: want to sew your own bird mask? You'll find a step by step tutorial over on my Patreon page.

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

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Last night was one of those lovely relaxing crafty evenings - chitchat, a warm blanket, good stuff on the telly and a nice easy task to keep my fingers busy: cutting out lots and lots and lots of felt feather shapes for some tropical bird masks.Each bird mask has six feathers sewn onto it, so making a batch of masks means cutting out lots of feathers. Hopefully I'll get them all sewn on before I bump into the table and knock all those tiny pieces onto the floor...

Flowers and Frogs

This is what my workspace (aka our coffee table) looked like yesterday:
I've been working on frog masks, wild rose brooches and a new mask design which has been in my sketchbook for months. It's always so great to finally get round to trying out an idea, and though it isn't quite right yet it's getting there...

Today I'm putting in some hours on a custom mobile, lots of lovely bright colours to help cheer me up on a rather grey and miserable day. There's nothing quite like a bit of felt crafting for some instant colour therapy.

Sofa Studio

Yesterday it was boiling hot and we went to the Tall Ships Festival at the Gloucester docks. The festival this year was timed to coincide with with "Gloucester Through the Ages" which basically involves an army of historical societies taking over the city with their re-enactments. There was a whole camp surrounding the cathedral, with dancing and archery and a medieval tournament and small groups of soldiers from throughout the ages marched around the city throughout the day. Totally mad and lots of fun, but quite exhausting especially with the heat.

(I rather typically forgot to take my camera but if you're interested there are some great ones over on Flickr here, here and here).

Today it is just as hot (if not hotter) but I have been quite determined to put my feet up! I've been sitting on the sofa, listening to the radio and using the other half of the sofa as my workspace:I started out by finishing my butterfly-flower pieces (to be photographed & listed soon, I promise!) & working on some frog & bird masks - long languishing in my work-in-progress box.

I planned to make some eyepatches after that but a quick rummage in the wip box then led to sewing ear details onto tiger masks, and finding a whole load of very long-neglected floral pieces. Somehow despite being perfectly happy to leave them untouched for months on end I had to work on them immediately, and they're now destined to be cute badges and large hairbands.

Since taking that picture I've been even further distracted and started work on a new flower design! Haha. I'll post some pictures of them soon if I manage to get them finished and not be distracted by something else in the meantime!

Snapshots of Crafty Chaos

I am quite worn out from a massive crafting session today (so much crafting!) and am about to go and put my feet up... Just time for a glimpse of the big felty mess created by all my craftiness:Our kitchen table is under there somewhere! :)

(Almost) Finished Foxes

UPDATE: My felt fox design is now available as a printable PDF pattern in 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!

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I'd been planning to go to the Post Office today, but felt quite exhausted and decided it would be better to go tomorrow when I have had more sleep (and am less likely to make a mistake packaging up orders, etc).

While taking it a bit easier-than-planned this afternoon I sat in the afternoon sun and started sewing the almost-finished foxes together: Did you know that a group of foxes is known as a skulk? Skulk is also the collective noun for a group of thieves, so I think I'd better keep my eye on this lot!

The foxes are available from my Etsy, Folksy or DaWanda shops and also on my website.

Yesterday's Workspace

This is what I was working on yesterday...
... lots of colourful projects including a couple of new & rather yummy giant layered flowers. (Click through to the Flickr photo page for notes!)

Keep Your Moustaches Tidy

Sometimes, I think that my boyfriend invites people round just so he can get me to tidy away all my sewing gubbins (normally spread across all available surfaces). I can't really argue, as table tops covered with rows of moustache-disguises-in-progress (whilst a conversation starter in some circumstances) are probably best tidied away for business meetings!I'm currently using little bags to store all my "in progress" pieces - you can see my batches of brown and black moustaches in the top of the photo, already packed. It's really nice to be able to store everything and leave things until later, especially if I'm in the mood to just cut lots of things out instead of sewing one project right through, or when I don't have the right materials to get things finished, and when I want something to sew there's always a bag of pieces waiting for me...

Sewing Station

I've been busy sewing lots of Christmas ornaments - and writing those tutorials. The second one will be posted very soon but in the meantime here's a quick snap of where I'm working today (in the corner of our kitchen) ... quite tidy for me!

Special Requests (C365/355)

Yesterday I finished all the teacups from the day before, then drank a celebratory cup of tea and settled down to work on some custom orders... I've had a sudden flurry of them recently, and they're proving a nice bit of variation from batch-sewing. Last night I worked on a special fawn-coloured version of my squirrel pins ...
... and a pincushion version of my forget-me-nots brooches:
I made a bit of a mess of the kitchen table in the process!

Tiny Trees and Crafty Cakes

Last night was one of those evenings when I was hugely tempted to stay up past my bedtime to finish my sewing because almost finishing things is just not the same as actually having a row of finished lovelies in front of you. However, I was very good and went to bed at a sensible hour leaving all this work in progress:I almost finished my prototype battenburg pincushions (they just need stuffing) and also a little batch (a small forest, if you like) of tree brooches. Cutting out all those tiny leaves is rather fiddly, but the end result is totally worth it I think. I am very pleased with how the battenburg is turning out - they have a real satisfyingly chunky feel to them already and they've not even been stuffed yet.

Lots of fun news today... My blond moustache disguise (modelled by superstar Louie) got a mention over on ConversationPieces and has also been popping up at the bottom of the Etsy front page linking to an article on the Etsy blog as part of their Handmade Kids series:
Also I was delighted to spot my little teacup brooches on one of my favourite blogs, Modish, yesterday and even more chuffed today when I saw they'd been included in the "Modish's top DaWanda picks" feature that's just gone live on the DaWanda homepage. Jena from Modish is running a competition - vote for your favourite item from her list by leaving a comment HERE before August 10th to take part. I have my fingers crossed that at least one person will vote for my little teacups but will be trying very hard not to check the comments obsessively just in case!