Felt

I'd like to be making more felt like this today.


What I'll actually be doing is sorting more shop stock and making phone calls. Making is so much more fun than admin! The shop lease was to have been signed yesterday and fingers crossed it will be signed today or very early next week. Watch this space! I can't wait to celebrate!

Sewing supplies

I saw this photo from www.decor8blog.com on pinterest this morning. 
Do you ever click on to the blogs in my 'Nice to Look at' section? I really recommend pinterest - www.pinterest.com where members show their favourite inspirational photos. The other blogs listed are 'nice to look at' too.

Sussex views

I stopped off at Lavant on the way to Chichester to admire the view. The whole drive from Petersfield to Chichester whether you go via South Harting or via Midhurst is through countryside and farmland. We are lucky to live in this beautiful place. (I always drive via Midhurst as I'm frightened of hitting a deer near South Harting.)

I went to Adams in Chichester to buy wholesale bags for the shop and to look at their colours of tissue paper. What do you think? Pale lavender or duck egg blue?

Dolls' house miniatures

Recently lots of you have been looking at a post I did of my mothers' miniature toy shop.
So here is the other 'dolls house' she created. It's a food kiosk and I love all the little details.

My plan today was to show you the dolls I've just made but my camera isn't working. Just black. I've an idea to dress them in Tricot style clothes. Doubt that my dressmaking skills are up to it but I'll have a go. If you see them in knitted dresses as per usual you'll know I've failed!!

Gorgeous Bed Linens

Saw these desirable patterns in John Lewis. Everything is Designers Guild apart from the embroidered first one which is John Lewis' own brand.



I sometimes think I was born at the wrong time. What I need right now is lots of staff!
A housekeeper and a personal assistant, a gardener and a handyman/ builder.
I have four A4 sheets of 'To Do' list and seem to be creeping through the list like a very slow snail!! Time for an iron pill I think. Have you anything you rely on to give yourself that extra boost when life gets tough? Staff for instance?

Wire birds installation

At John Lewis in Southampton there are these impressive wire birds in the stairwell. Cleverly made and installed so that the shadows they cast add to their drama.
We enjoyed a restful cup of tea in their cafe after the trudge round Ikea for rails, hooks and lights for the shop.

A Work in Progress

Knit, crochet, sew. Everything feels like a work in progress at the moment with not enough finished and ready to sell. I'm going to Ikea today to look for good lights and to meet daughter who lives nearby.

This piece ('I've started so I'll finish'!) is going to be an autumn colours cushion cover. Meanwhile other daughter and I were cutting strangely shaped patterns from boiled wool and flowery cottons yesterday that I will be sewing up and stuffing today. But more of that later!

Guzzini colour

One of my favourite possessions is a Guzzini red pot like the one in the middle picture only nailpolish red.
Yesterday I was stunned to see this Guzzini display in the Steam Trader Company kitchen shop in Horsham.
What did I buy? A duster and a window blade - no not Guzzini versions just practical items I need.
But when Christmas comes you know what I want!!!       http://www.iguzzini.com/

Pretty things

I have just wasted over an hour looking for and failing to find artist credits. I see something I like online but it has no clue as to who made it.
There should be a rule that you can't put up a photo of something handmade without also saying who made it. It's not fair to the artist otherwise.
That's why you're getting a picture of a collage canvas that I made this morning instead of some exciting fabric creations that other people have made!
There is so much pretty handmade stuff online (admittedly much of it the same idea endlessly repeated). It is fun to see what's out there. The danger is inspirational overload where you begin to doubt your own ideas and think that other people hold all the answers.
I'm now off to paint more faces on wood buttons and brooches!

Shop Display

This shows clean, open display inside the Hambledon in Winchester.

I had a bad dream last night about my shop turning into a prison cell with the walls slowly closing in around me. I guess every would- be shop owner has dreams like that just before signing the lease!
Mine's a nice light shop with a big window. White walls and a mix of old and new fittings with punchy colour coming from all the wonderful,exciting colourful stock. Like the stock I'm making today - today's a jewellery day.

Alison - colour queen

Photos from www.fibrefrenzi.blogspot.com (Apologies for the second one being blurred that's my fault.)


Years ago I used to take a stand every year at an Arundel art and craft event. I remember seeing Alison's stand for the first time there. It was a riot of colour. Layer upon layer of colour drenched cloths that she'd dyed herself.
I thought Kaffe Fassett was the king of colour. Now I knew I'd found the queen of colour!

Alison is a spinner, dyer and artist. I love the way she uses every colour of the rainbow and somehow it always works! She knits, sews, and paints producing bags, silk scarves and thick skeins of yarn. More recently she's got into felt making and is felting bowls too. 
Although she has moved away from the area we' re meeting up soon. I want her things in my shop!

Gayle's bird and pinterest

I am fascinated by Gayle Bicknell's handmade birds. I'm hoping to have one or two in my shop.
Gayle teaches textiles at Alton College and has a blog http://www.thelifeofatextilesteacher.blogspot.com/

I saw the inspiring patchwork photos on  http://www.pinterest.com/ The middle photo is from http://www.artvango.blogspot.com/ and the gorgeous intricate textile above is from http://www.etsy.com/

Buying habadashery

Really pleased with the things I found for the shop yesterday. Especially all these coloured knitting needles. 
Also interesting old buttons and old lace; one ball of yarn that, as shown, I'm already using in my 'free knitting'.
I'm making cushion covers having been lucky enough to pick up three round cushion pads in Tricot Too's final sale. 
The butterfly brooch is apparently an early form of plastic. It will make a lovely embellishment.

Origin - next week

Just a reminder that Origin, showing some of the best craft in the world starts this coming week - Thursday 22nd to Wednesday 28th September at London's Old Spitalfields Market.
Then early next month - 6th to 9th of October is the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace.

Blanket stockings

Years ago I made lots of these in different colours. Some were dyed red or a soft green most were natural white blanket colour. I made some more yesterday for the shop. Different this time around but hopefully still appealing.

Cosy in the cold

One year I knitted socks. Really colourful socks. This is a good time to knit socks. By the time the really cold weather hits a few pairs should be ready to wear. Wouldn't they be great inside wellington boots?

Yesterday I made buttons

The ones I made are mostly navy and white since that is the most popular colourway.

What are these?

Pictures taken at Petersfield's Physic Garden.

Yesterday I read that contract and today I'm getting some legal advice. But I guess it's pretty standard.
Meanwhile I'm going through drawers and boxes retrieving interesting things for the shop. I'll get some nice grey card, maybe other colours too for display and packaging.

By the way, to save time I got new printing ink in with the week's shop at Tesco. But £12.95 for black ink? Should have tried to get a refill first. I just have a feeling that the sealed cartridges are ones that can't be topped up.

Teddy cards

For all those who still find teddies appealing.
I remember a family teddy called 'Whitey' which I think both my brothers inherited from me. We were playing a game in, I think, a rented house in Hampstead. Somehow one of us accidentally threw Whitey into the open fire. Although quickly rescued by an adult, Whitey was never the same again.