Needle felting wotnots for 2015

So many thanks for all the kind and lovely comments on my last post. Joe and I were incredibly touched that people were happy for us. Now that I have a real purpose, I've thrown myself back into work with a vengeance, starting the New Year with two little hare brooches in a newish style.

 Little Brown Hare brooch available from Etsy

 Little White Hare brooch available from Etsy

 It's good to be making again.

2014 ended with a gorgeous feature in 'Filtz Fun', a popular German felting magazine - they made it all look beautiful, I think the prettiest magazine article of mine I've seen. I do need to update my publicity picture though.

2015 is starting to fill up with workshops - at the moment I have five definite dates, starting in March with a bang at the p-Lush alpaca show in Coventry, where I will be using alpaca wool for the first time ever. The next day I am in Oxfordshire at my regular venue of Folly Fabrics, Smith's Restaurant in Manchester in April and back to the Buckingham Summer School for two full days in August. (Summer, hooray!) More info and contact details can be found on my website. More to be added, with luck.

Needle felt workshops

It's going to be another busy year with workshops - the first one of 2014 commences with one of my favourites, at Cinderhill Farm in the beautiful Forest of Dean on Saturday March the 8th. We will be making moon gazing hares.  Last time there was morning coffee and homemade baked stuff, a hot lunch with the farm's own free range pork and the speciality of the farm, Deb's high tea. Which last year looked like this...

It's an all day class, with all materials, use of tools and all food included in the price of £60 per person. Vegetarian/allergy  options can be provided.  This year the farm shop, the Pie House, is open, with local  produce. the farm pies and gift wares on sale. There are only eight places available and we are half booked now, so if you want to secure a place, please contact Debs directly via the farm contact form.

Then there are several four hour workshops at Chipping Norton Fibreworks and Oxford Fibreworks throughout the months, making a variety of things depending on the time of year. Candy Buns are the spring design.

And a new venue for me, the Buckinghamshire Summer School, where I will be teaching larger classes for two days. August the  7th is beginners and August the 8th is intermediate, with a discount for anyone booking both classes.

On the 7th the design is little chickens and on the 8th you can make a slinky fox. All materials and use of tools included.

Later in the year, I'm thrilled to be making a repeat visit to the glorious 'Hope and Elvis' studios, in Nottinghamshire, making the perennial favourites, Acorns and Toadstools', in October. Last year's two days were fantastic experiences for me and we had lovely feedback. The studios are situated in the stunning Welbeck Estate (think Downton Abbey, but more so). Apart  from the workshops, there are simply gorgeous shops, a gallery and I can personally vouch for the food at the Limehouse Cafe.

These are the confirmed workshops, but there are more in the pipeline. All details of these can be found on my workshops page, where you can visit the various websites and contact the organisers to book directly. Hope to see some of you there, it's always great to meet up with blog readers face to face.

Cinderhill Farm workshop

My first workshop of the year, held at  Cinderhill Farm at the beginning of March. Fully booked and raring to go. We started off by making chickens.

Outside, the farm chickens clucked indignantly. No punk hairstyles on these ladies.

 

The morning session was sustained with copious tea, homemade shortbread and flapjacks.

  

After lunch (home farmed pork casserole with herby rice) people worked on their own designs - or in this case, followed my 'bunny brooch' pattern from  issue 24 of  'Mollie Makes'.  

 

Then another break for a special farmhouse high tea - all freshly baked in the farmhouse kitchen by Debs, our hostess. Two types of cake, jam tarts, rich scones with butter, cream and jam.

 

 

  It is always so rewarding to see finished designs as the day draws to a close.

 The traditional Grand Parade  - the lovely results of a very creative day - didn't they do well?

 I believe the next workshop (scheduled for early summer) is already fully booked, but if you would like to be informed of spare places or book in advance for a late summer workshop, please contact Debs via the Cinderhill Farm website or message her through the official Facebook page.

Gisela Graham circus

We aren't decorating this year, so I will inundate my blog with images of the toy circus decorations I designed for the Gisela Graham company a couple of years ago. I've not been to any shops, so would love to know if anyone in the UK has seen them - or even has bought some.

A peaceful Christmas to everyone from Bodge Cottage.

Mollie Makes Giveaway!

It seems like a long time ago when I made these little chaps - in our old cottage, back in the Spring before we moved. Cottages and houses really are the dominant theme this year.

 

And now at last, they are in the gorgeous new 'Mollie Makes' project series, published by Anova Books. I opened my latest mag to see this - and a lovely in-house photo of my little cottages.

The nice people at Anova have offered a giveaway of a free copy to a lucky winner - just leave a comment on my blog here, and I'll draw all the names out of a hat on Wednesday morning October the 10th - so get your name down before then, and I'll send the winner's email address to the publishers. Open to the Whole World. 

I've already got my copies - so many lovely things in there, I feel happy just looking at it.

Oh, and if you'd like a bonus entry, subscribe to Lovecraft/Anova Twitterfeed

      GIVE-AWAY IS NOW CLOSED, THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR ENTERING!  

Little houses

I've got  a few things going on at the moment, life-wise  - and an ongoing order list for full sized toys. But it's nice to go AWOL sometimes and sneak a bit of playtime in.

So when I can, I've been making little things. Such as tiny houses - as we seem to be having a house oriented year.

Which *only* take 3-4 hours to make.

These 'Wee Housies' were going to be popped into my Etsy shop for £30 each.

But the entire village was snapped up before I could list them. Sorry!