The Fibreworks & a giveaway

The other week I popped over to the nearby market town of Chipping Norton, to meet up with a fellow blogger/Twitterer, Cristina Colli. She has the most gorgeous lifestyle and interiors blog with exquisite photographs that put my snaps to shame, appropriately called 'Positively Beauty' and she was showing me the new wool and haberdashery shop on the block, The Fibreworks.

I can remember this little shop in other guises, but it has never looked as beautiful as this. Light, airy and yet cosy, it is a treasure house of lovely and unusual yarns, with a well lit bay window area, where you may sit comfortably to knit or browse one of the many craft books on sale. Claire and Lesley, the shop owners, are always on hand with advice and help, should your latest creation be proving a challenge.

I don't knit - craft and needle felting being my 'day job' five day a week at least, I shy away from having a crafty hobby. But the wonderful wools on display were almost enough to tempt me.

I did lust over the pretty haberdashery section though and invested in a couple of thread winders, with the noble intention of beginning to tidy my tangled thread box. The shop (despite the absence of people in my photos) was bustling and humming - Chipping Norton needed a shop like this.

I was actually there to talk about doing a needle felting workshop there next year; I am already booked to do a weekend course down in Bath, this January for a private group. After some discussion we felt that starting with a simple thing such as a flower brooch would be a good three or four hour project for beginners.

We haven't decided on a date yet, but if you are in the Chipping Norton area and think you might be interested, do contact The Fibreworks, we should hopefully have sorted a date out soon. Their blog is here with photos of the various workshops and happy crafting customers they have had in the short time they have been open.

Here is Cristina, asking advice about some hand warmers she had begun at a knitting course there. Claire and Lesley give everyone a warm welcome, so do pop in if you are local or even just passing through. Chipping Norton is a really great little town with a wide variety of independent shops and a bustling atmosphere. You might even bump into me if I've winkled myself out of my studio.

♥♥♥GIVEAWAY♥♥♥

There is a review of both of my Puddletown Tales books (featuring my needle felt toys) on the UK Handmade blog, and a giveaway of one of each titles. To enter, you need to click here to visit the blog and answer the simple question. I'm also adding a signed postcard and pin badge with each one. CLOSES TUESDAY NIGHT DEC 6TH UK TIME!

And finally...thank you to the Cuteable blog, for giving my Teeny Tiny Toadstools a mention!

Toy books and glass dogs

Are these not adorable? Beautifully ugly glass bauble dogs; they are a wonderful gift from my extraordinarily talented friend and cartoonist Chichi Parish, one of the wittiest, most delightful people I know. They are from this year's Paperchase range and I think Chichi knew that although I love them, I would never venture into a large town to actually buy my very own. Thank you so much, Chichi - they have been keeping me company this long, wet Friday while I have been treating myself to a browse of my toy making book collection.

I've been picking these up for a couple of years now, but sadly my pattern making has not improved. It's so much easier to pick up a felting needle and stab a wodge of merino into shape. However they are full of useful tips and one in particular is my favourite, as I used to own a copy when I was about seven years old. I was just starting to sew doll's clothes and make things when I found a copy of 'Toys for Your Delight' at a jumble sale and it soon became on of my best loved books. Seen here open with the photo of the extravagantly embroidered felt dragon.


The projects then (and now) were way beyond my meagre talents, but true to form, I always aspired to make the most difficult thing - the dragon. Sadly my first copy was *disposed* of, along with most of my other books and treasures, by people who were supposed to be looking after them when my parents died.

I have longed to find it again and found it last year on ebay - as soon as I saw this plate I knew I'd struck gold - it is so good to have it again, even though my sewing skills are still not up to making this chap.

I am not one for reading a reference book from cover to cover - I prefer to dip and dive into my favourite ones.

They range from 1920's/30s editions up to the early 1980's and show that there is nothing new under the sun. Things come around and come around - I know that there is often much fretting about whether making such and such, one will be seen as copying - but there are only so many ways of making, for instance, giraffes...

...or dear little birds with wire legs...

...in fact looking through them is a rather like looking at an Etsy front page treasury of softies. Which is not to say that everyone is copying, but doing what artists and crafters have been doing for centuries - adopting and adapting. Owls, mushrooms, birds in cages, matryoshka dolls, little houses, fish - they have their trends in the ebb and flow of crafting and design.


But it's hard not to get hung up about making things - a couple of years ago I held off making a shoal of stuffed fish, fearing that as there are so many variations on this, I'd be accused of stealing ideas. But here we are circa 1957, a Christmas decoration idea of - a shoal of felt fish.


So I think I will make some little textile birds with wire legs, as they seem to be part of a time honoured toy making tradition. Maybe I'll even be able to do my own take on them. By the way, there are many toy makers that I admire hugely who stamp their own personality all over their work; here are just a few;

Tamar Morgendoff

Abby Glassenberg

Abigail Brown

Kit Lane

Mimi Kirchner

Cary Walker

Anne Wood

Vriad Lee

Ashley Anna Brown

Astulabee

Just a few, mind!

I was terribly pleased to be featured along with other great UK needle felters on the UK Handmade blog - needle felting is still a fledgling craft over here, so we need to spread the good word of stabbing little bits of wool.

Squash

Our poor little back garden is looking very end-of-season. Dishevelled and rotting, the lush greens of summer are slowly disintegrating. We had yet another terrible year for tomatos. The wet summer brought blight again, and by the time the weather improved it was too late. But miraculously we have managed to have a small but consistent crop of cherries, and they are still struggling on.

The purple and green string bean wigwam, a late planting, is also still cropping, despite it's raggedy appearance.

Our acorn squash were disappointing; only two so-so fruits from four plants. But we will save the seed and try again next year.

The cucumbers have been slow but magnificent. This last one has been quietly growing without us even noticing. Then, the other week, I glanced at the fence and - wumph!

Despite having many, many butternut squash plants, we only harvested five. What a satisfying crop it is. The heavy baby-heads are so solid and cold, that you really feel as if you have grown something. To save space, we grew most of them up poles and trussed them up.

At their height, they were voluptuous and triffid like. Now they are crumpled and dying, but still fruiting. I wonder of any of these tinies will get to edible stage before winter sets in?

Five fat butternut squash. One to eat now and four to store, somewhere dark and cool.

Titbits from Cotswold Peeps

We have found a delightful new walk in even more beautiful countryside.

I have been moonlighting as an informal delivery girl.

And there is a new, autumn online edition of UK HANDMADE MAGAZINE which is simply beautiful; full of projects, interviews, recipes and general loveliness. Just click on the front cover to read, and make sure you have a cup of tea and a slice of cake.

Handmade black hole

CANCER HOROSCOPE DECEMBER 11th 2008

Even if you have already thrown your hands up in despair and let go of your agenda, it's still entirely possible that everything will turn out okay. You may be working overtime to come up with a contingency plan in case things become even more uncertain. Unfortunately, the more you plot and scheme, the crazier it could get. Adjust your expectations, let go and move on.

I heard on the news that scientists have discovered a black hole at the center of our Galaxy or Universe - somewhere big and spacey, anyway. They should have pointed their telescopes at our village, because I can state with certainty that there is a black hole here into which my days are being sucked with frightening velocity.
One of the nicest things to happen this week was the arrival of Jerome. Andy was nosying over my shoulder as I opened the bag, and exclaimed 'ahh, that's nice!' And so he is. He is more than nice, he is splendidly lovely, and he was a very generous gift from Green Phoenix, who makes utterly gorgeous desirables. At the moment he is hanging in my studio, as we are very old fashioned and don't bring our little tree in until Christmas Eve, when he will have a best branch. Thank you so much Nikki - we will treasure him.





My black hole was entirely of my own making - I started making Christmas ornaments and they sold frighteningly well. Faster then I could make them...and as usual, I had dozens of designs and only one pair of hands.








I've been investing in findings and wire, which is a whole new world to muddle my poor head with; wire gauges, split pins and filigree basket beads...luckily I still have a great set of wire tools which Andy's dad gave me way back in 1993, when I had a brief period of making puppets. Or rather, starting them and not finishing them. So for all you crafters who worry about hoarding supplies - don't chuck anything out, you will eventually find a use for whatever it is, even if it is fifteen years later.




However, as anyone who's served time in retail knows, December is Too Late to be stocking up for this year's holiday. So my nice 2009 Country Homes and Interiors calendar starts with my New Year's resolution;




I am so completely off the ball with everything that I forgot to announce the launch of a really beautifully designed new online magazine in PDF form, UK Handmade, (download size 3.41 MB) which is crammed with Good Things and familiar artist/designer names in the Etsy/online crafting world. Toby of Natural Attrill is in there, and interesting articles on fashion, cookery, jewellery, accessories, becoming a small business, lifestyle and somewhere near the end, a rather waffly self penned article I submitted about my discovery of needle felt. When I first heard about it, I hadn't realised just how professional it was going to look; it really is a good looking magazine, and is simply begging to be made into print form. UK Handmade also has a main website with a forum which always welcomes new members.

Did I say that Valentine's Day starts next week? It does in this house; I'm not being caught out like that again and I have so many ideas for little heart-lovey things of gold and silver and felt...