Mollie Makes Scandi village pattern

I've made just under 50 patterns in the last four years, but this one has to be one of my favourites, a Scandinavian style village in a terrarium.

It's also my third cover for Mollie Makes, which is a bit of a proud moment. As usual, it's been beautifully styled and photographed at the other end. 

Like all of my patterns, it started off with sketches which progressed from initial brain storming ideas - 

- to experimenting with various shapes and arrangements.

Before settling on what would be more or less the final design.

The pattern ended up being quite in-depth, but still a fairly simple process. The entire pattern is in issue 61 of Mollie Makes, and is in the shops now (WHSmith, large supermarkets and newsagents, directly from Mollie Makes, or as a digital format from Zinio,  Google Play or Apple iTunes.  

For my American friends, I believe it becomes available early next year from Barnes and Noble, Books A Million and outlets of Jo-Ann. A full list of countries and overseas outlets can be found here on the Mollie Makes site.

I'd love to see any examples of villages made from my pattern. I'm also holding a 'little houses' needle felt workshop at my old haunt, Folly Fabrics, Wiltshire, on February 27th next year. For more details and to book a place from their site, click here. 

I've been pleasantly surprised at how many people have signed up for my needle felt newsletter, and am planning the first edition for mid-January. If you'd like to sign up for it too, the form is here on my own website. 

Sugar toys

 

Joe and I managed to get together for a couple of precious days, to celebrate our first anniversary. No champagne or roses, just the pleasure of being with each other. A week later, after a few mysterious hints, a box arrived in the post. It was opened with ceremony, over Skype, twenty first century style.

 

I was still baffled when I opened the lid. Apparently these have been widely advertised on TV, but I watch very little TV. So imagine (as they say) my surprise. And delight. Rendered, for once, speechless.

A selection of my needle felt creations, printed onto strawberry marshmallows from Boomf!  The perfect anniversary present. Of course, I can never eat them. They are too, too precious, in so many ways and not just because my toys are on them. Besides, Sasha has already staked her claim on hers.

Christmas stall

Well, that's that out of the way and I seem to have my life back again. I don't usually do stalls, as it's an almost impossible (and expensive) thing to do when you don't drive and live in remote ruralsville. But this one was only a couple of miles away and Brian-next-door helped me get everything over, on a stormy day with gale force winds and driving rain.

Thankfully it was all under cover. This is the annual Christmas Fair held at Concord International College, at Acton Burnell. It was bigger than I expected -  much bigger. My heart quailed, not for the first time, but I got stuck into setting up. I'd been planning this for weeks, so it was just a case of popping everything out.

 

There was a small emergency when I had to get Brian to pick me up again so that I could dash home and print off more price labels (which I thought I had, but patently hadn't). And also borrowed an extra table cloth from Jean, having scrounged some extra table space.

 I even unearthed my old stock of cards, and sold quite a few.

In the end it all went well. My old retail skills kicked back in and I had a pleasant smile glued to my face. There was a large footfall of over 2,000 visitors, not including the college students. My stall was nice and busy and I sold enough gubbins to make it worthwhile. My new Paypal card reader worked and the three hours flew by.

I was inevitably asked about my prices for my own needle felt work. One couple directly asking me why it was priced 'so high'. Once upon a time, I might have shrunk under a stone, but now I've got more confidence. For a start, I answered (keeping my pleasant smile) the smallest thing on my tree took at least four hours to make.  I am a published professional in my field, very well known, with over eight years of full time practise. And my work is collected, especially in America, where they really value good craftmanship. So the prices reflect my time, my skills  and my name.

It's hard not to be British sometimes and undersell yourself.  I now realise that I have to be my own walking, talking CV; there's no point in being overly modest.  What I didn't add was that with the hours of work I put in on each and every piece, I am still working for less than the UK minimum wage which is £6.70 at present. So I am pricing as low as I can afford to, even if it seems 'high'  because this is not my little hobby, but my livelihood.

But here's the thing - although I only sold one piece of my own work, the look of joy when so many  people came up to my stall and admired the displays was immensely rewarding. I put on, as they say, a 'good show'. And sold a lot of kits and supplies on top of that. I have to admit, I treated myself to a celebratory bottle of cheap wine and a pizza on the way home when Brian drove me back. He refused petrol money point blank.

I also had many people asking me if I was holding a local workshop, which is now on the cards and spurred me into setting up a monthly newsletter, which will start in January. It will be solely about needle felting - workshops for next year, tips on working, my own work in progress, new kits - that kind of thing. So there is now a sign up page on my website, here. Of course, your details remain completely confidential.  I've already had quite a few subscribers, so I'd better start planning the January edition...

Little autumn feasts

We're properly on the verge of winter now and I am working my fingers off making new things for a local Christmas fair, But sometimes it's good to get out, so Joe took me to Squirrel Park, where I was promised - well, squirrels.

And there they were, looking ridiculously seasonal and doing proper squirrel things with nuts.

Bounding about with enviable energy.

Not only burying nuts, but finding hidden stashes...

...and having an early nibble.

Although we hadn't done any bounding about, the wind was getting up and the afternoon darkening. So as I was in need of a little sustenance myself, we headed over to Patisserie Valerie (again), where Joe treated us to  hot chocolate brownies and double chocolate gateaux. Because winter needs cake. Or nuts, if you're a squirrel. 

Pressing matters

I've been carting this old Adana Quarto flat bed press around for about eighteen years. It's always been knackered and the roller perished before I was born, I think. It's hard to find out much about this type of Adana, but my persistent foraging in Google convinced me that it was an early model, probably from the 1930s.

Being in need of funds and something to flog,  I dragged it out of the shed. Brian-next-door came round with his tools and inexhaustible knowledge of all things mechanical. It was gradually taken apart. 

Uncovered, the metal looked even worse. But Brian was quite sanguine about it. 'Soon clear that up' he said.

We saved the bits carefully.

I plonked myself on the drive and cleaned the small stuff. 

Brian got busy with a drill and wire brush attachment.

 It was quite astonishing how well it came up. Brian, of course, was right.

Every bit was cleaned, but not overly so; I wanted it to retain its history and life scars. We all wear patinas as we get older.

Then it was mostly  put back together.

 Looking as if it had a new lease of life.

There was a problem with the roller mechanism, which was so jammed up even Brian couldn't immediately undo it. But he took it to his magic shed and after some work, dismantled, cleaned and oiled it so that it will be more user friendly for the next owner.

The wooden top was sanded lightly and soaked in woodworm treatment, just to be on the safe side and I beeswaxed it. Then it was ready for the final assemblage. Which we did in the kitchen, Shropshire style.

We tried to remember what screws went where. Brian confessed that his memory is not what it used to be and what I know about nuts and bolts can be scratched on the head of a pin. (And there would still be space).

But between us we managed to work it out.

And eventually, the final screw went back in.

So this neglected old press went from this - 

- to this. It's now on eBay, as sadly, I need to sell it. So on the off chance that anyone knows anyone who is looking for a simple flat bed printing press, it is on auction on the UK eBay site here until Tuesday 17th November. Keep your collective fingers crossed for me please!