Just a quick one before Silent Witness, one of my bags made it to a treasury list on Etsy!!

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=10467

Thank you PinkAngel

After many nights of working on my design, I finally came up with this,


and made my first fabric printing screen with the gocco.

My daughter went to a party at the weekend, so I made this bag and pen roll as a present. Hope she likes orange! I made 3 bags and let my daughter choose, so the other 2 have been listed on etsy.

I've actually felted something for myself, and not for the shop. I wanted a little sewing kit that I could take places. I really need to squeeze my crafting in whenever I can, so I usually take a bit of sewing with me when I babysit. So I had this idea, and I felted it and it works!! That's quite unusual for me, it's normally about third attempt before I get it right. Anyway, here it is, my little sewing pouch.


The idea is the loop will fasten around the strap of whatever bag I have, so the kit is nice and handy. And when not in use, it looks really sweet hanging from my cupboard door handle. All I need to do now is get my hands on a little pair of embroidery scissors to go inside.

Just had a thought whilst writing this blog, I might make some of these as Christmas decorations, you could put sweets inside.

I really need to blog more often, I am forming a mental list of what I want to share with you, and it's getting a bit long for one post.

Firstly, I received some more goodies in the post, some books I'd ordered from www.amazon.co.jp. Very inspirational, here's two of them (I got a bit carried away and order 5). I'll do a little review of them sometime soon.


Unfortunately, they have stopped the surface mail option so the postage is a bit high, not sure I'll be getting anymore.

Secondly, I have used my gocco printer! I have been busy making brooch cards, here are a few, the rest are on etsy. Can't wait to have a go at printing on fabric. I'm thinking linen bags with printed pockets.


Thirdly, I have lots of new things in my Etsy shop. I did a craft fair at the weekend, not a huge success, but I generated some interest in my workshops. I only booked it on Wednesday (someone had dropped out), so I frantically spent the next few days crafting. I stayed up until one o'clock the night before finishing stuff off, infact, one of my felted bags was still a little damp on the day of the fair, but no one noticed. So I have spent a huge portion of the day listing, I even multi-tasked and listed two necklaces whilst cooking the tea!

Now I'm going to have a glass of wine and give my eyes a break from the computer. I still have more to share, but I'll save that for another day.

Blog Review: Embroidery with an edge


Recently I have come across a lot of textile art blogs via Flickr. One of these discoveries is Embroidery with an edge by the talented Guerilla Embroidery. Based in Manchester (UK), she creates amazing pieces of textile art using hand and free machine embroidery, and beautifully vivid colours. The blog is a creative diary where she shares her recent work, and shows photographs of her work in progress.


She also shares includes work of other artists and has some excellent pictures of street art. In her Etsy and Dawanda shops she sells stunning brooches and purses, this little bird is my favourite.
If you are into embroidery you have to check out this blog, as a recent embroidery graduate her work is so detailed and neat, you can't fail to be inspired. You can also view her flickr pictures here.

I have two brooches finished!! My felt brooches seem to be evolving into miniature pieces of felt art, but I'm quite happy with the results, still on a bit of a learning curve with these, trying to find my style.



And look what the postman brought yesterday. I've managed to have a go this morning, but the prints are still drying, so no photo's yet. My purchase is thanks to the power of blogs. The Gocco machine has cropped up a few times in various blogs, I read a piece on tiny happy and followed the link to felt cafe's tutorial. After reading I really wanted one, so convinced myself it would be great for making my own promotional postcards. By the end of the day I had ordered one from print addict. Until I began reading blogs I was completely unaware these existed, but I'm really pleased to have had it brought to my attention, I think I feel a new crafty hobby coming into my life. I have already brainstormed many, many ideas for using my little printing machine, all I need now is a little more time!

School (and pre-school) started again last Tuesday, which means I have a little time to myself during the week, yey! Unfortunately, it's been a whole 6 weeks, and there was so much I wanted to do that instead of concentrating on one thing, I flitted around trying to do too many things, which is never a productive way to work, as a result there has been no crafting to blog about for a while.

Thankfully on Friday, I visited the quilt show at Harrogate with my Mum and Auntie, (thank you Dad for making this possible by spending a day playing cars and trains with my little boy, much appreciated) and treated myself to this fantastic book... (hmm, it's quite a bit cheaper on amazon!)


which has got me back on track. There aren't any new techniques that I didn't already know, but it has been a great source of inspiration, and I've managed to squeeze some crafting time in this weekend and actually have a little work in progress to show you.


The show was good, some fantastic quilts (sorry, didn't take my camera). I'd love to make a quilt, but I just don't have the patience. My Mum is a quilter, and makes beautiful scrap quilts. She just made one for my son's 3rd Birthday, which I was going to post, but forgot to photograph, he's now tucked up in bed with it so it'll have to wait for another day.

I also got these buttons and this piece of vintage cotton, not sure what I'm going to do with it, I just had to have it in my ever increasing stash of fabric.



Whilst I'm here I'd also like to say a big hello to all those who have popped over from embroidery with an edge, and thanks to those who've left comments. I shall be reviewing guerilla embroidery's site soon, a long with a few other sites that have grabbed my attention over the last few months. Oh how my google reader list is growing!! There's no wonder I haven't got much crafting done recently.