All packed and ready to go - part 2

Last week we were getting ready for the local Arts Club Christmas Exhibition and this week we are re-packing for the first of 2 Christmas events we are doing on the island.
Unfortunately the exhibition was a bit of a lt down as it wasn't very well attended and therefore I only sold a few bits and bobs but every penny will be going to the Bute Dialysis Unit Campaign.

Here are a few photos from the exhibition.

These were some of hubbies hand painted greetings cards.

Some of my handmade Christmas cards.

My hand sewn Christmas decorations.

My hand sewn covered notebooks.

I shall be taking these and some other items to the Christmas fair and am hoping for a better turn out although the weather forecast isn't looking too good. Never mind, hopefully the chance to see Santa will be a draw.

All packed and ready to go!

It is our local arts club Christmas exhibition and sale this coming weekend so the past couple of weeks has seen me trying to finish off my various projects and get them ready for the exhibition.

Everything has to be individually tagged and priced so that meant hunting around for the packet of tags I know is somewhere in the flat. In the end I had to admit defeat and buy a new packet!! Always the case when you put something in a safe place and then can't remember where that safe place was when you next want the item!!
Finally everything is tagged and packed up and ready for Saturday. Going to be an early start as we have to be down at the hall for 9am.
Thought you might like to see some of the items I have been working on for the past few months.

This is some of my festive bunting - all hand-sewn!

 

These are fabric covered notebooks and diaries. The covers are removable so when you have filled the notebook you can replace it.

These are some of my hand-sewn Christmas tree decorations. The hearts are made from scraps of tartan.

These are my new style of fabric brooches. Have been using up more of my fabric scraps making these.


These are something new that I have been wanting to do for ages but have been unable to find suitable frames here on the island but I recently found them online with delivery at no extra cost which was great.

The first 2 are textile ones, with yet more of my hand sewing skills on show!! The final one is a little mixed media one.



 

 

So as you can see I have been rather busy recently.

 

Hoping that we have a good weekend and get lots of people in to have a look at the art and craft work on display and for sale.

The club has a FB page that you can find here

 

 

 Happy crafting folks.

Not long until Christmas!!!!

Well, the last post I wrote here was just after the local Arts Club Summer exhibition at the end of July and now it's almost time for our Christmas exhibition which will be in a couple of weeks.
I've been making some suitably festive items and hopefully will be able to sell some of them to raise funds for our local dialysis unit, which is the organisation I am raising funds for this year.

Display has sometimes been an issue for me, especially as I don't have my own transport in order to cart stuff around but this year I have splashed out on a nice twig tree to hang these decorations on and I am sure they will look much nicer this way.

It's been nice doing more stitch work as a change from jewellery making.

Also made a small selection of greetings cards - still finding bits of glitter everywhere but hey ho, it is Christmas!!

Aswell, as doing the arts club exhibition I am doing a local Christmas fair the week after so hopefully I will be able to raise some funds for the dialysis unit

Right, now to get round to labelling everything!!

Local arts club summer exhibition.

Well, our local arts club here on Isle of Bute had its summer exhibition last weekend and as we are members we put some items in. Sadly, due to bad weather and the facts that there were several other events on over the weekend, the exhibition didn't get many visitors but never mind.

This was some of our work on display. The paintings are hubbies - you can see his website here and the altered canvas with the sugar skull and the woven panels are mine, along with the elephants which are decoupage canvas panels.
We didn't sell any of these pieces but I sold a few other bits of craft work so it wasn't a total waste of time!!

There was some lovely art and craft work on display and I bought a lovely pot from a couple who make pottery here on the island.

The island has a lot of artists and craftspeople and its great to see what other people make. The club has a Facebook page here

Once I've got everything packed away that we bought back I shall be thinking about having a go at something new - just got to decide what!!!

Taking time out here.

Been a bit quiet here on the craft front recently. Taking some time out and doing a lot of thinking but not that much creating!!

If you've been looking at the website you will see that I have been doing a bit of stuff - mostly bits of weaving.
I wanted to do something different for a change so have been doing some mini woven panels, just for fun.

 

 

It's been fun  doing something different and I will be doing some more of this.

 

Health hasn't been too good lately either and its been hard to find the motivation to do much. At least with the weaving I can put it down and pick it up as and when I want. With the jewellery I have to pack it all away and then I don't always want to go to the trouble of getting it all back out again. 

 

 

Mind you, I need to get my finger out soon as I've got to do some things for our local Arts Club exhibition at the end of July. 

 

You can check out the website here.

Happy Easter.

Well, tomorrow is Easter Sunday and I hope the easter bunny will be good to you and bring you lots of chocolate!

Been a few weeks since the last blog post, sorry about that but I've been busy with my womb cancer organisation and not had much time for crafting.

 

I have however been able to make a couple more of the stitched projects I was doing. However, this time I didn't make then into wall hangings - no, I'm getting adventurous now!! I found a stash of canvas bags that I had bought some years ago hidden in the back of the wardrobe. Some of them I had tie-dyed so I stitched these panels onto the bags.

 

 

Yes, I know they need a good iron but seeing as they are going back into the wardrobe for a while I'll do it later!!!

 

Also started doing a spot of weaving. It's something I have wanted to do for years but have never had the space for a table top loom but I was watching some videos on Youtube last week and found some great video's on how to improvise. Now I am a great fan of making do with what you have if you can so I set too with my stash of yarn and came up with these mini wall hangings.

 

This was my first attempt. Very tiny one, wrapped the warp threads round a A5 sized hardback notebook.
Tensions not really good but not bad for a 1st attempt.

This was the 2nd attempt. By now I had progressed from using the notebook to using a small rigid plastic loom board that I bought off ebay. Measures about 9cm x 16cm but so much easier to use than the notebook!! It has grooves along both edges so the warp threads don't slip all over the place.















The 3rd attempt was even better as I

was now getting used to getting the tension right.

 

So, I have been having some fun and hopefully will have more lovely handmade goodies to show you next time.

 

Enjoy the Bank Holiday. xx





Where is this year going?

Well, it doesn't seem 2 minutes since it was Xmas and now its almost March. Where is this year going??

Been doing some new craft work this year - trying something different. I put the beads away for a bit and have started doing some textile work.
Now sewing has never been my think - can just about sew on a button if needed!!

I was watching some videos on Youtube and came across an interesting one on how to use up scraps of fabric. Now, I hate throwing anything away and this seemed like a great way to use up the scraps left over from making my fabric brooches so I had to give it a go.

So I did and I have to say that I'm quite pleased with the out come. I turned the pieces into mini wall hangings and I am now on my 4th one!

This was my first attempt. It's in shades of purple and measures approx. 3" x 4". I used gold thread to quilt in and was really pleased with the way it turned out.

This was my 2nd attempt - in peach for womb                   

cancer awareness.
Much more stitching this time which resulted in
it puckering a bit but you learn by your mistakes
so they say!!

Third attempt was slightly bigger, but not much! The idea was inspired by the night sky and is supposed to represent the cosmos, hence the gold star charms attached to it.














There is now a 4th one on the go - will share a pic of that in the next blog post.  Quite enjoying the sewing, makes a change from jewellery making and I am finding it quite relaxing. Apart from when the thread gets tangled up that is!!!!!

:-)