Hello.....anyone there?

 My little blog has laid dormant for getting on 7 years!! I recently added to my ‘Books I’ve Read’ page, on here, and noticed on one of the posts that it’s almost the 15th anniversary of getting my Shed (of Raglan Thread Shed); so it seems fitting to add a post. I don’t imagine any of my previous followers are still around but you never know. I’m not even sure that anyone follows blogs these days!

The changes and events that have taken place over that time (in my life and in the world in general) have been unprecedented. In the UK we’ve had Brexit, financial and political turmoil, and numerous, so-called, once-in-a-lifetime weather events. Globally, there have been wars, the pandemic, terrorism, growing intolerance and climate devastation. On a personal level there’ve been marriages, births, deaths and health issues. 

But…….this is a craft blog, so that’s enough seriousness. I just wanted to acknowledge what a long time it’s been, and how much crazy stuff has happened. I’m still crafting, although in a more limited way these days.

Here’s a brief overview of the sorts of things I’ve been making: 

Tea-towel bucket hats proved very popular, especially the Welsh ones (when I could source them).

I love to sew using old linens, and this tablecloth top was a favourite that recently sold from my Etsy shop (I was sorry to have to forego my Folksy shop and defect to Etsy, but Folksy just wasn’t working for me).

My most recent popular product has been personalised newborn cardigans. 

Well, I'll leave it at that for now and see you next time. Maybe in another 7 years, but I hope not. 

Bye for now

Teresa x

Memory Bears have taken off!

Welcome to my first post of 2018. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. I'm afraid it didn't feel very festive, to me, this year. Don't know if that was just me, or the dreary weather but, in any case, let's hope this year is better on all fronts than the last one!

 You may remember a couple of posts ago, I told you about a new offshoot to my crafting business. I had decided to look into making memory bears, cushions and quilts. I had bought a pattern, made a couple of trial bears, and made a first, heavily discounted bear for a friend/customer in memory of her daughter. The bear above is the first customer order after that, and was made in memory of a mother.

 I began taking my bears along to craft fairs and events, along with my usual stock, and they drew a lot of attention. When I saw a rabbit pattern (also from Funky Friends Factory), I loved it and thought it might be an idea to give customers a choice of memory softies; so I bought it and made this one from charity shop, fleecy nightwear. If only the regulations didn't stop me selling these directly; I could have sold this one 5 times over already!

 Things started taking off when I began posting pictures of my bears on my Facebook page, Raglan Thread Shed. The bear above was a second order from the first, trial customer. It is also in memory of her daughter, but was a gift for her sister.

Each order I get is different, despite being exactly the same pattern. This, above, is my first set of twins! They are for 2 sisters, in memory of their mother. One sister ordered them as a surprise.

And so we come to my latest order, finished just before Christmas. These 2 are made from a grandfather's shirts, picked out by his grand-daughters. They were to be opened on Christmas day.

Making bears out of men's shirts certainly removes the difficulty of deciding where each different fabric should be placed, but I enjoy the variety that each new set of clothing presents. It can also be quite emotional for the customer when I reveal the finished bears, so it's not like any other crafting that I do. Luckily, I have not, yet, been asked to make one from the clothing of someone I knew. It already takes me a little time to get into the right state of mind to cut into customers' precious belongings. I'm sure it would be much more difficult if I knew the person.

Bye for now
Teresa x

Softies!

I've been wanting to give soft toy making a try for quite a while. So, it seemed appropriate (in accordance with my upcycling ethos) to try memory, or keepsake, bears. It wouldn't be viable to use recycled fabrics in general toy-making, due to the CE testing process that I would have to put them through, and keepsake items don't have to comply with those regulations.

Having not sewn any toys before, I headed to the charity shops to find some baby clothes that I could practice with, and came back with 3 items. I also bought safety eyes and stuffing (there are some things you can't compromise on!).

Armed with a free, downloaded pattern from Funky Friends Factory I set to work, and this is the result.

I learnt a lot from the process about how, in general, toys are put together, how to insert the eyes and whether or not to use interfacing.  I will do all those things differently next time. And I have the baby clothes from the charity shop ready and waiting. I want to try a different pattern next time, so I need to choose that, and get some different interfacing, first.

In the meantime, I'm still working on other projects in the background. This is a toddlers version of the Baa-ble hat I showed last time, that I had a request for. It turned out so cute - I love it!

And.............I've had it on my bucket list for so long, to make a pair of socks, so I'm happy to say that I have almost completed 1 sock! I'll cast on the second one as soon as it's finished so it doesn't get left on the Work-in-progress pile for months until I forget how I did it.

I've also been working on finishing a long-term WIP so will hopefully have something to show next time!

Bye for now
Teresa x

January Making for Me!

I made a decision towards the end of last year to spend the first month of this year working on a few makes for myself. I've had a mental list for a while of a few simple things I needed to get done, so decided to use the quietest month of the year (craft-wise) to get them out of the way (and off my mind).

A new ironing board cover was the most straightforward job, so I tackled that first. There was a big hole in my old one and it was looking decidedly worse for wear. An ironing board cover is not an essential item for everyone, but as I keep my ironing board propped up against a wall it can tend to leave marks on the paintwork. It also looks a bit nicer when I don't have a big enough cupboard to store it out of sight.

Next came a clothes-peg bag. You may have noticed that I didn't write 'new' clothes-peg bag! Previously, (I'm ashamed to say) I kept my pegs in an old, broken plastic bag: so there was nothing to replace.

I got the old, wooden coat hanger from my auntie, and my OH cut a couple of inches off each end, as it was a bit too wide. I made the opening like I do some of my bag pockets, where the lining is sewn on top, the hole cut and the lining folded through the hole. We haven't had the weather to hang out the washing recently, but when we do, it'll be ready for action.

My next project came about because my old purse broke a couple of months ago. I got a new one for Christmas but it didn't hold as many cards as my old one. My solution was to make a wallet for the cards I don't use so often.

Sorry, I couldn't find the link for the tutorial again.

I love how it turned out, and it's had lots of nice comments but if I made one again, I would bunch up the pockets a bit and try it with less of them too, to make it more compact.

I have one more thing left to make for myself then I'll be concentrating on my shop items.  My everyday bag has seen better days so I'm going to make a replacement.

As well as these personal projects, I've been doing some hand sewing of bigger, long-term projects which have been progressing well. I'll be glad to get them finished, though, and off my mind (like the things in this post).

Bye for now
Teresa x

Bags of Style!

At the end of my last post I showed the early stage of a slow, mindful project I was working on. Well, it took a while but here is the finished result. It's a lovely hand-stitched patchwork bag. It's made from a pattern in this book. Actually, it's made from two patterns - the patchwork design is from a different bag in the book. I've used it a couple of times and had lots of lovely comments.

Next, I wanted to try something much simpler, but just as useful. This slouchy boho bag is made from a single piece of heavy furnishing fabric. The strap is long enough to go across body so I want to make one like this for myself to replace my current everyday bag, which is wearing out.

Finally, I had this gorgeous Australian design, linen tea-towel in my stash (I can't remember exactly but I think I must have bought it from a charity shop as it still had the original sale label on and I've never been to Australia!) and decided it needed showing off on a bag. It seems I wasn't the only one to appreciate it, as it sold on it's first outing! Oh, and I added the brown canvas-type fabric and hand embroidery in complimentary colours.

In between sewing projects I'm still hooked on corner-to-corner crochet. After trying it plain, and then stripy, I'm now working on motifs. One more square to add, then a border and this will be done.
Sounds straightforward but, once again, I'm limited with the yarn left and will have to do some working out.

The craft group I mentioned last time, that I had just started with a friend, has met again, and all who came seem to be committed, which is nice. We've had a break for August, and will get going again at the end of September. The members are all working on various projects (cross stitch, knitting, patchwork) that they don't seem to find time to do at home. At the last meeting I was working on knitting face cloths. I made 4 in total (not all at the group, obviously), gave one away with a gift and the rest have sold in sets with my daughter's handmade soaps, so I'm working on some more of those too!

Bye for now
Teresa x

Time for a Catch Up!

 Time for a catch up, I think! It's been far too long. Grab yourself a coffee and take a seat.

Well, what have you been up to since we last met?

I joined the Twitter ranks recently, but haven't really been able to get my head around it. However, it was advantageous to me in a roundabout way. It's a long story, which resulted in me loading a photo of one of my bags onto Homemaker magazine's Twitter feed. I only did it to practice using Twitter but it wasn't long before an editor got in touch and asked me to submit a 'Star Letter' featuring one of my bags. I was originally offered a whole page feature but either I was too slow to reply or they asked too many in order to get a result, but I made sure my Facebook Thread Shed page was mentioned.

They've since asked me to give a 'reader's tip' for one of their featured project patterns but I haven't seen whether it's been used or not yet.

Probably as a result of the published letter, my Folksy shop started getting more viewings for a while, resulting in me selling the 3 items above in quite a short time.

 I showed the beginnings of this corner-to-corner crochet blanket in my last post. It took 3 goes at the border before I was happy with it. I wanted to use as much of the yarn as I could without running out, so it took a bit of juggling with the colours and numbers of stripes, and some weighing of yarn and guess work! I'm not finished with C2C yet - I've started a project with a motif in a different colour.

While I should really be running up quick projects to add to my stock, I've been drawn to work on slow, thoughtful, hand-sewn items. The little pouch above is the perfect size to hold a couple of lipsticks, and it's all hand sewn apart from the short, boxed corner seams.

This is a more longer term hand-sewing project. It's progressed quite a bit from this, but this shows the detail. I loved doing this, almost-sashiko-like, quilting. This part is the flap for a bag, for which I am trying to follow a pattern in a Japanese book, relying mainly on the diagrams and a few random numbers!!

In other news, my daughter launched a soap-making venture at a lovely open afternoon in her garden a few weeks ago. We had a few stalls there and served refreshments on the lawn. We've now booked a few events to do together later in the year.

Also, a friend and I started a new, monthly, craft group last week in our village hall. There were 5 of us at the first meeting, with another 4 or 5 (who were on hols or busy) promising to come next time.

Right, it was good to catch up. Mustn't leave it so long next time!

Bye for now
Teresa x

Corner to Corner Crochet!

Good afternoon all!!

I showed a glimpse a couple of posts back of a denim project in progress. Did you guess what it was?It was a cushion cover made from recycled jeans of all shades of denim. After adding a single line of red machine embroidery I decided to stop there and keep it simple.

As I was on the denim theme, next came a couple of zipped bags. One sold at a local event but I have this one for sale in my Folksy shop, which I'm trying to get stocked when I have the time.

I've abandoned the denim, for now, because I've discovered a new addiction in Corner to Corner crochet (as I mentioned last time). This youtube tutorial  will show you the basics (I couldn't find the tutorial I used - she was Australian, had a soothing voice and used UK terms).

This blanket was the result of  my first go at C2C. The centre panel was a poncho from M&S that I bought from a charity shop and disassembled. I wanted it to be a little bigger, so added a border in sage green.

Being someone who always has to try something new, I next ventured into stripes of C2C crochet. This one is still in progress, but I already have an urge to try one with motifs or pictures. For this one, I used a few balls of DK I got from ebay in a couple of lots that happened to go together. The tricky part is working out the biggest size I can make, without running out of any of the colours. It may mean a bit of juggling and improvising - but, still, I don't like things to be too symmetrical and even!!

Felt frenzy!

Well it's not exactly a frenzy, but it sounds good. Whatever it is, here is the result of it so far.

Five Felt Hearts, made from charity shop woollen jumpers that I washed to shrink and cut up many moons ago. I've used some of the multi stripe before so there wasn't enough to make 2 with that. They have some lavender inside and also a little wool stuffing to give them shape, because if it was just lavender it would all fall to the bottom.

The same template for the centre of the lavender hearts made these little felt brooches. I made myself a similar one a couple of years ago and get many compliments when I wear it.

Here's a close-up of the green one (which is my favourite out of these) with a thimble to next to it, to give some perspective. I've put them on my Thread Shed Facebook page (post scheduled for later today) in the hope that I'm in time to cater for St Valentine's Day and also, possibly, Mothering Sunday.

I'm not finished with the felt yet but haven't managed to do anything with it today, apart from raid my shed for some more materials. Instead, I've been doing some admin for myself and a couple of voluntary organisations I'm involved with, which has taken me the best part of a couple of days when it should have been only a few hours.


Bye for now
Teresa x

Hellooooooooo....!

My goodness, it's been a long time since I posted. Let me know if there's anyone still out there! Just say hello.

I loaded these pictures a few weeks ago and a lot of what is here has already sold. The cat quilt has gone to the new great-grand-daughter of a lady from church, and half of the glasses cases were sold at various selling events that I've done.

I've had a stall at 4 or 5 events in the last couple of months, a couple of which were quite successful. I've also had independent requests to make things; like a couple more baby quilts, a knitted tea cosy and a phone case.

I have a couple more events booked this month and I'm trying to be more professional. The trouble is, I'm still too good at procrastinating.

And so, I'm off to get on with some knitting.
Bye for now
Teresa x

Stories from my Makes

The more eagle-eyed readers will recognise these makes from previous posts. After I've sold an item I don't just forget about it when I'm working on something new. I'm always pleased to hear how it's being used in it's new home or, best of all, see it in action. So, as well as my makes having a 'past' story, based on the various places the materials came from, they also have a 'present' story. And, hopefully, a long and full future.

When I sold the pink baby quilt, the customer told me it was destined for the first baby girl to born in their family for 50 years. It was a great honour that they thought my humble quilt suitable for such a momentous occasion in their family.

The blue quilt was bought by a friend for a friend of her's baby boy. She reported back to me later how her friend loved the quilt and would lay the baby on it, noting his position on the design so she would know if he'd moved when she looked at him again. That she thought enough about it to pass on the story was quite special.

Another friend asked me to make the purple bag for her step-daughter when her previous one wore out. I see her around and about quite a lot and she, more often than not, has the bag over her shoulder. It's so lovely to see that she likes it and that it gets plenty of use.

Finally, an elderly friend bought the daffodil bag from one of my stalls. I see her quite often and she likes to tell me where she has taken it and how useful it is. Apparently, it's been to Norway on it's travels!

I hope the stories keep coming because it, somehow, makes what I do more meaningful (although I'd still do it even if I didn't hear anything back).

Bye for now
Teresa x

Blankets and Bunting!

Hubby and I are recently back from lovely week in Cornwall; specifically, Charlestown. This is the third time we've been to Cornwall, and the second time we've stayed in Charlestown. It's a great base for exploring the area. I'm glad we revisited the Lost Gardens of Heligan because the amazing new Poppy Field of Remembrance was in full bloom.

We were having a lovely time right up until the Thursday..............when hubby managed to catch a 12hr bug (or a touch of food poisoning) and I fell (into the road, in front of a car)! Luckily the car wasn't going very fast, but it stopped with a dramatic screech making everyone in the vicinity turn to look. The result was a skinned right knee with ripped trousers, and a lovely big bruise on my left knee. We had only just stepped out of our accommodation because I was determined to get an ice cream from just down the street. I still made sure I got my ice cream, though, before we went back to dress my wound. 

In crafty news, I finished this wavy design baby quilt before the holiday and started the next one (below) ready to take with me.

I always take a craft project on holiday but rarely get a chance to do any of it. This time I managed quite a bit. I also picked up a pretty bundle of pink fabrics and a couple of doilies at a wonderful craft/vintage emporium in Mavagissey. I've already used the doilies to decorate a baby quilt, which I'll show next time.

The stitching group I go to on a Monday evening seems to have ground to a halt. Nobody seems to have the time to go, and as we meet in a pub no one wants to walk in if they think no one else is coming. Before it fizzled out we were knitting bunting for decorating our village fun day. I've put mine together and will get it to the fun day committee soon. As for the stitching group - I hope it's just a blip and it gets going again. I still go to my Tuesday afternoon group, and it's going strong. We meet in the local scout hall and average around 8+ members per week. We're in the process of arranging a meal out together and we're going to continue right through August, when most groups have a break.

I'm waiting for a customer to come and pick up this order of bunting that she requested for a party in August.
There are three strands of 10 flags each here, to decorate a marquee entrance.

I had a stall booked at a craft fair this week that was cancelled, but I've got a few more booked later this year. So I'm going to be optimistic that they will be successful and try to make plenty of stock.

First, I have to finish:
the stripy, crocheted blanket above (lots of ends to sew in!)
2 quilts that need quilting and binding
another baby quilt - that I haven't started yet.

Bye for now
Teresa x

Random Round-up!

 I've was lucky, recently, to have the chance to buy a selection of fabric sample books from an ex-interior designer.  I had a good rummage and came home with 5 full books and a pile of larger samples - all for £30.
She had about 140 fabric books in her garage so it wasn't easy to choose just a few.

The fabrics are perfect for bags and purses. The boxy bags above are my first projects with the samples.

I had a couple of round cushion pads taking up valuable space in my shed. This one now has a crocheted cover, complete with zip, and is ready for my stall.

I saw a triangular shaped purse somewhere on the web recently and had to have a go to see how it was made. I think I've got it out of my system for now!

In non-crafty news, son and girlfriend have moved into his new house. It's not quite finished yet but they couldn't wait. It's lucky they can still pop over the road for showers and internet connection. I had visions of them moving in one weekend, with us all traipsing across the road with all his belonging until it was done. No such luck. We still  have all his belongings, too. I'm sure it will go eventually, but it'll be a much slower job than I thought.

Bye for now
Teresa x

Commissions!

 I had requests to make a few things over the holidays.

First, I was asked to make a tea cosy.  Not something I've made before, but the customer gave me an old one as a template for size she wanted. I couldn't work out for a while how the lining was joined all the way around to the outer while obviously being made separately - but I sorted it out eventually.

 The request was for a signature colour of orange, and, as usual, I made 2 to give a choice. She chose the teapot one!

Something else I've not made before is a dog bandana. Daughter requested these for her 2 dogs and, at her suggestion, they are made to be slid over the dog's collar as opposed to tying on.

Last, and something I have made before, was a request for a lavender heart to add to a bag of goodies as a gift.

I treated myself to this book last week after no success in dropping hints before Christmas.

One good result over the holidays, though, was the re-siting of my shed at the back of the house. Unfortunately, I haven't been near it (or a sewing machine, knitting needle or book) for well over a week after succumbing to a dose of the flu that has knocked me for six. I think I'm on the home straight with it now, and managed to type some invoices for a client today. Luckily, I've not been needed at work since she moved house, because they still have no internet to receive orders.

Bye for now
Teresa x