Bags!

Spring is well on its way! This wonderful spread of snowdrops was a lovely surprise in daughter and SIL's garden. Until they've been in their house a year, the garden will, hopefully, keep producing surprises.

Bag making has been the craft of the past few weeks. At the suggestion of a customer, I made a couple with zip fastening tops.

This one has already been sold! The pocket on the front is a new style for me. It has darts at the bottom for more fullness.

I'm really pleased with how this bag, above, came out. The coloured panels are patched pieces edged with bias binding. It was a bit of a fiddle to do but really finished it off well. It also has an internal zipped pocket (another new procedure for me). My mother wanted a bag for her music folder so I gave this one to her for Mothering Sunday.

Bag number 4 is almost finished - I think it's about time I made something different!

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

Old News!

Hello all!
I hope you had a lovely Christmas and New Year. I didn't intend to be away for so long but...well....you know how it is; things happen; time passes, and all of a sudden it's 2015.

I loaded these photos a couple of weeks before Christmas, and then couldn't seem to find time to add any words.

This is my son's house in what was our garden. Things have progressed since this pic and the house now has a roof and windows, and is partially blocked up on the outside.

The first patchwork cushion I made for myself had come to the end of it's life so I made myself a new one over the holidays. A tried and tested, simple design of squares which I am always drawn to.

It's been a bit more difficult to craft because of all my materials being scattered in and around the house but I had a few requests that I managed to get finished, including this lavender heart.

There's good news on my Shed front, though, because OH has re-erected it and it's almost ready for me to start refilling.

Bye for now
Teresa x

2 recent events & an obligatory craft pic!

First Event - A few weeks ago, OH and I went to lunch at the 'big house'. It belongs to The National Trust and is where OH's boss, and owner of the estate, lives. It was a lunch to thank employees, past and present, for their support and help over the years, attended by around 40 colleagues, friends and family.

They rang a gong when lunch was ready, and afterwards someone played a grand piano in the drawing room before we headed outside for a walk in the gardens. This is near the walled kitchen garden where OH is hoping to have his veg plot now that our garden is no more.

My crafty picture is of a patchwork cushion I started making as a raffle prize (but didn't finish in time and gave something else instead).  It is now one of the items for sale in the room above the little flower shop. It's made from a combination of: a monsoon dress and homemade cotton tunic from a charity shop, a blue sheet and a couple of other fabric samples - all left over from a quilt project that is not yet finished.

Second Event. As part of our church's 'Raise the Roof' campaign to raise enough money for a new roof and other bits and pieces, we held a Wedding Dress Exhibition over a weekend in October. As well as the dresses, there was a buttonhole making class and refreshments. It was a great success and raised over £650 towards the fund. The aim was to reach £10,000 in 2014 and, with one event left, we have reached it! We now have to do the same for 2015.

We had dresses from the 1930s right through to this year. This is my dress from the 80s.

This is my daughter's dress from this year. It was a lovely event with lots more people offering their dresses if we do a similar event in the future. You can see more photos of the exhibition here on flickr, along with other old photos of local weddings.

Bye for now
Teresa x

November Update!

This is not the sort of beautiful garden photo you normally see on blog posts, admittedly. But this is my 'before' picture: before the builders moved in (and after it was cleared of plants, rocks and my shed). This was a couple of weeks ago, and it already looks very different again. Basically, it is now a giant mud hole.
 

Despite all the chaos that is going on outside, I have been getting on with some crafting. After the successful sale of my previous larger, quilted, zippy bag I have made a few more. I had fun making these - all very different - which is what I like to do. I couldn't bare to make dozens of things all the same.

I thought I ought to get into the swing of things and make a few Christmas themed things. The purse is upcycled from a tea cosy I made before but never used. The 2 bundles are sets of 4 coasters.

Oh, and what's this?  I do believe those bags are mine - in a real bricks-and-mortar shop!!!! It's actually a small flower shop that has opened the upper floor as a Vintage and Craft Emporium, and the owner thought my crafts fitted with the style she was aiming for. A lovely Facebook friend alerted me to the request for local craftspeople, and the rest is history.

I hope all of you, my fellow bloggers, are well. I've been keeping up with blog reading but have missed a couple of you lately that I like to follow. I can't complain, though, because I am finding it more difficult, these days, to make time to blog myself.

Bye for now
Teresa x

Change is in the Air!

Hello everyone - I've been away from here for much longer than I expected to, but time seems to be speeding by so fast and there's been lots happening.

I don't think I've mentioned yet that I started a little part-time job about 6 weeks ago. Every week-day morning I help a local, partially-disabled, young mother to pack the parcels for her jewellery-making supplies business. It's quite unpredictable because it could take anything from an hour to 3 hours, so I'm never able to plan exactly what I want to do for the rest of the day, but it gets me out and about every day and motivates me.

Me at Laugharne Castle

OH and I had a last-minute mid-week break at Laugharne a few weeks ago (the last resting place of Dylan Thomas). It was a lovely few days of relaxation among a whirlwind of activity, to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary and OH's 60th birthday.

I've held craft stalls at a couple of local events at which I did quite well, and since then I've been asked to run stalls at 4 further events and give a talk at a local group (all before Christmas!). In other crafty news - I entered one of my quilts into the patchwork class at a local show and won first prize.

I also won second prizes for my lemon drizzle cake (above) and boiled fruit cake (below) in the novice classes, for people who hadn't entered cakes before.

I'm struggling to find time to make more things to stock my stalls, and the fact that I've had to empty all my materials out of my shed, ready for it to be moved out for the house-building, is not helping. It's already being dismantled and the garden is almost bare now, after 2 weekends of clearing out by son and friends, including: OH, son-in-law, son's girlfriend, son's girlfriend's father/mother/brother and son's friend. It's looking pretty bare, and it's going to get worse before it gets better.

I made a larger zipped bag for my last stall, which turned out well. It sold quite quickly and I plan to make more soon.

This little purse above was requested by a friend as a present for her niece, so this has also gone to a good home.

The big surprise, and another thing that has taken up quite a bit of time, was when daughter and SIL had the opportunity to move from a town 20 minutes away from us to this little country cottage 5 minutes away. It is on the country estate that my OH works for and needed lots of TLC. It looks very different now; especially inside. They moved in a couple of weeks ago.

Bye for now
Teresa x

A Question, a Request and some Crafting!

Do you trust your Google STATS? I get suspicious when my stats suddenly shoot up for no apparent reason. My last post had hundreds more views than normal, mostly from the USA. It's happened once before, a couple of years ago, but that time the views were all from Russia!

I''ve recently published a Facebook page for my Thread Shed crafts and currently have 20 'likes'. If you could take a little look and 'like' it too (if you genuinely LIKE it, that is) I would be very grateful.

I know the dragon should be red but I needed a red square to finish it off. The green is a much nicer, deep shade than in the photo

A friend recently gave me a pile of red and green knitted squares that her husband knitted before he died, a couple of years ago. Not being a knitter herself, she didn't know what to do with them, but as he had originally knitted them for a charity project she wanted a charity to benefit in some way and thought of my stitching group's charitable work. I knitted up the remainder of the yarn so that I had enough to make a blanket, making a feature of one square by knitting a Welsh dragon, and crocheted them together. When I took it back to her she kept it, gave me the charity money herself, and was looking forward to showing it to her children.

This little purple bag (yes, it is a lovely purple, I must learn to use my camera properly) started as a phone cover but was working out much too big. It's made from some of the wool that was donated to our group, so will go on the stall at our next event.

I've been thinking ahead (well ahead, for me) and making some Christmas products. I made a few of these stocking, Christmas tree decorations last year and they sold well. So, after modifying the design to make them easier to construct, I  ran up a few more with the limited festive fabrics I have. They're not as big as them seem next to that cotton reel!

When I un-ran a charity shop jumper and started making granny squares I didn't have a definite end result in mind (as usual). Luckily, though, 4 of the squares fitted exactly around these bolster cushion pads (I have two pads). I looked up how to make granny circles to finish off the ends and here's the result.

We've had a busy weekend looking after daughter's and SIL's 2 dogs, while they are at their cousin's wedding in Germany. We also went to a wedding ourselves on Saturday, of two good friends. Is it just me, or are there a lot more weddings than usual taking place this year? Another friend at the wedding told me she had been invited to SIX weddings (and three christenings) this summer.

Bye for now
Teresa x

New Beginnings!

This photo is taken from near the edge of our garden, which is on the opposite side of the road from our house. That's our house behind the bushes - the cream one with the roof lights. The house is about a foot lower than the road level, down a couple of steps; the garden is long and narrow and is a few feet above road level.

This view is from the top of the veg plot, with a couple of metres more of lawn and trees behind me. We've had a good supply of strawberries, lettuce and rhubarb so far this year and the rest is well on the way. Sadly, it now looks very likely that this is the last year we will be able to 'grow our own' here.

My shed will also have to move elsewhere - probably at the back of the house. However, the reason for all this upheaval (as per my big hints of a few posts ago) is a good one. Our son has, as of yesterday, obtained planning permission to build a house here! In an ideal world we would not have to make use of our garden this way, but with house prices in our area being so high, it is the only way he can afford to have his own place and stay in the village.

In crafty news, I seem to be starting too many longer term projects when I should be making quick, smaller items to build up some stock. Here's my latest bag creation, made from chopped up jeans and furnishing fabric scraps. I've also finished off a project for a friend and made a few more phone covers (photos next time).

I dug out some Christmas fabric to get ahead of myself for future stalls and have started on some lavender bag sets. I can hardly believe it, but I bought a Christmas present the other day (in July!). It's never been heard of before, but I saw the perfect thing and thought I might as well get it.

Bye for now
Teresa x

Money Raising Goes Awry!

 I've mentioned before that I had a little idea to raise some money. It involved getting rid of some clutter at the same time, and I set out with high hopes; but things didn't go according to plan. I gathered together a random selection of items that were languishing in drawers, or just lying around the house, and took them off to a local auction house.

Outside effects being auctioned in the sunshine

A couple of weeks later the items had been sorted and labelled and were ready for auction (amongst hundreds of other varied and strange items). OH came with me and I was quite looking forward to the day. We didn't have to be there to see our items auctioned but, not having attended an auction before, I was interested to see how it all worked. When we got there, we picked up a buyers' number - just in case.....

Most of the items we took went for only a few pounds, and 2 items (a clarinet and a watch) didn't reach the reserve I put on, so we brought them home again. This pair of Staffordshire spaniels, which came from my MIL's when she passed away about 6 years ago, made £22.  Not bad since one of them was 'crackled' all over. At least now my daughter doesn't have to explain any more, to friends she brings round, how we acquired them and that they are not our chosen style of decor!

 I took a chance entering this pen as a separate lot, but it had the name 'Esterbrook' on the nib so I listed it as such and crossed my fingers. I'd had it since I was in secondary school and remember using it and filling it from an ink bottle. I was surprised when someone on the internet got it for £16. Altogether, I made £59 (before fees and costs) which I was quite happy with. But..........I somehow managed to spend over £100.

You really can't blame me, though, when this little beauty was up for grabs. A couple of people were bidding for it in earnest but came to a stop at £65, so I pounced and got it for £70 plus costs etc!!!!!

 I also nabbed a useful box of fabric for £17.50, which was also quite popular in the room. When I got it home and had a proper rummage, I found this vintage, 2.5m, unused piece of Liberty in the bottom, which is probably worth more than what I paid for the whole box.

Crafting has also continued at The Thread Shed with a phone case, child's bag and a cushion sold to friends. The bag above is a new design I tried out, and it worked quite well. Instead of my usual 2 handled shopper type, I tried a single handled shoulder design.

I've also finished this randomly pieced, rustic-looking quilt. The centre panel is made up of squares, HSTs, half-square-rectangles and 4-square patches. I started by cutting the bigger squares, then kept cutting smaller and smaller shapes as it got less and less. It was still too small to be useful so I dug out some larger pieces and made 2 large random borders.

I machine-quilted the whole thing with 2" criss-cross lines. Then, because I didn't want to bind the edges, I added a piece of tea-dyed sheet to the back (by sewing front-to-front and turning) and did some hand quilting to hold it all together. I love the finished result!

Bye for now.

Teresa x

Festival and Fun Day!

Trying to get giant bubbles through hula hoops

My stall

The Saturday Singers 

Abertillery Orpheus Choir

I was pleased for the organisers of this year's Raglan Festival that the weather was so good. It was important for the relaunch of the Raglan Fun Day to be a success and give them something to build on for the future. Attendance numbers were high and great fun was had for the whole afternoon, starting with the Big Lunch at 1pm, and with bands on the outdoor stage keeping everyone entertained.

On the Sunday, after a community service on the same school playing field and a quick lunch at home, I went to the Beaufort Hotel terrace and spent the afternoon with crowds of others listening to various local entertainers and chatting to friends.

I was chuffed to notice that, as well as having one of my homemade bags with me, one of the Saturdays Singers had her music in one, and the daughter of a friend had hers over her shoulder too. We were joined by my friend's brother whose daughter also had one of my bags. It appears that my bags have a 'look' because my friend said she could recognise them now. Another lady said she'd have to get one because 'everybody's got one'! It was a good afternoon all round!!

Sunday evening's performance in the church of Abertillery Orpheus Male Choir was very popular. It was good to see a few younger members in the choir; probably as a result of the popularity of groups like Only Men Aloud, and choir singing in general being more fashionable. Roll on next year!

Bye for now
Teresa x