Upcoming Events and New Arrivals

March already and I am glad to see it. February disappeared into weeks of illness with one family member after the other succumbing to that rotten cold that was going around and I came down with tonsillitis. It has put me way off schedule but I am doing my best to catch up.

I'm delighted to have had this new design made up into printed items.

'Morning Mist' was a felt picture I made on the one day during early February that I actually got any work done. I took the photo after I had laid all the fibres out ready for wet felting. I don't usually take photos at this stage but the wisps of silk made perfect clouds and waves lapping on the beach. A lot of the atmosphere was lost during the felting process so I am so glad that I took the photo!

I have had it printed into Mouse Mat's, Notebooks, Sketchbooks, Sets of 8 Notelets and individual cards.

You can find them all for sale here

During February my faithful old sewing machine had to go and be serviced and repaired and although she is still going strong, I decided to buy a new machine as well. I needed more power for the things I make and it came as a wonderful surprise to find that the new machine has 50 different stitch settings including this gorgeous chain of hearts!

I soon put it to good use, giving these sheep some hearts to skip along.

I have been making these Felted Sheep Cuff Bracelets for my stall at Edinburgh Yarn Festival next weekend and now have them in four different colour ways.

The bracelets will be £22 and will go on sale online after the 16th March if there are any left.

Also new today is this Thistle Cottage card.

As I've said, I will have all these things with me at Edinburgh Yarn Festival on Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th March at Edinburgh Corn Exchange. If you are not sure where this venue is or how to get to it, the Corn Exchange website is excellent with everything you need to know here

For details about the Yarn Festival click here

More good news for March is that Falkland Craft Markets are returning with five dates set for this year! I will be at four of them (see events listing on the right). The first one will be on Saturday 21st March and I will be there with all my new things and all my popular favourites. You can also pick up your free Open Studios brochure from me at both of these events and start planning your Bank Holiday weekend in May!

Falkland Craft Market

Saturday 21st March 2015

10 - 4 pm 

Falkland Village Hall

Falkland 

Fife

I have lots of other makes on the go including this felt landscape picture.

I just want to go and live here. I will definitely have to make another of these similar to keep!

This one will be on display when it is finished during Open Studios North Fife on 2nd- 4th May 2015. You can see all the details about that on the website here 

Coasters, Mouse Mats, Mugs and Notebooks

 Here we are at the start of February already and the landscape begins to look a little more colourful. It is certainly very colourful around here with the arrival of new work from the print workshop.

I'm delighted with these new coasters. They are the same four designs that I had made into coasters back in December but the colours have come out better and are more true to the original pictures. 

Set of 4 Luxury Coasters

£14.95

The coasters come Gift Box as a treat to yourself or ready to give as a present. 

Also back in stock are all these Notebooks.

Pretty Bird Notebook

£5.95

My Notebooks are spiral bound and alternate between plain and ruled pages making them perfect for sketching and keeping notes.

I ran out of the design below last year so it's back by popular demand.

Lupins and Sheep Notebook

£5.95

Moon Gazing Hare Notebook

£5.95

Hannah's House Notebook

£5.95

Dolphin Notebook

£5.95

Island and Gulls Notebook

£5.95

Highland Cow Notebook

£5.95

Vibrant Hills Notebook

£5.95

You can find them all for sale here 

I was sorting through my printed cards the other day to see which designs needed topped up and was I was stunned to realise that I actually have around 35 different designs in stock! And yet I always seem to need more! haha

'Home for Supper' below is one of my constant best sellers and is now back in stock.

Cards £2.50 each

'Washing Day' is also popular and as with all my cards, they look great framed.

I'm pleased to have all four of my mug designs back in stock as well.

Each Mug comes with it's own matching Gift Box

The mugs are £8.95 each or £32 for a set of 4.

I am planning a new addition to the mug collection. I have had this image in my head for months of mauvey hills and flowers in the foreground so I made it last week and have sent it off to the printers and hope to have the new mug very soon.

The original will go on sale as soon as I have a frame for it. This is a virtual frame. It's great fun playing around with all the colour options and wood effects. I generally opt for white stained wood with a double mount.

Below is the same frame in Ivory.

Feel free to comment on which you prefer :)

And last but not least, my printed Mouse Mats are back in stock.

There are four designs to choose from.

Cottage by The Stream, Harvey the Highland Cow, Distant Shore and Hannah's House.

Mouse Mats

£6.95

So among all this frenzy of ordering exciting new things, I have also been busy working on orders and making a few boxes.

I got all my favourite fabrics and threads out the other week to make a background using my needle felting embellisher machine.

I really enjoy this process of choosing a variety of different materials in toning colours and meshing them all into a textured piece ready for over sewing.

The piece in question was a lid for a box featuring a dolphin for a change.

This box measures 10 x 10 x 6 cm and is made with Harris Tweed as well as vintage Shetland Tweed and the needle felted lid.

Dolphin Box

£40

Another box I made recently was this raspberry red and green silk one for a commission. I teamed the felt lid up with a reddish pink Harris Tweed. I gave the lid a sparkling of gold and a bit of free machine embroidery just to add a bit of detail. 

That's me almost finished my commissions, just one to go. I'll be concentrating now on making some larger framed pieces for a Gallery and making stock for my upcoming events.

Thistle's, Sheep and Forward Planning

January is usually a month to enjoy a bit of creative play time but I have had quite a few commission's to work on over the past couple of weeks and I'm constantly thinking ahead to what I need to make for shop orders and upcoming events so I haven't really had time to just play around with materials and let the creative process take over.

When I am working on commissions there is always a waiting time for felt to dry though, so I put that time to good use and made this picture last week.

The thistle's are a new addition. I hadn't tried them before. I began with using embroidery thread for the stems and leaves but it was too stark so I unpicked it all and needle felted the stems in two tone fibre instead. It has given a much more natural look.

I added some sheep and framed it and it sold as soon as it was finished. I have a request for another similar but will get one up for general sale as soon as I can.

I enjoyed needle felting the thistles onto the picture so much that I thought I would try an individual one on a brooch. I really like the three dimensional effect. I used little French knots to secure the felt and to add texture but I will try some tiny seed beads on the next one to see how that looks. The added 'bling' might be nice.

I was nearly out of Sheep Jewellery for a few weeks there but I have been working very hard to replenish stock in my Etsy shop.

Pendants £25

These pendants and brooches are now available. I'll be working on more earrings this week.

Brooches £18

Two dates for your diaries are March 14th and 15th for Edinburgh Yarn Festival at Edinburgh Corn Exchange, 11 Newmarket Road, Edinburgh, EH14 1RJ

I will be there with all my woolly wares.

Although it sounds a long time away, Open Studios North Fife is on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th of May this year and all the participants are already working hard behind the scenes to bring you a wonderful weekend of inspiration and creativity. It is the 10th Anniversary year and some extra projects are in the pipeline.

I will be at my usual venue in Ladybank

Hello 2015!

What a difference a couple of weeks makes! January always feels so different to December doesn't it? One day we are in the depths of the deepest darkest month, a couple of weeks a few parties later and we are out the other side with the light getting brighter and the winter sunshine lasting just that wee bit longer every day.

I hope you all enjoyed yourselves and got a bit of a break over the holidays.

We did all that we wanted too with walks walked, snow sledged, shops shopped, songs sung and time spent with family and friends. It was a busy couple of weeks and I don't feel like I have made anything for over a month! 

One of the highlights of our holidays was taking another trip into highland Perthshire and walking beyond The Hermitage over to The Rumbling Bridge.

It was a glorious day with a light frost on the ground making it much less muddy for walking.

In all my years visiting The Hermitage I had never taken the path up and over the moor. It was beautiful.

 The Braan River tumbles spectacularly down an incredible drop under the Rumbling Bridge, giving the bridge it's name. It was actually really hard to capture on camera for fear of falling over the edge of the bridge or down the steep sides of the gully.

It looks lovely and calm here in between the little falls in the distance and the great drop just a bit further on.

Another highlight was going in search of some snow! We promised our daughter and her wee friend that we would take them sledging so we set off for Glenshee in the hope that the snow they'd had hadn't melted yet.

It didn't look too promising on the journey up but as we rounded the bend at Cairnwell we could see there were plenty of patches suitable for sledging.

I got very wet because I landed in a burn but we will gloss over that!

The view coming back down the glen was stunning.

As the sun rays broke through the clouds the whole scene before us changed and we were treated to a little dancing light show.

The two weeks of madness were rounded off with my Mums annual party where songs were sung, tunes were played and plenty of food and drink were enjoyed.

I'm trying my best to get back into work mode and started by making some new felt yesterday.

I bought the fibres before the holidays and was very excited to finally use them. Not sure what I am going to make yet but I have a few ideas ruminating. 

My SALE is still ongoing and can be found here

Many items are Half Price including my 2015 Calendar. 

My next event is Edinburgh Yarn Festival on Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th of March. I know it's only January but if you are into all things knitting, crochet, spinning, weaving and dying, you will want to add this event to your Calendar now.

Here is a link to the list of vendors attending. It's very exciting! I'll be working on all things felty and sheepy for my stall.

❤❤❤