Thursday, 14 June 2012

From one extreme to the other!

Usually I forget to write my blog for weeks on end and yet, here I am, three posts in two days!

Over the jubilee weekend my daughter Jessica of Time for Tea Beads and my friend the lovely Jo Gross of Floating on the Breeze, both had tables at Spitalfields Market in London, they both sold plenty of their beautiful makes and I went along with Blooming Felt's Sarah to browse!
Jess looking slightly apprehensive but gorgeous as always!

Some Time for Tea Beads

Jo's Floating on the Breeze handmade books

It was a really lovely day and we managed to squeeze in lunch, coffee and cake and a visit to Brick Lane as well!

I also taught a lovely group of ladies about sewing patchwork cushions by hand, this workshop took place in the Richmond Room at Hylands Stables Visitor Centre, where I have a studio space as one of their Resident Artists




Finally, I must mention a pretty little shop which has opened selling handmade crafts made by local people.  It is called Handmade High Street and is at 6 Sir Isaacs Walk in Colchester town centre.  I have some felt flowers and decopatch hearts for sale and there are lots of other lovely crafts to see and buy.


Exciting Stuff

Workshops seem to be taking up all my time at the moment, not only do we have an absolutely fantastic selection of workshops at The Make It Room and at Hylands House but I have been invited to teach wet feltingat the Knit & Stitch Show at Alexandra Palace.  I am running this in conjunction with the very lovely Sarah from Blooming Felt who has lots of exciting stuff going on at her Shedquarters!

I have spent today listing new sewing workshops on The Make It Room website, have a look!http://www.themakeitroom.co.uk/epages/587985.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/587985/Categories/Workshops/Sewing
Beginner's Sewing
Summer Top
Sewing Workshops
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I went on a trip to Snape Maltings with my lovely friend Pauline, such a beautiful place, really inspiring - galleries and lots of interesting little shops plus Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth sculptures, I can highly recommend a visit.
I have been making felt pods this week (as well as lampshades!), lovely Sam from the WI came to a felting workshop last week and having made bowls with her, wanted to make more!
So a big thank you to Sam, for making me start felting bowls again, I hadn't made any for a year!

We had a lovely polymer clay workshop on Saturday, taught by my daughter Jess of Time for Tea Beads (see the link at the side), the two Mums and daughters who attended had a wonderful time and were surprised by what they were able to create!
More news tomorrow!

Sunday, 10 June 2012

Busy days

In the last month, I have been all over the place!  My daughter Jess and I went to the absolutely amazing Living Crafts show at Hatfield House.  We had a wonderful time, met some really lovely ladies from the Mid-Herts Guild of Spinners who taught us how to use a drop spindle, so of course, we had to buy our own to practise at home - next stop a spinning wheel!  The show was brimming full of fantastic crafts and unusually for us, we spent a whole day there (and the sun shone) - we came away full of ideas and enthusiasm.

There have been lots of workshops taking place at The Make It Room, we spent a lovely Creative Felt Day making needlefelted mice and nuno felted scarves

 The workshop bookings are really picking up and we have many new and exciting crafts to offer.  From July we have Lampshade Making workshops available, you will be able to come along and will learn how to make your own drum lampshade in your own fabric.