Felt, cotton and fur.

As many bloggers say at this time of year..in fact at any time of year..life just passes by so quickly and its amazing when I check how long its been since I blogged (or, to my shame, since I read blogs)

I haven't been entirely idle though. I've made a few bits and bobs for an order, some hearts and leaves and Harris Tweets. I don't have any pictures of the tweets but I will be making more soon. They are lying here in a pile waiting for their stuffing and eyes and beaks and legs.

I like the hearts and they've all gone now, but I have to make 10 more for another order

On thursday I went to the Knitting and stitching show in Harrogate with some friends. We all fell for this wonderful book in the Quilt section but can't remember the name of the artist.

Any ideas?

 My pictures are blighted by the shadow of my bulky frame.

 There were many more birds in evidence in the Graduate showcase, Alice Wolfe made these with her father who is a scupltor. They had knitted  'feathers'. They were quite stunning in  a unique way.

 Birds are very 'current' with wings and skulls and beaks in many of the exhibits. A few years ago there were poppy seed heads everywhere. What will it be next? Who can imagine and why does it happen that there is a trending motif?

A particular favourite exhibit was the Korean, Jiyoung Chung with beautiful pieces made of Joomchi a particular type of papermaking technique. Her website is here and is definitely worth a look.

I also enjoyed the Diana Springall exhibit . Her book and tv series in the 80s presented by Jan Beaney was my great inspiration to go ahead and do City and Guilds.There were her original paintings which she worked into designs for embroidery and the finished pieces.

Then there was the Beryl Dean exhibition. It was fascinating to see the great scope of her work from way back in the 30s when her work must have been so 'modern', to her beautiful 'or nue' pieces with precise and controlled stitches. My favourite piece though, was a gorgeous child's dress from the 30s, her student work.
It had beautiful short sleeves made from concentric rows of fabric triangles in shades that looked like a page of the Farrow and Ball paint colour chart, subtle greys and pale duck egg.
No photos allowed!

I ventured downstairs to the knitting and other workshop area. I love this picture with the giant knitting needles and three knitters engrossed in something or other.

 Here is another knitter..sorry I don't have a name. She was telling me about some workshops in London.

I took the knitting pics really for my son's girlfriend who has just learnt to knit and then immediately made some fair Isle socks!!! I mean...how incredible is it to be able to knit Fair Isle? And then to put it into socks? Wow.
She's opened an etsy shop with, knitted accessories and  fimo jewellery. Do pop over and have a look and boost her visitors. Its hard to get your head above the water on ETSY . It took me  4 months of hard work publicising my etsy shop to get my first sale way back in 2007 and then another month and a half for sale number two and slowly steadily its built up until my work is in dozens of treasuries, and I make a reasonable number of sales per month...but my biggest seller?
The teabag paper!!!
Now my son's girlfriend also has a blog and the first post has a neat  home made light box to help with photographs in this miserable climate, no expensive materials needed. So perhaps readers could pop over there to have a look.
Well, I said I hadn't done much but mainly I've been busy with this.

And when I remember how I was this time last year, all those smiles she brings can only be a good thing.

Sweeties

First there were sugared almonds...

then there were chocolate limes....

and recently..and I had to make special felt ..

for these : caramels!

Or perhaps they are chocolate eclairs? The sweetie chewy kind, not the cakes.

Someone has asked me to make some caramel brooches and its not something I would have considered, but now I'm very glad I did. I love the velvet on the butterscotch felt.

Another person has asked me to make a piece along the lines of 'where the cricket sings', but with some purples in it.

So far I have some pieces of felt ready for stitching.

They look so much better in reality than in these photographs.

But  I love them as they are. Felt so surprising and delightful.

Prefelts and other wools added to a prefelt background. 

This afternoon I have listed LOADS of things in my etsy shop.

I suddenly looked and realised it was very low in stock.

My bargain pieces are the Harris Tweed brooches which are lovely (sorry!) 

                                                    They are like sweeties in themselves.

But the photographs aren't so great.

See?
 Its not ALL about dogs!

(Thank you to everyone who commented and welcomed little Hectic Hetty. Those who didn't receive a reply are 'no-reply' bloggers.)

More Hetty

Do you think I'm here to show pictures of my sewing?

 Or to tell you about new techniques I've developed?

 Or to share some feltmaking?

 Well I'm sorry...you will be disappointed. 

 The only thing I've been doing these last few days is smiling.

 Oh..and running round with a small mop.

 Because the advantage of a small dog is small puddles.

And you can't really be cross can you?

Heeeeeeeeere's Hetty!

Gleeful bouncy cute adorable ...yes.. four legged therapy.
(Excuse scruffy bit of mat in the hall please and my old shoes)

Love is in the air

Love and some very hastily taken and badly edited photographs but its busy busy busy here at Dogdaisyhill.

Last week I made a 'card' for a lady to give to her friends for their 50 years of marriage.

 I layered sheer fabric and machined leaves and then cut them out and made them into a heart.

I've scribbled their names out (Badly) because just in case anyone reads this blog who knows them..and everyone in the village knows them...it wouldn't be a surprise. 

A lovely couple, kind and generous . I hope they have a great day.

Next a bit of a loss.

Our garden is not the best or the easiest but was dominated by a larch tree. In the summer we would sit under it(Although that hasn't happened for a while) and its gorgeous drooping boughs hung over us like a waterfall.

Birds nested in it and midges made merry in the evening preventing us having chinese lantern lit soirees I used to dream about.

When the wind blew as it does so readily here at 800ft above sea level, branches full of cones hurtled across the garden. In the Autumn the path was a mat of needles. They drove me mad.

It was in the garden when we arrived and had only reached a fraction of its potential height and width. 26 years later that was unfeasible in our narrow space and sadly we had to do the deed.

 Which now means our garden is TOTALLY boring and so is the view. but we do have a goodly stack of wood for the fire which we will need, as we now have no money left for the gas bill. You would not believe what two men up a tree for two hours charge!

Maybe it will improve growing conditions for next year?

I have also been busy making ..as usual. This seedhead was a commission.(I am not Anna Wales..it was just a convenient white background for the pic)

 Then yesterday was a craft fair in Preston. Moderately successful but sometime you wonder if its worth the effort. I met nice people and there was a percentage commission for a soldiers charity. 

I made almost enough money to pay for half the cost of the cat to have his teeth out next week. 

Sigh.

 Then I came home and catalogued a large part of my stock and listed and numbered and posted off for this event.

If you are in that vicinity you might like to pop in. There are some very good makers and lovely quality of work.

These are the ones I didn't send!

Harris Tweed brooches. 

 Of course felt brooches. I kept the hearts back, 

 but there are plenty of paisley, and  fronds, and leaves.

Today I should cleaning because...and I don't know if I mentioned this....

someone is coming.

Tomorrow.