Bagged

Harris Twed bags made their appearance again last weekend to bulk out my stand at the craft fair and give a bit of rest to the eye between having to cast it over hundreds of teeny things.

I mentioned this on facebook but instead of talking about my stand I called it a 'stall'. this gave rise to a comment for a 'Ned Scrumpo' to the effect that there's nothing like a load of bags on a stall'. 

Hmm. I couldn't decide whether this was a rude comment or not but if you google 'him' and read his blog you'll see he is a fan of lavatorial humour...so I'm afraid I was very mean and deleted his comment. I mean...if you are leaving slightly dubious comments on embroiderers pages and describe yourself as a 'miserable old git' whats that all about?

However his blog is quite funny and perhaps I do take myself too seriously.

Anyway back to the bags.

This one has winged its way to a new home already. Gorgeous Blue and olive Harris tweed and lime and royal velvet are the ingredients.

The two below are available in my shop see link to the right.

 This one is a lovely mixed Tweed windowpane check and I had fun adding rust Tweed to match and a turquoise lining.

 Finally a bright eye catching pink/maroon/lilac/orange tweed. I bought this tweed in Harris itself. When I saw it I almost squealed with excitement its so lovely. I had just the exact pink velvet to add to it.

 Now do you remember this wool I received from Elizabthe Armstrong? I made green and some pink and orange felt from it.

 Then I had a little play and made a corsage from it which I kept off the blog as I sent it to Elizabeth.
She received it so I can show it now. I was quite pleased with it and so was she. I put a huge pin on the back rather like a large safety pin with a pad at the top. I might make these to order. A lot of work.

Well back to real life.

We are off to the West of Ireland in a few weeks. We asked if we could take Hetty. 

The Cottage owners said yes. 

The ferry company said yes.

My friend who is coming with me for a few days said 'Yes, do '

So when I had to take my Mum to the hospital for a physio session (she's dislocated her shoulder) I thought I'd take Hetty  with me to get her used to being in the car.

She was sick on the way there.

And sick on the way home.

I think the ferry might be a step too far.

Sigh.

The Day After the Fair

 Yawn yawn I hear you say. Another stall picture. 

Well it was a lovely craft fair if a little chilly , and I met a lot of lovely friends,and blog readers (Hello Chris, Hello Barbara! )  and was  very lucky to be among such delightful people. 

 Selling wasn't what you might call brisk but it was steady  and I seemed to sell a lot of 'one offs' and just one or two of each item.

 The Park ay Astley Hall looked wonderful in the mist, and the sun actually shone later in the day.

 There is a super cafe and I availed myself of its facilities! (On more than one occasion!) 

 Now I've stuffed my etsy shop full to the brim with all the things I made last week and more besides.These Harris Tweed hearts are appropriate for the time of year. 

 They will be there tomorrow..I'm off out in a minute so haven't time to finish listing.

 I really like them with the beads around the edge, but I love tweed anyway and with Velvet added...well...what can you say?

The sale is over for the General public, but if you are a blog reader you may continue with the 20% discount code TWENTYTWELVE

Click HERE to go to my shop.

Hearty Cheers

Valentines Day and the Chorley Contemporary Crafters big Crafty Takeover at Astley Hall approacheth.

And I'm ready!

Reddy I should say...reddy reddy red red.

Not only that but I have resurrected the leaves I made a very few of two or maybe even three years ago.

They are a bit fiddly to make but I do like them.

This is my favourite.I used lots of snips of velvet in colours I'd almost run out of.

The same with greens and yellows.

More hearts in other subtler colours.

There's got to be purple hasn't there?

Caramel anyone?

Paisley?

On my stall there'll be Tweets and Tweed bags and silk cuffs and tweed brooches..and then there are all the other lovely stalls and lovely people....come and see for yourselves.

Its good to sit at the sewing machine when the weather is bitter outside, and then go out and find little works of nature's art in the garden.

This why we have to go in the garden...often! (And not always in time)

We had such fun at puppy training last night. A room full of baby doggies? Its the best thing ever.

Hetty was very good and had especial fun when Ferdinand,  a little Laso apso decide to practice his humping skills on her! 

    We were wondering what we might call the offspring, 

you know, like cockerpoo, and Labradoodle.

   'Schnapso' was the best we could do. 

Fortunately we won't have to worry about that due to their age. 

Ferdinand didn't really know what he was doing!

Loving and Living

February is nearly here and for the first time ever I am actually going to have some luvverly hearts ready for the big day. 

(I say 'the big day' but in our household it goes largely..in fact completely ..unnoticed. 

Ah its a good job love is more than hearts and flowers isn't it?)

But for those who like a bit of romance, there are some heart brooches here.

 As with all my restarts, it takes a time to get going again. (I've made something else this year but thats under wraps as its a gift. I'll show it later.) Here's a first purple one..with whirly bits.

 Talking of love....I love where I live. The North West of England.  My actual village is pretty wonderful for walks, but we are also in such a good spot for getting to other places! Less than an hours drive took us the village of Staveley near Kendal, where we had a walk along the river with Hetty and then a drink and a sticky bun in the dog friendly Wilf's cafe. Then a drive home via Arnside, which, by the time we arrived, was a picture glowing in the late afternoon sun.

 With the sea on our right we drove along the coast road looking for flocks of starlings (which we missed by 5 minutes) and watching the sun set over the bay.
Really lovely, and home in time for tea.

I was having a root through some old things that came from my in-laws- house. In a box I found this little wooden turned tube.

 On unscrewing the top I discovered these. The one on the right is easy to identify,

 a vey fine crochet hook which sits inside its own handle.

 But the other thing took a bit of experimentation to work out what it is. There is a large tube, with a shorter tube and it contains three small crochet hooks, with a sort of pin head on each one.

 After fiddling about with each one, I've discovered that you put the pinheaded hooks through the short tube (the pinhead bit stops them falling out)

 then you put the short tube into the large tube and give it a little turn to lock it into place. 

I can only wonder who used these precious items before I found them . We absorbed all the bits and pieces that came from my mother in laws, and her parents' home. These include a basket made from an armadillo, several carpet beaters and a device for making an ice cream sandwich! 

I'm so sentimental. I can't bear to throw stuff away. (but I might draw the line at the armadillo. Its got hairs!)

Anyway I thought I'd share the crochet hooks. 

I'm busy collecting my own heirlooms of the future and two more arrived last week.

I was contacted by Al from 'All Tea Towels.' before Christmas asking me to review some tea towels. I said yes then forgot all about it, but have been in touch again and have received two fantastic tea towels of my choice. 

And talking of choice..it was really hard to decide. There are so many lovely ones to choose from. Just click the link on the name to go and have a look for yourself.

 Nice and big, great quality fabrics and really well printed. 

Nice enough to go in frames even!

First I chose this iconic 'Tunnocks teacakes' wrapper design. 

I love the graphic and it takes me back. I never liked the things..but I loved squashing all the tops in the packet! 

As I'm a very big fan of tea I just had to choose this one

 I love 'monkey' and thought it was a bit of fun. 

 I love his grey face 

 but I wonder if I have been influenced by someone?

 Who was really non-plussed by having to sit on my sewing room table and be photographed in monkey mode.

Look at the eyelashes!