Friday 16 September 2011

Felt Up

Isn't felt wonderful? It's reminiscient of primary school when the only worry you had was getting your pencils back from the person who borrowed them. 

I've moved on from the pincushions and have been making things with felt.  It's such an easy medium to use. It doesn't fray, it comes in lovely colours and most things can be stitched in next to no time. I've made a variety of brooches and am starting on some keyrings.  I'll post pics when I get the chance. 

I spent last night in a comfortable chair, cutting out felt shapes and then picking and choosing which colours worked toegther and I now have a stack of paired-up shapes that are ready for stitching up. Perfect for something to do while the football is on TV!

I'm getting quite excited about the craft fair, although I noticed that their latest info sheet mentions that they don't want any more card or jewellery stalls, as they already have loads and need more variety.  Since my original product of choice was cros stitch cards, I'm rather glad I'm branching out, although I might have to not tell them I intend to bring brooches along with me!

I'm still unsure on pricing.  I wrote before about the 'penny per stitch' approach for cross stitch, but I also read this week of the '2.5 rule' where you total up the cost to make the item then multiply by 2.5 to arrive at a selling price.  I haven't done this on my projects, because with the exception of the felt bundle I bought last week, the materials have been knocking round the house for a number of years.  So I'm still getting to grips with that.

Hopefully the nerve thing won't come back. I've been enjoying my crafting lately and dread to think of not being able to create. All of what I like to do involves needlework, so when my right hand fingers flare up I'm pretty much stuck. As my Mum would say, "make hay while the sun shines" or to put it another way "make brooches while the hands are good"!

Wednesday 7 September 2011

Sidetracked

I was meant to be cross stitching but have allowed myself to become sidetracked by another crafty make. 

It came about because I was thinking ahead to the craft fair and imagining how I would set up my table and display things.  i read a few blogs on the subject and a lot of people suggest using different heights in your display, so that people can see some stuff from the other side of the hall, rather than keep everything flat on the table.  At the same time I was looking for inspiration and found it in the tomato pincushion in my workbox.  I thought that if I made some pincushins then I could use the cupcake stands to display them.  Only not tomatoes ... pincushion cakes!

Anyway, they turn out to be quick and easy 'makes' and I was able to do six of them in about two hours. Not bad at all.  My dog took a bit of an interest in them and tried to take a bite out of one, which I'm taking as a compliment (although I might not be able to sell that one)!

I is rainy tonight and there is nothing on TV of note, so it's an evening with my embroidery hoop methinks. Happy days!