Stitching, Sewing and Hobbycrafts Show

At the weekend I went to the Stitching, Sewing and Hobbycrafts Show at the NEC Birmingham.  I was given free tickets and invited to a Blogger's event. so I felt very excited and important (though clearly I'm not!).  We were given endless coffee, tea, croissants, muffins and food, and 2 craft activities to try.  I was lucky enough to end up sitting with the lovely Julie from Sum of their Stories, it was great to meet another UK general craft blogger.

The first activity was a tapestry brooch with Tina Francis.  This was the perfect stitching project as it was done in tent stitch and it's small scale meant that we could actually finish it at the event.

We were each given a kit with the pattern (erm no, I didn't follow it!), the brooch finding, a needle and some canvas.  There were piles of Anchor tapestry wool on the table for us to chose from.

Tina (who is fabulously friendly and helpful - take a class with her if you get the chance!) encouraged us not to think too much about colour choice, but to just grab something we were drawn too.  I started with a bluey-grey and added a reddy-purple.  This picture does NOT show the correct colours!

For my third colour, Tina pushed me towards an acid-green.  It was perfect.  I randomly chose orange for the final grid colour and I'm loving my choices! 

I managed to get the brooch finished, despite taking the time to drink about 6 cups of coffee, or perhaps because of the coffee!  Then I moved tables to have a quick go at the papercraft project of the day.

We were making paper houses with Cathie Shuttleworth (apologies, that's a Facebook link, her website seems to be doing something odd right now - but it's here if it comes back up).  We were given the templates and I got cutting out.

As the first group were still making theirs, I didn't hear the instructions and so just wung it.  Cathie would have, and did, help when I asked, but hey, I like to do my own thing!  This meant that I did the ribbon slot on the roof wrong and I also put the house together inside-out!

Ah well!  I didn't have too much time so the decoration is fairly minimal.  It would have been nice to have had a bit longer as there were some lovely papers and punches and papercraft bits and bobs to play with.

It's been a long time since I did papercraft and I really quite enjoyed it!

The top flap of the roof lifts off so it's a useable box, and ties with the ribbon.

To sum up the workshop - a paper house, 2 tapestry brooches (one was my friend Laura's, she'd accompanied me in her capacity as my "assistant" - i.e. pass me the coffee....) and a muffin!

AND... most excitingly, we got a goodie bag!  It's a proper canvas tote that I forgot to take a picture of, and it had all this inside!  Above is paper and card.

Beads, glitter, glue, dies, a papier mache monster (that I love!), liquid pearls and a block printing kit.  What a great goody bag!

I did a little, but not much, shopping.  My entire house is in disarray due to the renovations I'm doing and there is craft stuff everywhere which put me off buying more.  I did invest in a House of Zandra kit though.  I've wanted one forever and this was on offer for £15!  

Next we came across the Powertex stand.  I've seen this product advertised, but don't recall ever seeing it demonstrated at a show.  It was amazing!  Unfortunately, they wouldn't let us take photos (other than this mannequin), so I'd have a bit of a google as the stuff is amazing!

We were invited to add to the mannequin, I added this heart on her knee and also a W on her bum!  Forgot to get a picture of that...  I bought a starter kit as I have an idea to Powertex the side of my outdoor toilet wall....  watch this space!

Speed Craft part 1

I've written about the SpeedCraft events at Debbie Bryan's before, me and mum would go twice a year.  This year the first even was in April.  Me and mum had booked to go before we lost her.  I was all set to go on my own when the lovely Jane from Loopy's Place said she'd come with me!  I was so chuffed to have a crafting partner on what would otherwise have been a very sad day.

We started in style with Buck's Fizz.  As I'm allergic to oranges, I just got a glass of Prosecco!  It went down very well... especially as a coffee and cake were quick to follow!

The first activity was a mini mosaic brooch.  We didn't do any cutting, we had a selection of pre-cut tiles, broken china, beads and buttons to use.  We only had 45 minutes per activity so had to design pretty quickly before dying our grout.

The photo doesn't show it well, but my grout is a lovely minty green.  Here's the piece all grouted and ready to be dried before sanding.  Writing this, I realise I was suppose to sand it 48 hours later... ooops!  Hopefully I'll still be able to do it. 

Next was weaving which I first tried at the last SpeedCraft event.  This time it was circular weaving on an embroidery hoop.  We had a selection of yarns and fabrics to cut into strips to use.

I didn't get very far with mine, it still needs finishing off.  I abandoned my usual blue colour scheme for a palette of purple and grey.

Next was lunch, followed by cake, followed by paper origami.  This flower was not easy to make!!  We all struggled to get the shape right.  

The leaves are just glued on to the wire in this picture, the flower stem has been finger crocheted (a new skill for me!) and I just need to finish off finger crocheting the leave stems before sewing the leaves on more securely using a few big cross stitches.

I'll be back in another post to tell you about the rest of the day.

Classes at the Knitting and Stitching Show

Happy New Year! I hope 2017 treats you all kindly (and me!)

Back in November last year, wonderful mum and I went to the Knitting and Stitching show in Harrogate.  We spent 2 days there, staying at the hotel across the road so we didn't have to take our coats with us and could return excess shopping to the room during the day!  We also took part in 4 classes.  I have to say, I do not know the names of any of the tutors, very lax of me, I know.

One of the classes was wet felting a flower.

This is slightly different from the wet feting I've done in the past as we used short strands of wool rather than merino.  The felting technique included picking it up and splatting it against the table repeatedly!

My finished flower came out too large for a brooch, though I would like to have another go with a smaller one.  This class was brilliant, we all had such a good time.

Another excellent class was Broderie Anglais, where we used a stiletto to make the holes in the fabric.  I hadn't realised it was such a simple (though time consuming) technique and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  The tutor was great as was her assistant.  I think she was from Peru.

The classes were only an hour which is why I didn't achieve very much.

We also did goldwork with Sarah from Golden Hinde.  I remember her name as I have met her a few times, she's lovely and very helpful.  We used pearl purl to make these simple but effective goldwork brooches.

The finished piece will fit in this brooch back.  Of course, I haven't yet completed either of the pieces from the classes!  They will show up in this year's WIP list.

The fourth class was absolutely appalling.  The teacher was rude, confrontational, disorganised and useless as a teacher.  We were supposed to be making ribbon flowers.  Apparently there are 2 techniques.  The one she showed us was different to the one on the hand out and she got very angry if we tried to follow the written instructions.  I actually walked out of the class.  

I'm going to be back later in the week with my list of WIPs to be tackled this year.  Then I need to find some linkies to help keep myself accountable.  If anyone knows of any, please let me know!

Speed Craft #1 - Ceramic brooch

Last month I was telling you about the Speed Craft day that me and my mum went to at Debbie Bryan.  5 tables, 5 different crafts, 45 minutes per craft.  You can read about table 5 here, table 4 here, and table 2 here.  I've had to do them out of sync as 2 of the crafts had to dry / be fired and collected later.

Today I'll tell you about table one which was ceramic buttons with Katie Almond.  We've taken classes with Katie before, making a 2-tier cake stand, a set of plant pokes and brooches and at the last Speed Craft we may little ring bowls.  This time we were to make a set of buttons, or a large brooch.

I chose the brooch.  It's about 2" diameter and is made of porcelain.  The above photo shows the brooch pre-firing.  I used a papercut to roll the pattern into the clay, then added punched out flowers and a heart.  This time I found it a lot easier to use the glazes and I'm really pleased with my painting.

What I'm not so pleased with is my photos of the finished object.  I just couldn't get a close enough photo where it wasn't blurry or a white mass of light!  I really need to do a photography course, but you know what?  Photography just doesn't interest me.

Here are a selection of photos anyway to give you an idea.

This one includes my feet.  I hate photos with feet in them, especially when the feet are neatly together and posed, but none of the feetless-photos worked at all. And anyway, I had a pedicure 2 days ago, I can get away with it!

I couldn't resist taking a photo of Colin lying in a patch of sun.  I have been out in the garden checking on Harry and Kate every 10 minutes (they have just been bonded and came home, so I'm keeping a close eye on them in case there's any fighting) and each time Colin just got longer and lower and more relaxed!

Only one more Speed Craft post to go, but I'm going to post about something different first!

Speed Craft #4 - needle felting

My previous post was about the Speed Craft event me and wonderful mum attended at Debbie Bryan.  If you want to know what it's all about, scroll down and read that post.

Our forth session of the day was needle felting.  I have done this before but it's always good to see how other people do things, particularly when you're self-taught.

We used biscuit cutters as the base.  There was no bunny but I wouldn't have chosen it anyway.  As soon as I saw this t-rex I was sold!



No in-progress shots as I was too busy stab, stab, stabbing!  I did Mr Dinosaur in turquoise on white.  I wanted him to be holding a carrot, but there were no orange tops so I made a flower / lollipop instead.  That is actually his hand holding the flower, but now it looks to me like it's his bottom jaw and he's eating it!

I was running out of time (remember we only had 45 minutes), so I quickly sewed a brooch back on.

Due to the time constraints, I glued a second layer of white felt at the back and then cut round it.  The turquoise in the middle of the sandwich is where the felt comes through when you're stabbing it.

Yes, I am 38.  Yes, I am wearing a dinosaur brooch.  I wore it to work and everyone was very careful not to mention it!

Dichroic glass

Wonderful mum found a new craft class venue, between both of our houses in West Bridgford, Nottingham, a little town with great cafes for a coffee or afternoon tea after a day's workshop.  The classes are held in a beautiful little handmade shop - Locally Produced for You.  The tutor was Katherine from number8glass.

We went to a dichroic glass workshop.  I've worked with glass before, but not dichroic glass.  I'm not really sure what dichroic glass is, other than it's pretty, sparkly glass!

Above are the before photos.  The tutor had lots of squares and rectangles of glass.  She would then cut the dichroic pieces to the size and shape we wanted, or round the edges by nibbling at them with grozier pliers.  Once she found out I just to do glass work and have even made a stained glass window, she passed the cutting mat and cutter over and told me I had to cut my own!  I'm pleased to say I hadn't forgotten what to do.

The top one is a square of black glass with three pieces of dichroic glass on top, and three glass rods on the top right.  The bottom one is a square of white glass with a square of green dichroic and a square of flowery dichroic, then I added some green frit on the left hand side.  

I love the black line around the green glass which is just what happens with this kind of glass.  Oh, I should probably say that the picture above and the one below show the two pieces after they'd been fired in the kiln.  The green frit didn't come out too well.

I really like this one, it's very rounded and tactile.  The photos don't really do them justice, they are so hard to capture due to the sparkle.

This one is a brooch.  I used blue glass in two shades.  The lighter blue one has some silver confetti on top, and that's sandwiched in with a piece of clear glass.  

I like the way this one came out too.  It's certainly very unusual!

Finally, this one is a piece of black glass and a piece of white glass sitting on a white base.  I used a piece of dichroic (it's clear with holographic squares on it) on the top.

We had a brilliant day.  I really enjoyed playing with the glass and designing pieces of jewellery.  I really do have to get myself a kiln at some point!

Finishing off

In a previous post I mentioned a box of jewellery WIPs I have lying around.  Back in the autumn I started to tackle them, and some other WIPs lying around.  It was slow progress!

I made some silver links and a silver heart in the silversmithing class Mr CA and I took in September.  See here.  I finally got round to adding some chain and a little porcelain bunny to one of them.  They are designed to wrap round the neck, then the part of chain with the dangle goes through the coil to hold it in place.  They don't really work and I need to rethink the design.  They fall off a lot when I wear them.

Also in September, wonderful mum and I went to a mosaic class, which you can read about here.  My tray needed finishing.  I'd bought a little pot of tester paint and over Christmas I set to work painting it.  Finally it is finished and in use!

In a ceramics class in August, wonderful mum and I made brooches.  She had hers all finished and ready to wear the day after the class.  Mine were ready in December!  You can see the original post here.

The second from the left isn't ceramics, that's a beaded cabochon I made for a blog hop back in June!

It was nice to get these pieces out of the box and into use.  I still have quite a lot of projects half-finished.  I need to get better at finishing!