Dangers of Craft Lamps – I nearly had a fire!

Posted on 12 May, 2013 by patchworkfairy

Here’s the mini bunting I made from the scraps I was given last week!!

It hangs below my Angel in the front room – seems appropriate given what happened last week because – Oh my goodness – I nearly had a fire!

The morning sun fills my craft room and makes it a very nice place to work. Last Thursday however it nearly caused a tragedy! Bright sunlight was streaming into the room and onto my lovely magnifier lamp which I use for close work and threading my overlocker. Unfortunately the magnifier top was burning my calendar!

I had woken earlier than usual and strangely for me had jumped straight up. My husband was just leaving for work and as he left mentioned he thought there was a strange burning smell. I had been doing pyrography the night before and just thought it was a lingering smell from that. However, as he left I went into the craft room and noticed how strong the burning smell now was! I couldn’t believe it when I saw that my calendar had a hole in it with the edges brown and the first whisps of smoke starting! What a shock! My eyes travelled from the smouldering calendar to the large magnifier lamp and the sunlight puring onto it!! I quickly moved the lamp away from the window and covered the hole in my calendar with a metal tin, fortunately the smouldering died out!

It’s not very often these days that I am up before DH goes out and often it is an hour later when I arise. In that time the fire could have taken hold and I could have lost all my fabric at the very least, at worst the whole house could have gone up while we slept!! I can’t help but think my Guardian Angel woke me up that morning and helped me get straight out of bed! (Thanks Dadxxx)

So if you have one of these lamps make sure it is not near a window or that you cover the glass magnifer top at all times – you never know when the sun will come out. Hope none of the lovely crafters at the Handmade Monday linky party have had anything so scary happen? but if you too have any danger warnings please let us all know!!

Wonderwool Weekend in Wales Yippee!

Posted on 28 April, 2013 by patchworkfairy

What a lovely birthday weekend, DH agreed to go to Wonderwool Wales with me! We set off Friday night to Llandridnod Wells and found we had been upgraded to a suite from a double room – big comfy bed and our own little sitting area with couches, TV, DVD player and music centre!It was so relaxing after our drive – we had a jacuzzi bath as well – so we relaxed in comfort with a nice bottle of birthday wine while I planned how to enjoy the next two days!

Saturday we browsed round the book shops and the vintage shops in Hay on Wye. There was a lot of vintage lace and embroidered cloth in one place which wasn’t for me but would have been a fab find for someone! We also managed to find a coffee shop with home made cakes and another with home baked Cornish pasties! Oh I do know how to enjoy myself!!

Anyway, on Sunday after a very satisfying brekkie, we arrived at Wonderwool just after it opened. It was already bustling and there was some very unique and interesting clothing – and that was just the customers! Weird and wacky outfits- knitted, crocheted, felted, sewn or spun – it was either for sale or being worn by a customer or stallholder!

If you love wool you should really make time to visit one of these shows. There were lots of balls or hanks of ready to use wool and even more piles upon piles of wool tops for spinning. You could get plain (raw?) wool tops or some that was already dyed. Some of the colours were enchanting, I watched a demonstration of how to blend wool rovings into a swirly mix of purply pinky loveliness!

Up till now knitting and crochet have been my thing but what really inspired me today was the art of spinning with a wheel. I would very much have liked to have bought a wheel right there and then and sort out how to use it afterwards! However, I managed to be sensible and resist and instead listened to the advice of a lady in the Spinners and Weavers Guild who suggested learning how to use one first and trying some out before buying, then looking on eBay once I knew what type suited me.

She also told me some Guilds lend out Spinning Wheels to members for as little as £5 a month and that would be a great way to find out if Spinning is something I will continue to enjoy doing. My mission now is to suss out a spinning workshop or course which is within reasonable travelling distance of Wirral or somewhere with accommodation (little spinning holiday!!) If anyone else fancies learning and is near enough to split traveling costs I’d love to hear from you!

So what did I buy? Well a lambs wool cutoff to ease the dog’s arthritis by lining it’s (memory foam ) bed! It really is comfy and warm – I know cos I have my feet on it now while travelling home (I’m not driving obviously!)

A pack of dyed felt with some orange and turquoise pieces to make some additions to the sewing bag I started last week. The felt is on one of the lambs wool pieces.

Lovely felt!

These dyed silk hankies – not sure for what yet – I just love the colours.

Dyed silk

Over now to Handmade Monday – see what you have all been up to!

More fabric buying..

Posted on 7 April, 2013 by patchworkfairy

Eek been buying fabric again ! I really should be using up my stash as soon the craft room won’t be usable but will just be a giant fabric store room!

I just couldn’t resist this jelly roll

lovely jelly roll!

and when I opened it – wow! all hippy tye dye and flowers and ‘peace’ printed!

hippy flowery fabric!

So I really had to make something! First I was going to make a bag out of the strips but somewhwere along the way (you know how it is..) it turned into a cushion made out of other stash with some vibrant purple from the roll as the border!

Patchwork cushion!

Very pleased with myself and I’m keeping this one for our house!

I still haven’t heard from the person who bought the Faery Garden even though I sent two messages so I don’t know if it arrived intact but am guessing it did or I probably would have!!

Over to Handmade Monday now for my Sunday evening treat – reading all the other crafters’ adventures!!

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Reading Not Crafting!

Posted on 24 March, 2013 by patchworkfairy

Amazingly after being sick for a week I had one day of action and then went down with a cold ! It could be because my recently returned traveller son has been ill upstairs for the last few days and guess who has been waiting on him? Hmmmm!

Anyway I haven’t been able to do any creating or making for days now but have used the time ill to read a couple of marketing books. First I read Commercial Creatives by Mike Carthew and Anna Ward which I bought for my Kindle after reading about it in Wendy’s Handmade Harbour giveaway. I enjoyed the book and it has quite a lot of good advice, some of which a lot of us already know, but it sometimes takes reading it in print to bring the points home! This book is good if you want to grow your business to be more than just a hobby and, I felt, was more targeted at people who were already having a degree of success.

I have already put into place some of the advice from the book in regards to marketing and next I will be redesigning my online shops to make things more streamlined and improving my product pictures!

Another book I would recommend if you have an Etsy shop is “How to create an income from home with a successful and profitable etsy shop’, by Rebecca Garlardo. This is very good for new, and experienced Etsy sellers who aren’t getting enough sales. It has some valuable advice about not accepting sales commissions without doing all the maths first to see if it is a) possible in the time given, and b) profitable.

Both these books are fairly cheap on a Kindle which is a bonus but you may find that some of the text in tables, or links is very faint. I think these must be coloured text and my Kindle is only black and white.

So that was my creative week! What’s been going on everywhere else I wonder? Time to pop over to Handmade Monday and see what all the other crafty folk have been up to!

Sewing, Sun and a Cup of Tea!

Posted on 2 March, 2013 by patchworkfairy

Been a busy week this week making things for up and coming craft fairs throughout the year. I’ve also taken some more pictures for my portfolio book which once finished will be photographed and uploaded in this blog. Been really beautiful sunny week too and I have interspersed my sewing with tea breaks and, I had my first cup of tea of the year in the garden again 🙂 I am sure February is the earliest I have ever managed it! Although I did have my down coat and furry boots on!

snow boot in grey with red upper and black furry inside

snow boots!

These boots are wonderful – good grip in wet/snowy weather and warm to wear! As I have a dodgy knee and need a knee replacement I can’t risk slipping anywhere as then I will be disabled again for a few days and unable to do anything much, let alone sewing!

Here are some ipad and netbook covers I will be putting on folksy this weekend! I only make things in fabrics which I like to look at and feel! I am currently in a retro/shabby chic phase, having developed a liking for Cath Kidson prints and flowery fabrics in general. The exception to this is the cow fabric for my new moo range – more items to come in this!

Netbook cover in black and white patch fabric

Netbook cover in my new moo fabric!

ipad sleeve

Pink and White ipad cover in cath Kidson and Laura Ashley fabrics

ipad sleeve

patchwork mobile fone covers in mixed colours - mainky pink and red. 1 green one and 1 purple one in Kaffe Fassett fabric

‘Phone covers using some Tana Lawn and Kaffe Fassett fabrics.

Here are some of my new mobile ‘phone covers mainly in Tana Lawn fabric which I really like as it’s so soft and the colours are all visually appealing to me.

Actually the Kaffe Fasset fabric has been made into a Kindle cover!

Kindle cover

This is a Kindle cover which has a retro look – it reminds me of my teenage years in the 70s!!

And now it’s time for Dancing on Ice and a look at what other interesting things fellow crafters have been doing over at Wendy’s Handmade Harbour!

Showcasing products

Posted on 10 February, 2013 by patchworkfairy

This week I haven’t made much as after last week’s giveaway from Wendy at Handmade harbour I was inspired to try and look at my craft business from all angles and see how it could become more commercially viable. I had really enjoyed reading the snippets from the ‘Commercial Creatives’ book which was one of the prizes, and as I didn’t win, I decided I would buy it. I love ‘real’ books but they can be heavy and I have a Kindle it seemed the obvious choice to choose the e- download version. So woohoo, within a few moments I was reading the book.! If you missed the post last week here is a link to the book. So far I am lapping up every bit of advice and information. I haven’t read it all so will review it again when I have finished.

Looking critically round my craft room I was thinking that it is just too messy and haphazard to inspire my creativity. Then under a heap of (haphazard) patchwork squares I found the lovely little photo album my daughter bought me for christmas with idea being that I take pictures of all my work and stick them in the photo album as a showcase for all the things I make. Then I have something to take with me to craft fairs for people to browse through and maybe ask for a custom order! So now I am collecting all my items and printing out pictures of things I’ve already sold ready to stick in the album.

Hopefully I will have a showcase album soon which I will take a picture of for this blog!

Happy blogging and crafting everyone

Ali xx

Working from Home

Posted on 3 February, 2013 by patchworkfairy

Having had two sales on folksy recently I am really pleased! Only thing is now I need to make more items and I have a craft fair coming up on March 2nd! A major problem for me when I am in my craft room is being distracted from making things by keep taking out my lovely fabrics, giving them a stroke and imagining the lovely things I will make with each piece.

However this does not reuslt in lots of completed items, just a long dreamy state ending in a cup of tea and another ‘where did the time go’ feeling. So what does everyone else do? Have people got a rigid working from home timetable? How do you fit in housework, visiting relatives and Granny duties?

Anyway here is my choice for my next Spring time items. Not the same spring Wendy means over at Handmade harbour though!!

squares of cotton fabric with red or pink flowers

Sweet Floral Squares

Day of rest and the journey into ‘Mindfulness’

Posted on 28 January, 2013 by patchworkfairy

Not been a very productive day today 🙁

I had high hopes of today as I really need to increase my handmade items for the Fairangels’ craft fair on March 2nd but in the end it turned into a day of rest and and reading/watching not making.

It’s not easy some days when pain takes over your mind, but I have been learning about Mindfulness recently and it has been helpful in dealing with difficult situations. For example, struggling to get out of the car always makes me feel very embarrassed as I imagine what I must look like and what neighbours might be thinking. Mindfulness has taught me to ‘live in the moment’ not anticipating future problems or predicting what others might be saying, or reliving past hurts, but just being. It also teaches us to really notice our surroundings in the moment – so when pulling myself up on the car door in front of the fence I began to study the woodgrain and then the composition of the snow on the ground. These thoughts filled my your mind and so before I realised I was standing up and hobbling towards the door!

Anyway tonight I am going to practice mindfulness to really take note of the lovely things that the talented crafters over at Wendy’s Handmade Monday