Social Sewing and Secret Swaps (C365/305)

Last night we went round to a neighbour's house for drinks and a nice friendly chitchat, so I took a little sewing kit with me and worked on some bluetits while we nattered...
It is still raining a lot here, very miserable. Lovely cheerful post this morning though: my secret swap parcel arrived! A gorgeous tea-cosy and terribly Cath Kidston pot holder from MadebyCara:Lushness. Check out the sweet tag that was attached to the wrapping, too - a little bundle of sweet supplies and a very friendly note (though my name's not actually Lucy, hehe), those buttons match the spotty fabric so well:
Thanks so much to Cara and also to ColdCell for organising the swapping! I just hope my secret swap partner likes what I've sent! *crosses fingers*

365 / 178 - Tea Stuff, Tidying Stuff, Free Stuff

I'm in a bit of a rush today, cos we're having a "free stuff" party this evening and I've got to tidy the house and set everything up ready for our guests... A free stuff party is basically a big swap party, where everyone brings things they no longer want and leaves with exciting new things! The leftovers then get taken to our local charity shops. They're always lots of fun, and it encourages us to have a big spring clean of our junk every time we hold one - and that's got to be good, right?

So, quickly, here are my 365 pics from days 177 and 178 - finishing off all those pink badges, and making some pink and "sponge cake" ones as well:
They'll be in my shop later in the week once I've had a chance to take more photos.

I've not been up to much sewing-wise the past couple of days as I've been trying to tidy up my sewing things and also my half of the spare room which now looks like this:
Bit of a bomb site (terrible light up there, too!) but getting there... (click through to see it larger and with lots of notes if you're interested!).
Major achievements include clearing out some of my University notes:
(the pile of paper on the top is going, the rest is staying for now), deciding to get rid of this sewing box which is nice but acts as a black hole and is totally impractical:
And admitting to myself that I really have no need for nor the space to put this typewriter:
Free stuff party ahoy!

365 / 139 - destashing some supplies

I am in the mood to tidy up, to rearrange, to clear out, to throw or give away. So last night I emptied the contents of my 2 crafty drawer units (you know, those wooden ones from IKEA) and sorted through the whole mess ... sorting loose beads and ribbons and things like that into neat little bags of similar items, throwing away weird things I'd kept through apparent madness, and sorting out a few things to "destash" via the UK Etsy supplies swap group.

I have lots more crafty supplies tucked away in odd cupboards and corners of my house, and their time will come! For the moment though, I am getting rid of this lot:

365 / 64 - some sewing and some secrets revealed!

Yesterday I was feeling tired and sleepy and a little bit grumpy so I took the opportunity to curl up with my sewing and totally ignored my to do list in favour of some soothing stitchery. I made six little plush bird brooches (the seventh you can see in the picture was made the other day, a test bird!), cut out the final finishing teeny pieces of felt for my work-in-progress moth brooches, and did most of the work on two little cherry blossom pins. Here they all are, in the bright sunshine:
The cherry blossom pins are part of the secret I have been hiding from you. My secret swap partner (who has now received her gift) was the lovely greygoat who said she liked corsages and is known to love Japanese things... so I decided to make her a Sakura (cherry blossom) branch out of felt, an appliqued corsage. It ended up so large that it has two pinback fastenings stitched on the back to keep it in place, and took rather a while to sew... but I'm really very pleased with how it turned out:As I had a few of the little pink beads left over (they really are just the perfect beads for this, lovely pale pearlescent things with dark pink insides) I decided to use my new cherry blossom pattern to make pins for my shop...
They are really enjoyable little pins to make, I love adding the beads and the little embroidered details, and making them has allowed me the chance to try out some of the alternate solutions I had for the main corsage (darker thread for the central embroidery, not stitching the darker pink felt onto the backing to make it stand out more). It's lovely to have made a flower that actually resembles a real flower instead of a stylised retro "flower-type" shape like I've made previously. I'll hopefully be finishing the in-progress pins this evening, and I am going to try and finish at least one of those darn moths! They've been sitting around unfinished for far, far too long.

365 / 62 - printing, sewing, and another secret thing

Last night I made another secret thing which I cannot yet show off - it's a small something based on the secret swap item I've just put in the post, so it will have to stay hidden until the swapping is complete! I also printed off a few business cards (I've been out of them for ages, so I really need to restock) and made His & Hers lucky pants badges - destined to be a wedding gift for some friends of my sister...

365 / 60 & 61 - finished pastels, a secret treat, and lovely post

On Friday (day 60) I finished the pastel mobile I've been working on. Here are lots of lovely pastel photos:
It's very interesting (to me at any rate) to see the familiar mobile shapes in unfamiliar, softer colours. Sewing the finished discs onto the ribbons was a different process to normal, too, as they were single-sided (it's to be a wall-hanging) so the back looks like this:

Yesterday (Saturday, day 61) saw the arrival of some Etsy post (photos coming soon) and my secret swap package from the lovely Ally of AughrasLair... THE most gorgeous tote bag (great colours, great fabrics, I love owls, I use a tote bag most days) and a cute matching plushie:
I am just in love with that bag and cannot wait to show it off to everyone. Its arrival also prompted me to finally make the swap item I will be sending out... and because it is a SECRET there will be no photo until it has arrived at its destination.

I should have made it last week or even the week before that but I've rather been letting things drop while I've been unwell and working out the pattern etc for this item actually took a bit of brainpower (shapes to be drawn! colours to be chosen! decisions to be made! etc). It's 95% finished though and just in time for the end of the postal strike, hurrah! Just the last few finishing touches to add and some nice wrapping to attend to and we'll be sorted. Naturally as with all these things I have a few improvements I would like to go back in time and suggest to myself (darker thread there, perhaps? this colour instead of that, maybe?) but overall I am pleased with how it's turned out and I'm also very pleased that it looks how I imagined it in my head (sometimes this really does not happen). Fingers crossed that my swapee likes it too!

Birthday Post

Birthday shopping is great, especially on the internet cos then you get post as well! Lots of fun. It's still not yet my birthday but my post yesterday was particularly awesome cos I got all of these wonderful things!
A gorgeous shopping tote from LAMdesigns (perfect for my tea and crockery obsessions!), "Fluke the Mutant Cardinal" postcards from BirdNerd and an awesome special birthday suprise from Jane aka Memake:
How lovely is that? Don't know yet what I will sew it to, but I am sooo pleased with it, it is so nice and it was made just for me! I feel so special :D

In the meantime I got crazy gifts from the boyfriend (who will be in Wales on my actual birthday), and presents from my family when they visited yesterday - my dad bought me a fancy printer! We've been stuck with a doddering old black&white effort so I am delighted to get my hands on an all-singing all-dancing PSC machine.

Typically, I was just as pleased with the paper things came wrapped in as the gifts themselves (I am such a paper addict) - the three on the left are from IKEA, apparently, and the fourth is from wherever my friend Pip buys his wrapping paper :) The pattern on the blue is silver (the picture doesn't show it too clearly), just gorgeous.
Other than opening presents and generally being quite thoroughly spoilt, I have not been doing very much. I did manage to finish my first set of little felt ornaments...
... and I made a start on my first ever beaded brooch:
I don't know yet how the brooch will look when it is finished, but I'm very pleased with how the beading turned out. I have a few more of the beads left so will try and do something with those (and that lovely minty green felt that matches them so well) in the next day or so. I need to get my secret swap item sorted, too... Ah, the housework it is going to be so neglected! :D

Swapping Swapping Swapping

So over at the swap group we have been swapping quite a lot of supplies.

So far we have swapped: 1 mystery beaded thing, some vintage bits, 1 pile of felt, 1 pendant, 1 set of brushes, 21 sets of beads (crystal, plastic, wood, glass, all sorts of things!), 1 devil duck, 1 piece of driftwood, 2 packs of sculpey, 2 reels of wire, 3 tubes of glitter glue, 30 chandelier crystals, three balls of wool, 1 length of bead elastic, 1 necklace, some fibres, 4 card blanks, 3 packs of card and paper bits, 2 packs of children's playing cards, 4 sets of buttons, 3 zips, 24 pieces of fabric, 3 bundles of stickers, 1 heart toggle, 1 pack of seashells, 1 set of wavy straws, some velcro, some eyelets, a pack of click fasteners, some cord, 2 agate slices, some fake flowers, 3 wooden cotton reels, 2 bundles of chains, some pegs, a bundle of mohair plaits, some sea glass, a crochet magazine, an old brooch, some luggage tags, a pack of magnetic paper, some keyring bits, 1 design CD, an assortment of embroidery threads, a badge, two pieces of ribbon, three packs of sequins, some silk tops, a pack of snap fasteners, 3 bundles of assorted jewellery findings, two pieces of pompom trim, some bias binding, 1 piece of beaded fringe, gold leaf, a book about bead weaving, several papier mache boxes, 2 glass rings, 1 embroidery transfer, some rolags, a pack of funky foam, a belt buckle, some handmade ceramic cabs, some metal powders, two sets of rubber stamps, 1 set of paints, a guillotine, 1 pair of shoes, a pack of oil pastels, some raffia, some silk paint, some feathers... and a piece of driftwood!

Just a few things, then! :)

Post, Glorious Post

I have been getting an awful lot of nice post lately. This is mostly due to 1) the fun and frolicks that is the supplies swap group and 2) my continued birthday shopping on Etsy.

Over the past couple of weeks I got all of these delicious goodies through my letter box:
... a floral fat quarter & vintage embroidery transfer from rosehip71 (and two of her lovely collage postcards), mini zips from snowberrylime, and lovely bundle of luggage tags from thedevilswallpaper. Oh, the things I will be able to make using these! I can't wait.

Today this huge bundle of parcels arrived at my door:
... how exciting is that?? Inside parcel no.1 was 15 more swapped chandelier crystals from greygoat, so I will be able to make just loads of mobiles (hurrah!). The crystals came parcelled in an old brown paper shopping bag (with handles still in tact) which she apologised for but I love quirky recycled packaging ideas and may well steal that one. This tumbled out, too...
Such a sweet touch! Parcel no.2 was also from the lovely Kate, aka greygoat: oil pastels (probably going to be used by my very talented sister, soon to be selling her art via my Etsy shop) and a guillotine (which was totally on my wishlist, so I am rather pleased to be able to pay for one with swap points alone!).
Parcel no.3? Swapped stickers from thedominoeffect - and yesterday some stickers arrived from craftyannieUK, too. I've not managed to take pics of these yet (my camera battery died before I got a chance) but I will do soon. They are all very fun outline stickers that I'll be using to make more little thankyou cards and to jazz up my recycled packaging. I love to send colourful parcels.

Finally, parcel no.4 contained a genuine bonafide purchase. As part of my Etsy birthday notecard shopping spree, I succumbed to the irresistable charms of bunny's "Octogirl" notecards. Printed with her new gocco printer, these are just gorgeous (if she gets very busy with that gocco then I fear for my bank balance in future, I really do).
Bunny's attention to detail is wonderful. All the cards are beautifully wrapped, first in ribbon and then in cellophane secured with a little octogirl sticker:
... and she included a proper (and very lovely) thankyou card, too (pictured here with a bundle of her business cards, so I can pimp her wares in my own Etsy parcels).
Marvellous stuff.

We (the long-suffering boyf and I) are off to Hobbycraft this afternoon as rumour has it that there's a 2-for-1 deal on felt, and how could I resist something like that? So hopefully I will return later with another exciting crafty haul. Once my camera batteries have recharged, I will take pics of all the great stickers I've received & also some more work-in-progress shots of what I am currently sewing (little felt ornaments and some embellished brooches).

Lots to look forward to, ha ha.

Sewing Like Crazy

Screw the chores, all I want to do today is sew! I popped out to the cake shop round the corner to buy some ribbon, and have (rather overexcitedly) been putting the finishing touches to some of the things I started yesterday. Lots more to come, but before the light goes completely here are the two things I've finished so far...
Two dangly mobile thingummies, one long and one short, both featuring the ace crystals I got from Greygoat via the swap group (please excuse our 1960s kitchen carpet!!).
The moment I saw those crystals I wanted to do this with them, and I think they've turned out rather well!

I've been experimenting a little with the finishing-off of the mobiles, trying out different ways of doing the last bit of stitching. The small piece pictured above was stitched with slightly hidden plain stitches as in this first photo (and like the last mobile I made)...
... and the larger was stitched with more decorative & visible stitching as seen in this second photo. I don't know yet which I prefer. Hmm.
I still have lots of blue&green bits and pieces to finish, including something involving this...
Trying out lots of ideas, lots of fun! - more photos to come tomorrow, hopefully!

My Other Lover...

Oh, how neglected this blog must feel! I have been off lavishing attention on the UK Etsy Sellers blog all this week, leaving this little fellow feeling all lonely and unloved. Oh well.

I've been tweaking the UK Etsy Sellers blog quite a lot, getting the big fat list of UK Etsy Shops up there (all neatly divided into categories as blog posts I'll keep coming back to an updating) and starting to get their little shop blurbs written. A long list of shop names under a category heading isn't much of a help when shopping, so I'm gradually working through the shops listing what they sell and adding their little promo blurbs if they have any. I'm also making sure that everyone's moments of fame last that little bit longer by highlighting shops that have been featured sellers (either over on Etsy.com or on the UK blog) and also the most marvellous winners of our design challenges.

Finally got all the categories up there now (from accessories to supplies & tools) and blogged about the new exciting secret swap that Askey is organising (much as I have been blogging to avoid the washing up, cleaning the fridge etc, so she seems to be organising a swap to avoid doing her coursework!). I've signed up for the swap already, the last one was so much fun!

So, what have I been failing to blog about lately?

Lots of action over at the swap group this week. I've sent out some more stuff, and received a few more exciting parcels. When it stops being so overcast I'll take some pics and do a proper swap update - the list of swapped items is growing very rapidly and there are some awesome things on there.

I'm still neglecting my sewing etc, either too busy with other (rather dull) things or just not in the mood to settle down with a needle and thread. Far too many days have passed when the only thing I've made is dinner, and that just sucks. (Not having made stuff but also my cooking, frankly!) So I am trying to dig out other planned projects and find something I do feel in the mood for. I've started making a batch of envelopes from an old guide to wildflowers, and a big pile of notecards using this great charity-shop find:
Work-in-progress shots or maybe even finished items coming soon!

Thankyou Cards

Glued though I was to the delights of Germany's Next Top Model, I did somehow manage to tear myself away long enough to get some little thankyou-cards made. During my spring-cleaning this year I stumbled across a leftover bundle of mini cards I made one Christmas to send in letters, attach to presents etc.
These have been just perfect for scribbling little "thankyou for your order!"-type notes to include with my parcels, especially the airmail ones where weight is soooo important.

So when I saw BlueMarmalade offering these great outline stickers up for swapping on the UK swap group I immediately asked if I could have them, as I thought they would be just perfect for making some more mini cards.
And this is the result: eight little folded cards...
... and 30 little flat note cards (business-card size)...
All with such lovely golden stickers, they look so great against the white, and they're so detailed they work so well on their own:Not the best photos in the world as it's so overcast here today but otherwise: Super! Sexy! Toll! (a bit of GNTM sneaking in there, sorry).

Very Exciting Things

Yesterday was rather exciting. The boyf got a new job... AND the first completed item got posted to the swap group on Flickr.

I have already blogged about my hopes that eventually people might make stuff with their swapped-for supplies and post pictures of the results to the group for all to see. This was very much an "eventually" - thrilling as the idea might be, I wasn't going to hold my breath! But when the lovely Sakura received my beads through the post she was immediately inspired and these neglected beads...
... became this gorgeous "Camelot" choker:
How beautiful is that, huh? So, so, so wonderful to see something created because of the swap group, and especially exciting cos they were my neglected beads. I had salvaged them from a bracelet left over from our Free Stuff Party a couple of months ago, and thought they looked lush but had just no clue what I might ever use them for and was a bit resigned to them rather going to waste. But instead there exists this lush new bit of jewellery. Hurrah!

As I'm sure you can imagine, I was grinning like a crazy person when I saw the pictures. Sakura seemed pretty chuffed, too, as apparently I have restored her crafting mojo! She's blogged about it here, go check it out.

Meanwhile, the swapping continues. I've spent some of my swap points on stickers from bluemarmalade and some little zips from snowberrylime, and am itching to get making some mobiles to feature these gorgeous chandelier crystals sent from greygoat (they were wrapped in the lovely ribbon pictured, it will be perfect for tying round a bundle of my map notecards, so I am totally counting it as a bit of swapped supplies) :
Look how shiny they are! Right, off to make thankyou cards for hardworking Lib Dem leaflet deliverers now...