Spinning in a world of yarn!

       This week's Craft Britannia Etsy team shop of the week is Spinning Streak.

 If you want hand knitted goodies, or some lovely hand dyed and destash yarn for your own stash, then Spinning Streak's Etsy shop is a good place to start.

Spinning also makes some gorgeous hand knitted items, like the tea cozy below, which I love for it's mix of colours and textures.

One of Spinning Streak's gorgeous chunky textured cozies.

Some of her beautiful hand spun and hand dyed yarn.

Spinning also knits some beautiful hats. I have my eye on a couple of her slouch

beanies, perfect for my countryside foraging sessions, or even bad hair days!

To read all about Spinning Streak and her work, please visit the Craft Britannia's SOTW blog post for her interview.

I'm not sure who's going to be the next SOTW as we've had a slight re-shuffle around, due to someone being on holiday when it was their turn. It was my last week, and if by any chance you'd like to read my interview and know more about me and my small world, please click here visit the Craft Britannia blog.

I'd just like to add a huge thank you, to everyone on the Craft Britannia team on Etsy. All their hard work made my turn at shop of the week really enjoyable and I felt very spoiled getting all the attention.

Catch up Tuesday & craft fairs.

I meant to post something about this last week, but time just ran away from me again!

Last week it was my turn to be featured as the Etsy team - Craft Britannia's shop of the week, and what a fun week it was. I had so many lovely comments and items favorited in my Etsy shop that I felt quite spoiled! It's the turn of Spinning streak this week, I'll be posting a review of her shop a bit later on.

I'm going to be a busy girl in June, my next adventures are both in the virtual and real crafting world.  I've already mentioned in an earlier post that I signed up to CRAFTfest, which is a week long online craft event. It runs from 9th June until 16th June and can be found here on the Creative Connections website..

I'm also a stallholder at Cheadle Crafted, which is a craft fair that's been organised by Fliss of Sukistyle.co.uk.
I've been beavering away making some new pieces, which include felt owl and flower brooches and miniature freemotion embroidery and applique canvases like these:

The fair is being held at Trinity Church, Massie street, Cheadle (near Stockport) on Saturday 9th June 2012. The event starts at 10.00 am until 2.00 pm and is promising to be a fab day for adults and children alike. I hope if you'll be able to pop along if you're in the area?

                     
I've been told there's parking in the same street and the church has a coffee shop, which is open until 12.00. There will also be a stallholder selling her handmade cupcakes, from her photos, I'm definitely going to pay her stall a visit!  

     

You can also check out the Cheadle Crafted Facebook page, I've just checked out the latest news and there's going to be a spinning demonstration, which I'll be looking forward to watching.

Oooh it's time for Man of the week!

OK that should really be Craft Britannia shop of the week, but since we're featuring one of the few men in our team I couldn't resist saying it!

This week we're featuring Tony of Axevictimus. He's a wood and metal jewellery crafter, who makes his contemporary pieces from exotic hardwoods, metals and cubic zirconia.


                            When choosing my favorites, this piece immediately jumped                                             out at me. I love the contrast of the metal against the ebony.

                              Limited edition Ebony and sterling silver with a yellow gold rivet, 
                              which can be purchased here

                        Or how about this colourful piece, made from paduak wood, set with a

                        garnet cubic zirconia.

                           A lovely wild olive wood pendant, inset with a sapphire cubic zirconia.

I love the simplicity of Tony's pieces, they're decorative without being 'fussy', and are something both men and women could wear. 

                 And if jewellery isn't your 'thing', why not go for a keyring like this one, which

                 can be personalized.

       

For further info about Tony and his work, please visit Craft Britannia's blog and you can see more of Tony's work here in his Etsy shop.

Just time to mention, that it's yours truly featuring in next week's shop of the week, so I won't do a review of myself (although it's very tempting to see what fun I can have with it!)

Yummy Flying Cheese Toastie!

No it's not a food fight, it's Etsy's Craft Britannia team's shop of the week spot!

This week is the turn of FlyingCheeseToastie (don't you just love that name!)
and Rachel Elliott, who is the face and talent behind the name.

Rachel's shop is full of her beautiful handmade jewellery, glass ware and amazing glass sculptures. My favorites have to be her glass hare sculptures, like the ones shown below.

Kissing hares - a pair of glass sculptures

Patriotic glass hare sculpture

Rachel also makes glass fox sculptures and jewellery, which are stunning.

 

I was never a fan of paisley designs until I saw Rachel's sculptures, now I love it!

A selection of some of the glass trinket dishes that Rachel makes

Rachel is a full time self employed glass artist, with her own studio. She mostly works with glass using kiln-forming techniques, but also incorporate other materials with it, ranging from metals and woods to textiles and paper. She has her own website and she can be contacted via her website or her Etsy shop. Her interview on the Craft Britannia's team website can be found here

I hope you can take the time to visit Rachel's shop, she has some beautiful and unique glass pieces that would be perfect in any setting.
 

It's May and the sun is shining!

Wow what a change in the weather today. For the past few days it's been miserable, cold and raining, today has been so very welcome with it's warm sunny spring weather!
On a personal note, I've been experimenting with freemotion embroidery and my badge making machine. So far I've had really good results and now I just need more hours in the day and lots of new designs to embroider. I'll be giving you a sneak peek in my next post.


Now, it's on to the Etsy 'Craft Britannia shop of the week' spot.

This week I'm featuring Joy of Cutey Critters. She makes lovable knitted and sewn collector animals, artist bears, rag dolls, quilts, blankets and pillows.

Her artist bears are adorable and if you're after a traditional looking bear that's got a more modern twist then please visit her Etsy shop by clicking the link here

              I love this little guy, he's looks like he's ready to take home and cuddle!

                            And this one of a kind panda, called Kiki is adorable!

                                                   "Oh hai there"

Joy also makes lovely crochet items like this blanket, which is both practical and lovely to look at. I'm a big fan of the granny square blanket!


Among the other items Joy makes, are traditional style rag dolls, which I can imagine being loved by any girl (little or not so little).

                                    Wouldn't she look sweet, sitting at the end of your bed?


Well, that's all for the moment. More shop of the week and personal crafty stuff coming soon!

It's that shop of the week time again.

And this week it's Bex' turn from Rebecca's Emporium. You can click here  for a peek at her Etsy shop.

Bex is of course another member of the Craft Britannia Etsy team and she makes one of a kind fabric and felted sculptures. Her Etsy shop is filled with beautiful felted jewellery and little creatures like the ones shown below.

                           Felted mushroom rings

                          And I love this little cute bear brooch!


Along with her other felted treats, Bex makes  unique felted creatures called Pheeples, they're  one of a kind and really adorable.
I'd love to see how someone could make an animation based on her little creations.

    This little one's in disguise! A cute blue felt Pheeple

   I think this little one is a bit shy! 

 A cute smiley purple and white Pheeple.




This is what Bex has to say about her Pheeples: 

"You might've seen a Pheeple recently; They use to hide all over the place, being scared of humans. But recently, they've started scuttering out from behind sofas, peering out from the bookcase and sneaking out from under the fridge. 

Pheeples are curiously inquisitive, and just like to watch us going about our lives and some of them have become quite friendly with us humans and have made lots of new friends in the process.   

Some try to be scary, using fake fangs and other bits and bobs but they just wind up looking adorable! (but be sure to pretend to be scared or they get upset!) 

Others find every little thing we do hilarious, and can be found rolling around on their bums and doing high pitched belly laughs on desks all over the country. 

And some are just happy to quietly sit and observe us going about our days, taking in the new giant world around them."

 You can also find Bex on her blog here.

Virtual Craft Extravaganza

After reading a tweet from a fellow Etsian Kozmicdreams, I booked my spot for a stall on a virtual craft fair, which is being held between 9th and 16th of June 2012.
The virtual fair is being held on the CRAFTfest website and at present they already have 101 stalls (not including mine, which has to be confirmed).

The cost of a virtual stall for a week is a very reasonable £5, you can book a stall here

The idea of the fair, is that stall holders connect their own online shop to the Craftfest site, it can be Etsy, Folksy etc.

They also have another website called Creative Connections, which has a forum and lots of other things. Just to add that you'll need to join Creative Connections before you can book a stall.

Coming up next time, is the Craft Britannia shop of the week promotion, which is the turn of Rebeccas Emporium More about her cute needle felted critters later.

Happy Crafting everyone! I'm off to think up a few new ideas for my virtual stall!

Hello again!

Well it's only a short time since I posted something on here, I must be getting used to more regular postings. The past few days, I've been thinking up some new ideas for my freehand machine embroidery and yes I know I still haven't done the review for my Silver 1040 machine yet (oops!).

Well, my main reason for todays ramble is, It's time for Craft Britannia's 'shop of the week' promotion.

This week it's the turn of katiedidonline. 
Katie wrote an online interview for the Craft Britannia blog, it's well worth a read as you can always learn something new about the lives of crafters and Etsy sellers. http://craftbritannia.wordpress.com/2012/04/15/craft-britannia-shop-of-the-week-8-katiedidonline/

In the Craft Britannia interview, Katie says the following about her choice of materials:

"I love the whole upcycling idea. It’s the make-do-and mend sort of attitude. Not only is it eco-friendly – I love how creative it can be, to make something new and completely different out of something old. Most of our Christmas gifts last year were upcycled, which was really challenging but also very rewarding. I really liked the plant markers I made from old shampoo bottles, and I’m thinking of starting a gardening section in my shop and seeing how they do".

 Anyway, I checked out Katie's Etsy shop and liked what I saw, she's a lady after my own heart as she upcycles fabric to make some of her items, like her gorgeous aprons shown below.

 Yes all of the above are aprons, I love how Katie makes some of hers look like skirts, it's a nice touch for anyone not wanting to look too traditional. From her photographs, her items look beautifully made.

This is something else I really love from her shop, it's a set of bunting, favor (party) bags and mini cake flags, just think how lovely it would be to celebrate the Queen's jubilee by having a party in your garden using this set! 

Her party set can be found here:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/79556078/party-set-fabric-bunting-favor-bags-and

 

Here's a link to Katie's Etsy shop  etsy.com/shop/KatieDidOnline

Well time for me to go and put on the kettle for another cuppa, I have to admit to becoming a real tea addict since trying Morrison's own brand 27p tea bags - even my DH prefers them to the regular brands! 

Not again!

Just an additional 'mini post' to let readers know that my blog's playing up again. The link to my Etsy shop has disappeared and what every I try I can't get the link back. I've also noticed another problem with my sidebar - I'm not sure what's missing but I think it's the doo-da showing who follows my blog. Anyway normal service may or may not be resumed, depending on what Blogger does to fix the problem!


(Maybe I should move to Wordpress and be done with it on here?)


P.S I've just found out what the problem is. If anyone's using Firefox and has adblock as an add on, it blocks the Etsy links on Blogger.
I had to disable adblock and restart Firefox before I could see Etsy mini was still on my blog! 

My name is Katie and I'm addicted to freehand machine embroidery!

Kirsty Allsopp was heard to say on one of her 'handmade' programs that freehand machine embroidery was the crack cocaine of the craft world and boy she wasn't wrong! Once I tried embroidering on felt I was hooked.
It's so relaxing and absorbing. An hour can go by like it's 10 minutes and as a result I've been late cooking our evening meal more than once this week (oops!)

Here are a few of the felt applique patches I've made this week, all were designed using my own sketches and traced onto quilters freezer paper (all except the bee, which I did without a sketch). I hope you like them.


Blythe doll inspired applique patch.

Skull applique patch and a couple of craft inspired ones.

Although I did the freehand embroidery on my new Silver 1040, the sewing machine patch was taken from a quick sketch I did of my faithful Toyota. I couldn't resist including a knitting theme patch too!

A camera design patch, taken from another of my quick sketches.

And finally, my skull and crossbones on silver grey felt. I also made a life sized English bee, which I didn't base on a sketch, I just had a bash at it with my machine and did one by memory - I think it came out OK.

All in all, I'm really pleased with how the freehand embroidery has turned out. When I get around to writing and posting my new machine review, I'll also put some hints and tips up for doing freehand machine embroidery.

Monday Monday....

It's Easter Monday here in the UK and a Bank holiday, which has given me a bit of extra time to catch up with myself and post Craft Brittania's shop of the week early (well early for me anyway!).

This week it's the turn of Sue of SunnyCrystals. Her shop is choc full of crystals, jewellery and her lovely handcrafted 3D decoupage cards.

I especially liked this tree of life pendant and amethyst is my birthstone too.

and this vintage simulated gemstone pendant looks stunning.

I have to admit to trying my hand to 3D decoupage before and know that it can be very time consuming and fiddly to do. Sue's 3D decoupaged cards look beautiiful and I know how much work will have gone into making each card.

I thought I'd share this card with you, as it's a perfect card for Spring.

All Sue's lovely items can be found here: etsy.com/shop/SunnyCrystals on Etsy.

On another note, my new sewing machine arrived at the end of last week. I have given it a bit of a test drive, but haven't time to do a proper review yet (thanks to a leaking pipe in the airing cupboard!) But I will, at some point in the near future post a proper review of it.

Craft Britannia's shop of the week.

It's Craft Britannia's shop of the week again (doesn't time fly!).

This week it's Cariad Clay, who makes lovely ceramic buttons, jewellery and other ceramic goodies.
I love her buttons. they would look pretty amazing on a hand knit cardigan!

The link to her Etsy shop is:
 http://www.etsy.com/shop/CariadClay


and here are some of her beautiful hand made buttons for sale:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/65459141/large-ceramic-statement-button-yellow

I can't decide which one is my favorite out of all the designs. I love the grey flower design button and the snake skin design is really unusual.

I also love these green paisley buttons.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/83658543/buttons-ceramic-round-with-paisley


If you'd like to read Cariad's interview on the Craft Britannia blog, it's here:

http://craftbritannia.wordpress.com/2012/04/01/craft-britannia-shop-of-the-week-6-cariadclay/

The blog is well worth a read, there regular interviews with some very talented members of the Craft Britannia team!

Wednesday catch up...

Spring arrived early in the UK and the bluebells are starting to flower in our back garden. But this week Spring temporarily swopped over to Winter again and we have blustery cold weather and snow in parts of the UK this week. I really feel for the people living farther North than we do, as there was a report on the news that thousands of homes are without electricity today as a result of the high winds bringing down power lines.


 On to other news...
I'd recently been avidly checking websites for the arrival of the new Singer 160 anniversary sewing machine in the UK. I'd seen it on someone's Flickr photo stream originally and instantly wanted it, it was so shiny and looked amazing.

Ideal World, one of our UK shopping channels, had a feature on the 160 last Saturday so I patiently waited all week to see what it was like.

But a couple of days before the 160 was on sale, I channel hopped and came across another sewing machine they were selling on Ideal World, it was the Silver Viscount 1040. The pick of the day machine (another Silver) had already sold out, so this was a replacement machine they had on offer.
After watching the demonstrations, comparing the price and reading reviews of the 160, I decided to buy the Silver instead. It does 80 stitches compared to the Singer's 24 and has foot free controls and a needle threader. After discovering the Silver could also do blanket and cross stitch, amongst lots of other stitches, I was sold on it (an added incentive was that it was half the price of the singer, which Ideal World were selling at £399!)

At the moment I'm waiting for delivery of my new sewing machine, I'm stocked up on fabric and I bought some invisible (nylon) thread to try with the machine (it does a hand sewn style running stitch that uses clear thread at the top and coloured thread in the bobbin) so I'm all set for it to arrive.

I'm thinking of doing a review of the Silver when I've tried it out, mainly  because there doesn't seem to be a lot of information on the Internet about this particular model - possibly due to Silver only selling in the UK, so it's not a widely known make.

Yipee! Blogger's working again!

Good grief it worked! Blogger seems to be working again (yippee!)

Well, on to promoting Craft Britannia's UK shop of the week. So far I've only been able to tweet the last two promotions (thanks a lot Blogger!).

So here goes for this week's promotion! If you like funky and fun earrings / rings / necklaces check out onetenzeroseven on Etsy.


I loved these moustache earrings, they're really fashionable at the moment and are a lot of fun.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/85043159/moustachemustache-stud-earrings-movember

and you'll have now worries about Vampires if you wear this Vervain filled pendant!

http://www.etsy.com/listing/79246595/vampire-diaries-necklace-filled-with


Please check out all onetenzero's other shop goodies at the link below:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/onetenzeroseven

Testing testing...

I've been trying to post on my blog for about 3 weeks with no success. For some reason Blogger just won't save anything I do, which has become a real irritation, so much that I'd given up trying again until today.

Fingers crossed this time it works, as I'm seriously thinking of going over to WordPress if it doesn't!

I'll be back shortly once I've tried publishing this post. 

Clouds and silver linings...

Last week, I found a lump on the inside of my right elbow, then my upper arm started hurting, so a couple of days later, I made an appointment to see my doctor. He diagnosed inflammation of the ligament and told me to rest my arm. Since then I've had to take it easy and try not to use my right arm - a really difficult thing to remember since I'm right handed!
Anyway, I've had to ban myself from any sort of crafting, which means I'm feeling like I'm at a loose end at the moment. Today, I decided I couldn't just sit and watch TV all day,  so I fired up my Mac and 'tweaked' my Etsy shop banner, my blog and Soopsee.

I'm a lot happier now that's been done, it's been nagging at me to re design my shop banner and sort out Soopsee and my blog for ages. I was happy with my original banner design, but it looked too dark and didn't really reflect what I make. My blog really needed some attention and it's surprising what can be achieved in half an hour or so.

Anyway, my arm seems to be slowly getting better. I still have to rest it and still can't do a lot of things (like knitting / sewing) but a bit of computer crafting seems to be OK if I'm really careful and at least it's given me the excuse to re design my banner and blog, so some clouds do have a silver lining!

I'm still trying to find out why most of my photos disappeared from my original blog. I checked my new blog again this morning, to find that one of my recently uploaded photos had also gone 'missing', it's one from my Picasa web album, so I don't know if there was a 'hiccup' on their website so I've uploaded it again.

I'll be checking my blog over the next few days and 'test posting' more photos to see how stable it is, I think there's no point re-doing this blog from scratch if it's going to continually dump my photos!

More later...

Oops!

My blog seems to have been playing up, all my photos have somehow disappeared. Because it's going to take too long to track down and replace all the missing photos, I've decided to start again from scratch.

This is just to mention that my blog is now under construction again, sorry for any inconvenience!

Thanks
Katie.