Sherwood Contemporary Craft Makers Market

At the moment I am busy preparing for for The Sherwood Contemporary Craft Makers Market. I feel a little under prepared due to one thing and another, but I am hoping things will come together.

Its being held on Saturday 20th November at The Place in Sherwood, Nottingham, which is just off Mansfield Road and is open 10am - 4pm. Its a really good fair with a great selection of local makers and is always good fun and nice to catch up with some other makers who I haven't seen for a while. So if you are in the area pop by, its a great place for some Christmas Shopping.

One Style

I know now is not the time to think about the direction of my work too much. But it has been playing on my mind slightly, that I may have quite a random selection of work when I display everything together at my first craft fair of the season in a couple of weeks.

I think I can currently slot my work into 3 'collections' Pebbles, Felt Flowers and then my appliqué pieces. I suppose I am just not sure they all work fit together and look like they are made by the same person. Is this even that important? I am also not sure if I should display collections together or mix everything up?

To be honest I think I probably just need to have a play and see what looks best and not worry about it, but sometimes I think it would be nice to have just one style, but then I would probably get bored!

At last something to see

I am very pleased to say that this weekend I actually made some things. I probably didn't get as much done as I had hoped, but I am still fairly pleased and it felt good to be creating again.

I started off on Saturday with a felt making session. The felt will eventually turn into hotwater bottle covers. I love feltmaking but it always takes longer than you think, so I need to have another good session or two.

I then finished up a batch of tea cosies, followed by starting some door stops, which are similar to my draft excluder's (thanks for Ellie at From the Wilde for the idea), they are not quite finished yet, but are very cute.

My first fair is on the 20 November, at The Place in Sherwood, Nottingham, it has a wonderful selection of local makers and is always really enjoyable. I just need some more making sessions first!

Organised

I actually managed to spend an hour on my sewing machine last night. It may not sound like much, but at the moment this is a major achievement! I enjoyed it too.

I am trying to be more organised and to have more of a system to the way I work, I am hoping this will save a bit of time. So the other day I spend some time cutting out work, I cut out about 10 tea cosies and 10 door stops. I started to add machine embroidery yesterday and after that they will be sewn together. I can see why it makes sense to work like this, as it does defiantly save time, but its perhaps not the most satisfying way to work as it takes much longer to see finished pieces.

Somehow I have managed to re-claim this weekend, so I no longer have any plans. So I am hoping to have a really good sewing session. I know with the fast approaching Christmas craft fair season I need to get moving and I am sure a couple of good session will make me feel better about everything and help find my missing productivity.

I also promise to take some new photo's at the weekend.

GNCCF

This weekend I met up with some friends in Manchester and went to Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair. I really enjoyed it and it was lovely to be able to have a good look around. The fair was huge and we were all exhausted at the end, too much eye candy for one session!

These were some of my favourite things:

Lynsey Walters -I love her bright wool jewellery, I was very tempted to buy something, but just couldn't decide what I liked best as its all so gorgeous.

Sarah Thirlwell - I loved these vases, they looked so beautiful with the light behind them.

Maxine Sutton - I really liked the combination of print and embroidery with bold colours.

Ruth Green - Lovely illustrations and print. Have put a link to her NOTHS shop as I couldn't seem to get onto her website. She has so many lovely prints.

There were loads of other beautiful things by some wonderful makers, (too many to list, so maybe I will do a part 2).

So it was a lovely weekend and great to catch up with some friends who I sadly don't see as often as I would like, but another weekend has gone by without me making a thing. I really need to pull myself together and get making and I am seriously running out of time now! Eeek!

Struggling

I am really struggling at the moment, I have been feeling a bit under the weather and very tired, so where I would normally be coming home from work and spend a few hours making things I just don't seem to have the energy at the moment. I am very conscious that its not long until my first craft fair of the Christmas season, so I had hoped to get lots done this weekend, as I think it was my last free weekend until the middle of December. But a combination of no energy, lots of house stuff to do and visitors, meant I just didn't get round to it.

So I am starting to worry slightly now. Normally this is good, as I seem to produce more under pressure and I will do simple things, like do an hour before work and take some sewing to do during my lunch, but I just don't seem to have the energy. I am thinking I may see if I have any holiday left and take a couple of days off. I am sure when I get started things will start to flow and I will probably feel much better, but right now my perfect day off would be to curl up in bed and sleep all day!

Just Wrong

I am currently on day of 9 of working 12 days without a day off, not that I am counting and today I am feeling very tired. I have been working long hours staying in a horrible hotel for a few days, I like my own bed!! But I am so looking forward to to weekend and hope to get lots of sewing done. It feel likes ages since I have made some andI can't wait to get started.

A few weeks ago I decided to have a go at making some stitch and burn Christmas decorations. I really enjoying making my brooches and hoped that would transfer well to decorations. Sadly I was wrong! I am not sure if its just the colours or something more, they also took ages as well. So I think this idea is going to be put away for this year, but I may try again next year as I think it could work.