What an interesting week! I posted up pics from the show last week on Facebook and have picked up a couple of commissions for booties. Yesterday I popped on a picture of my cushions at rest before their next outing and hey presto! More enquiries which I hope to make into orders.
And I have now started my job search in earnest and have my first interview next week.
Tomorrow, I will be taking more pics for ebay, etsy and folksy, let's hope that the light is good!
Friday, 19 November 2010
Sunday, 14 November 2010
The show
Well, I woke up at 6.00am and was well and truly ready to go, even though I was awaiting a late delivery of cushions at 7.30am.. I was done with stuffing by 7.45 am.
The organisation was brilliant, I was not in the main hall but in an ante room which you had to through in order to get there. Real lucky stroke, I was given an extra table and here is how it looked.
Booties and bags flew off but cushions were disappointing ... :( Maybe they will go better in t'internet, not worried about the quality but would have made it a 10/10 event if I had sold just one cushion.
Booties and bags flew off but cushions were disappointing ... :( Maybe they will go better in t'internet, not worried about the quality but would have made it a 10/10 event if I had sold just one cushion.
Wednesday, 3 November 2010
Working hard
OK, I am now officially in panic mode. It is just about a week before my first show and I don't think I will have enough stuff ready... Argh!
This was the situation at the end of last week but I have now sewn all of these up and I am now up to 35 pairs of booties and aiming for 40.
Bags are coming on a pace and I should have another another bunch completed over the weekend, taking me past the 20 mark.
I am also going to be making some felt bunting over the weekend for my stall, using light mauve as the background, with silver letters and gingham ribbon to hang them from... the pinking shears will be exhausted!
Have just ordered some more ticking to make a few more of these, although I have to say I have not completed three of the boats and will post the completed cushion shortly.
This was the situation at the end of last week but I have now sewn all of these up and I am now up to 35 pairs of booties and aiming for 40.
I am also going to be making some felt bunting over the weekend for my stall, using light mauve as the background, with silver letters and gingham ribbon to hang them from... the pinking shears will be exhausted!
Have just ordered some more ticking to make a few more of these, although I have to say I have not completed three of the boats and will post the completed cushion shortly.
Wednesday, 27 October 2010
Redundancy
I have not posted for a little while, as two weeks ago my company received notice that our contract with the Government was to be terminated on 29 April 2011.
Initially this means that around 55 people will be out of a job in London to say nothing of the various production companies to who we give work dotted all round the country, when I started to think about the ripples that casting that particular stone will make I realised that it will affect over 300 people.
We work really hard with a great product that really does make a difference to schools and I feel so proud of what we have achieved. I hope that I will find another place to work with so many likeable and creative people, so in the immortal words of Ian Drury "What a waste Mr Gove, what a waste!"
Initially this means that around 55 people will be out of a job in London to say nothing of the various production companies to who we give work dotted all round the country, when I started to think about the ripples that casting that particular stone will make I realised that it will affect over 300 people.
We work really hard with a great product that really does make a difference to schools and I feel so proud of what we have achieved. I hope that I will find another place to work with so many likeable and creative people, so in the immortal words of Ian Drury "What a waste Mr Gove, what a waste!"
My guilty secret...
is every so often to indulge in a spot of Hardanger aka drawn thread work. I am afraid it started in the dim and distant past when one of the girls with whom I did my Needlecraft and Dress O level (yes it really is that long ago) made a table cloth and napkins in hardanger with contrasting blue and white threads as her orignal piece. Boy did I covet her project on a Friday afternoon when we spent all afternoon sewing! See what you started Gaye Casey - I blame it all on you.
Fast forward 30 years and I finally got to play, albeit on a smaller scale with cushions. I just love the structure and the fear of failure when you cut the threads. I think of hardanger as being like a Busby Berkley production, the stitches look like nothing on their own but put them together and they create a fabulous bigger picture. So here are a few of my old cushions:
Fast forward 30 years and I finally got to play, albeit on a smaller scale with cushions. I just love the structure and the fear of failure when you cut the threads. I think of hardanger as being like a Busby Berkley production, the stitches look like nothing on their own but put them together and they create a fabulous bigger picture. So here are a few of my old cushions:
Monday, 4 October 2010
The elephant
On Sunday I finished another cushion for the craft fair, I had intended making one with flowers but this template of an elephant leapt out at me and demanded to be appliqued immediately. I then was trying to make all nine elephants in different fabrics when I alighted upon some lovely stripey fabric and the some spotty fabric.
Once I had appliqued the elephants, I top embroidered the saddles in chain stitch and used a french knot for their eyes.
Once I had appliqued the elephants, I top embroidered the saddles in chain stitch and used a french knot for their eyes.
Centenary Reunion at St Bernards Convent High School
On Saturday my secondary school started a year of celebrating its centenary... I remember being in school for the Diamond Jubilee. Although the buildings have not changed dramatically the layout inside had with a few extra buildings added. Amazingly ten girls turned up from 5.1 and 5.2 and here are eight of them below:
In the back row, Frances Persighetti - now a GP, Marion Hill - teaching Research at Oxford, Colleen Russell - teaching Maths to A Level, Lynne Hayes - full time carer for her husband.
Front Row: Catriona Drayton - Speech therapist, Mary Swinney, Christina Lake - University Librarian and me
Sharon Blainey was behind the camera and Bern Dawson left before we took the pic.
It was so lovely to see all these women and to be remembered by the nuns who had taught us albeit 34 years later... so we really couldn't have been that bad, after all!
Front Row: Catriona Drayton - Speech therapist, Mary Swinney, Christina Lake - University Librarian and me
Sharon Blainey was behind the camera and Bern Dawson left before we took the pic.
It was so lovely to see all these women and to be remembered by the nuns who had taught us albeit 34 years later... so we really couldn't have been that bad, after all!
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