The Christmas Rag Wreath Factory

I spent a lot of last week chopping up Christmas fabric ready the first rag wreath workshop at Roses and Rue...  I was also the sad one up at 6.00am to make sausage rolls for the tea breaks, we had pork and apple and, pork and caramelised onions, rather yummy!


Managed to get the room set up really quickly and both of Sharon's daughters were there too:

This is Rosie... firmly following in her mum's footsteps making a bandana for herself

And this is Rue, who had just woken up from a nap behind the cutting table,
 with her mum  knitting in the background

So we had nine ladies, all ready to get going on their wreaths, everyone had the same basic pack ... except for Lara, who has a themed and tasteful Christmas, when I am grown up, I might be like that but I doubt it!


So here are the various wreaths

Behind this lovely grey, silver, red and white wreath is Lara... she used a gorgeous white satin ribbon to set it off.

Now this is the very speedy Barbara... first to try out the rotary cutters and first to finish, her wreath looked so lush and thick... I had wreath envy!

Here is Pat, she is the most amazing knitter, so precise is her work that I reckon she is the only person  who possibly knits a tension square for her tension square... when I grow up my work is going to be as good as Pat's!

Darrell was totally focused (I love her t-shirt, almost as stylish as she is!) and I can tell you her wreath looked fabulous when finished.

As you can see, we had a real factory line going and no-one was going to leave a single piece of white showing.


And here is another one that I have made, I rather like this as it is rather manly, surprisingly I have used a lot of black in it but I am really pleased with it.

And this is the song that got everyone singing:

So you know what to do next, hightail it over to Wendy's Handmade Monday to see what everyone has been up to this week.


Oh and the weekly Christmas tutorial will be up tomorrow... I promise :)

Gingham Hearts

I had been asked to make three different sized rag wreaths for a local cafe but I have really struggled with the brief.  Sarah wanted them to be bright but using red, yellow and orange.  The cafe has a very homely feel and lots of plaques, greenery and, hearts and gingham were a big theme.

I have to admit that I did every form of displacement activity not to make them as whenever I started, the yellows and oranges just overpowered everything.  So this afternoon I stared the heart forms squarely in the face and started by putting on just the red strips and then added in the oranges, yellows and used a purple gingham to break it up.

So, it is off to the Tea Garden on Sunday to hand them over.  

Just hope that Sarah likes them and the other great thing is she says I can leave my card with them... yippee!  So hopefully some other peeps will order them, fingers crossed.

Armed and Dangerous?

Do you ever have a week when you wonder what you actually did?  The days have gone past in a blur but you really don't think you have achieved anything... and then the day when you thought you would be allowed to slob about and chill is the busiest in the week.


Well, I was getting really disheartened with the job search as I did not get a contract role which I wanted but they are keen on me for two perm jobs which are available.  And it is possible that I may have a temp job to tide me over in between so hopefully things are getting better.


Anyway, Friday was my birthday and I thought, yippee, I will have a lie-in, but the fates conspired against me.  My friend Deborah needed a house sitter to wait for the BT man, so I was sitting in her lovely living room watching the tide come in whilst removing the sleeves from a dress.  Said dress was needed by my neighbour's daughter for a trip to Spain... little did I realise that I would have to get through three separate sets of seams to remove them but the dress did make it to suitcase in time for the trip.


Then Sally (who had the cushion last week) asked me to create Summer rag wreath for a chum with a local cafe, so I had to sort out a bunch of gingham and floral FQs to grace the walls of the Tea Garden... and this is what I managed:

I also found some smaller hearts and I am thinking of making some really jazzy rag wreaths to hang from door handles.

I also took charge of a new toy during the week, I am now officially armed and dangerous... stand well back I have a glue gun and after a little bit of practice, I am not afraid to use it!   Now if I can just work out how to stop it dribbling like a new baby, I will be chuffed to bits, but I have to admit to taking a perverse pleasure in picking off the excess.

To get some practice in I made a couple of Kanzashi Flower brooches, using the square technique rather than the circles and I have managed to make a 1.5" flower with a modicum of swearing but I think if I try the one inch flower the air will be blue.

I had a look through my stash and found some lovely silk that I bought from the Silk Route, which I think will make some even lovelier brooches, what do you think?

So on reflection, maybe just maybe, I did do more than I thought last week.  And if you want to see what the rest of the gang have been up to, take a look at Wendy's Handmade Monday, but be warned it is very addictive seeing what everyone has been up to!