Season's Greetings

I would just like to take this opportunity to say thank you to everyone who has supported me over the last year - be it reading this blog, looking at my Facebook or Etsy pages or buying from me. Every set of eyes, enquiry or sale is greatly appreciated.

This coming year will hopefully see some changes to my work. I am not quite sure what they will be but personal changes brought about by everything from health issues to governmental rule changes mean I have to restructure my working practices. It's scary but I am hoping for better things in 2016.

In the meantime, Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it, my best wishes to those who don't and a happy New Year to everyone.

Buttons and threads

The last few weeks have been filled with Christmas commissions so not much crafting for me. I will be able to show most of the commissions after Christmas but in the meantime, here are some new buttons I have been making. I was practising using different colour combinations and even added a bit of sparkle here and there.

I used DMC threads for most of my buttons so I treated myself to an early Christmas present - DMC's thread colour card. It is brilliant. When shopping online for threads it can be qute difficult to find that ideal shade. Not now. I have samples of every perle and stranded cotton thread that DMC offer and can see exactly what colour it is. Hooray! It will make thread shopping much easier in future.

Sewing circles

I came across a couple of interesting tutorials online this week. Both involved sewn circles used in festive ways. So when I managed to get a few hours to myself I gave them a shot. Neither took long - a couple of hours each at most - and they fulfilled my desperate need to sew after a heavy week of bead making.

The first was a folded fabric ornament by Crouton Crakerjacks on YouTube. Really simple but a lovely finished product. Mine is decorated with some ganutell holly leaves from a new kit by Gina-B Silkworks.

I also made a couple of smaller ones and added a snowflake button to one and some beads and a tassel to the other.

The next one was a little fabric angel by Selimut-ku. It is so very cute and would make nice little gifts for anyone who loves angels. As you can see, my guy has his head tilted to the side giving him a curious look.

One other little Christmassy sewing project is the new start for the top of the family Christmas tree. The current star was made by my sister when she was at primary school and it's looking a bit dog eared. In fact it was made of straw and only has thee points left out of the original twelve. So I made a paper pieced, quilted star in yellow with a yellow hand made button in the centre.

Sketches

I forgot to mention that I added a few new watercolour sketches to my Etsy store a wee while ago - from a cute little harvest mouse to a Christmas robin. Not to mention more badgers  - just because I love painting them.

Even more buttons

Just a few pictures of buttons that I have made this week. I am up to my ears in art commissions for Christmas so there is not much time for other crafting. However I do have some new sets from Gina-B Silkworks to make up though so photos will be coming soon.

A resurgence of buttons

I've been on a button kick recently thanks to a new kit from Gina-B Silkwork. It's a snowflake button kit. The buttons are so charming and I got very excited when I opened the package with them inside. Couldn't contain myself, in fact. I dashed off and wrapped a few buttons as soon as I could. If you take a look at the link you can see some of my samples in the second photo (yes, I forgot to photograph my samples before sending them off again).

After that there was no stopping me. I love making buttons - thread wrapped buttons in particular - and after treating myself to some new size 8 perle threads I was wrapping up a storm.

This button in particular is one of my favourites. It is a 'rottweiler' button that I made in memory of Stanley. It is black and tan with a star in the middle to represent what a star he was to me.

In memory of Stanley

I had some sad news last weekend. My sisters dog, Stanley (who I have blogged about on more than a few occasions), had to be put to sleep after a short illness. He was seven. What started as a broken claw escalated and eventually even the vet didn't know what the problem was. It has made me very sad. He was my Gummy Bear, Cuddly Buddly, Flopsy Mopsy and many other names of endearment besides. He was the most wonderful, fun, challenging, goofy and loving dog I have ever known. I will miss his visits more than I can say.

Curiosities

Anyone who knows me knows about my love of both ancient history and natural history. So it probably will not come as a surprise that I have a little museum all of my own. In the past it would probably have been called a curiosity cabinet and it houses all kinds of treasures - from things I have found to things I have been given and even those I have bought. I thought I'd give you a little peek at it

There are ancient Greek arrowheads and pottery jars, a Roman oil lamp and brooch, Roman and Byzantine coins, a small Egyptian amulet, Chinese pottery, an African marimba, prehistoric woods, fossils, rocks, minerals and shells, to name but a few. It is a great source of inspiration to me. To think that people in the distant past and from foreign lands handled some of these items gives me goosebumps. It fuels my love of these subjects and piques my curiosity every time I look in it. It's my very own little treasure trove.

Bunny-fluff

My latest commissioned painting. I had to hold off posting it online because it was for a gift. It was happily received, I am glad to say.

101 uses for a glasses case

 OK, not really, it's just one use. This idea came from Pinterest but when I saw it I immediately knew it was genius. Using a glasses case to make a mini sewing kit. 

Mine is a mini English paper piecing kit and includes two spools of thread, a fabric glue stick, a seam ripper, two needle threaders, a thimble and a finger guard, tiny card hexagons and a needle case – made from paper pieced hexies, of course. 

I cannot tell you how handy it is. It sits on my desk and I always know where it it. It also means I don't have to wrestle with my big sewing box to find a needle and it's portable and safe. Because it is a hard case there are no needles/seam ripper stabbing me randomly because they have poked out of the fabric/bag I have put them in. I picked up the glasses case on eBay for less than £2 - so nice and affordable too.

There is no end to the possibilities for this idea – mini painting kit (shortened paint brushes, pencil, tubes of paint); drawing kit (short pencils, rubber, paper stumps); even a mini make-up kit (mascara, eyeliner, lipstick, cotton bud, tissue) or first aid kit (sticking plasters/band aids, individually packaged anti septic wipes, cotton wool balls, small pair of scissors). Thanks Pinterest. Another great idea.