Hi - just popping in to say that I have a new home.  Lots of new news (some exceptionally exciting and some a rather traumatic!) has been shared over on forestpoppy.com.  It should have been a seamless transition but I think there has been a hiccup which I'm working on at the moment.  In the meantime can you update your blog feed and so on to the new address? - forestpoppy.com - or sign up for email updates at the new site?........and hopefully you can carry on catching up with my ramblings over there from now on.  There's a couple of posts live now so scroll down to fully catch up!

Looking forward to seeing you there!  Hoping you're all well.  Picture below is a bit of a giveaway for some of the news!

What do you think? Opinions please!

I 've been mulling over the idea of a proper Forest Poppy logo for a little while and decided that now is the time to bite the bullet and just go for it.  So, I have a few draft ideas below, essentially these are just first suggestions which could be scrapped entirely, mixed and matched or left as is.  I have some thoughts of my own but I'd love to hear what you think - preferences, dislikes, fonts, colours, this part taken from that one and added to this one etc.  

Could you spare a moment to have a think about what would appeal to you as someone visiting the blog and/or as a potential customer?  Thank you!

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Thanks too for all the wonderful comments on the giveaway.  I'll close and draw a week from now.  Fabulous to hear from so many new people, and of course the friends I know too!

 

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I'm so pleased you enjoyed the Stitch Gathering photos in my last post, I was very remiss, and forgetful, in not crediting them to Jo.  I copied them from her facebook page, with permission of course, as I was much too busy talking to take any of my own!

Craft Fair number one

 I attended, and survived, my first craft fair last week.  I'm really pleased that I went and I have learnt a lot from it.  It is really interesting to see what people do and don't like although I'm sure that will vary from fair to fair and day to day.....but to get face to face contact with customers was lovely and interesting too.

It was definitely worth attending but I didn't leave the night skipping with joy either.  Unfortunately numbers were down 50% from previous years and the organisers, a local school, only took half of their normal amount (from raffle, their own stalls etc) - and when I take that into account I'm pretty happy.

For some strange and organised reason I had labelled and sorted most things the night before.  A friend had very kindly offered to take Katie for me for a few hours before the fair and I had saved the extra time to do some additional, but not essential sewing, and not, thankfully, the rather vital task of packing up, working out prices and so on.  I say thankfully because early in the day Islay was sent home from school with a recurrent eye infection (she's fine again now)......so that was the end of my child-free time (although to give Islay her due she is a little less demanding than Katie - but that isn't much of a challenge!).

I made a few properly Christmassy smaller items to go alongside my bibs, baby blankets and so on.  My favourite is the clove filled Christmas Hearts.  They smell wonderful and I love the fabric which is wintry rather than overly Christmassy.  I have backed them in a beautiful deep red linen too.  I also made some hanging lavender decorations - they're an elongated diamond shape to mimic the funny long diamond/conical decorations we had when I was little.  And lastly there's some more wee robins.  I really enjoy making them.  

I have a few of each left and have listed them in my folksy shop.....with any luck I may get some more things listed some time before the end of the year!

The final new item is some tea towels. You can see them in the last of the stall photos, but I think I'll post more about them another time as I'm planning a giveaway. 

The school had asked if stall holders could contribute a raffle prize.  I made up two wee bags with a tea towel and robin in each. Hopefully they have found happy new homes.

This week is back to chaos as our refurbished sash windows are being painted but it does look as if things are coming together for our roof work to start soon which makes me very happy - I'll be even more happy when it is all done and dusted!  Grant funds, and shared responsibilities, for old buildings have their benefits but they don't half make things very very complicated and drawn out......especially for the poor person who is trying to make it happen (i.e. me!).

I hope you have some happy things to look forward to this week, even if they are chaotic happy things - and that your house is warmer than ours (open windows on sub zero days makes for pretty cold living!).

Sewing class - making cafe aprons

Beautifully made aprons

We had such a good time last Wednesday evening when Vanessa, Cara, Susan and Eileen came over for an evening of sewing.  I was a little daunted by the fact that Cara and Susan had to be shown how to turn their sewing machines on - but, haven't they all done well?  Eileen had to leave early but I talked her through the last few steps and, with the tutorial handout I had prepared, she has finished hers at home since.

This was my first time using our dining room as a classroom and my lovely friends were the guinea pigs - just to see if the room would work, test my teaching skills, how many can comfortably work in the room and so on.  It seems that four is a perfect number and that I can set the room up as a classroom fairly easily.  And I enjoy teaching so much - it seems that my 'students' enjoyed their lesson too as we're now planning a get-together every few weeks.

I'm going to carry on working up my plans and hope to be able to offer small classes and bespoke tutoring in the future.  All very exciting.  I get such a buzz from helping people learn to work with fabric.

My first sample apron was made more-or-less to an Amy Butler pattern but I found it overly complicated and was concerned that it would take too long to make.  Plus, I feel more comfortable teaching something that is more 'mine'.  So, I adapted the pattern considerably to simplify it's design and also the amount of fabric required.  I have plans for the apple apron, which was to the original pattern, and I have been enjoying using the second......a little treat for myself.

Grannie and Grandad on top of Nape's Needle

Grannie and Grandad preparing to climb the Inaccessible Pinnacle

Grannie climbing the 'In Pinn'

I noticed that the dining room photos showed a glimpse of my three climbing pictures.  They are photos of my grandparents and are among my favourite possessions.  My grandad was a really keen climber and walker and enjoyed an adventurous bachelorhood until he met my grannie.  And grannie must have been quite some girl because she was prepared to learn to climb for his sake.  They spent their honeymoon on Skye and the second and third photos show them climbing the Inaccessible Pinnacle on the Cuillin Ridge.  The first photo shows them on top of Napes Needle in the Lake District.

I have walked and climbed on the Cuillin Ridge and my dad and I climbed the Inaccessible Pinnacle together.  I can't imagine what it must have been like climbing with hemp ropes tied around your waist and hobnail boots too.  Sadly I didn't ever have a chance to talk to them about climbing and their adventures - but I love to look at their photos and imagine their trips.

Adventure Bag - the trial run

I've realised that there is very little to show for the sewing I've been doing lately.  I've been preparing for a class that I'm teaching tonight (aarrgghh!) and a craft show a fortnight today - so, once again, getting folksy up and running has been put onto the back burner.  

In the October holidays, though, I set aside some time to work on a wee Adventure Bag.  I have long wanted to make a little children's bag - one that is robust and fun.  My first attempts, such a long time ago now, just weren't right (although Islay and Katie still play with it a lot).  And then quilts and baby blankets and bibs, and actual babies, took over.  But I have kept the thought ticking over.

I knew I wanted a bag suited to a boy as well as a girl (although, realistically, it will probably appeal to girls for a longer range of time).  I also wanted it to be suitable for a wide age range.  And fully lined.  And fun.  And not too costly.  So - a lot of requirements for a little bag.  But a sudden idea about how to make the straps adjustable and then realising that portholes would be perfect for giving a peep of colour on a robust linen exterior got me all excited.  I really couldn't wait to get it sketched out, planned and sewn.

And here are the first versions of my Adventure Bag.  I used a couple of fun fat quarters from The Stitch Gathering.  They are lovely but not really me or quite Forest Poppy.  The mermaids will be a gift for  a wee friend of Islay's and I have plans for the robots too.

The fabric below is set aside for some proper Forest Poppy Adventure Bags.  I can't wait to get sewing!

Catching up

Catch-up time!  Finally, here's some photos of my makes from this summer's Fat Quarterly Retreat.  I loved it and learnt a lot but I think it is far too late now to say much more - so many others have already done so.
The cushions below are the finished pieces of Precision Piecing from Lynne's great class- I had a treat and bought new fabric for this class, just buying what I really liked without much thought with what I'd do with the end product...........as I finished the precision pieced pieces (I do like writing that!) I realised that whatever I turned them into would never look right with anything in our house, much as I love the fabrics and colours.  I have made them up into 16 inch cushion covers and will load them up onto my folksy shop - it has been closed since Katie was born but I plan to re-open it in the next few weeks, I have quite a bit of stock built up ready to go.  And so many ideas for other things I'd like to make, as and when I find the time!

 I also attended Lu's Improv class - this was a lot of fun, I like working that way and Lu herself is brilliant.  I used my leftover Maze and Vale and other odds and ends from my Free As A Bird Quilt.  Lu hand quilts her improv pieces, but while I'd love to do it, I just know I wouldn't find the time.  So it is quilted with an improv spiral instead - done completely free-hand and more than a little squint!

My mini-quilt is living happily on our dining table with our basket of special shells and other treasures.

 Apart from the above I haven't really managed much this week.  I still have crochet and English Paper Pieceing to finish from FQR -don't hold your breath!  Katie is feeling pretty poorly and really isn't herself.  She fell asleep on Tuseday morning around 7.45 am.  I put her in the playpen each morning while I'm in the shower (she is such a busy fiddly little person that it is the only safe thing to do) - when I came out I realised things were unusually quiet - this is what I saw when I peeped into the sitting room!

Please don't pin this photo

She has wanted a lot of attention and has spent a lot of time sitting like this, cuddling Doddy Pot (Spotty Dog).  Hopefully she'll be back to her cheery self soon.  

Thanks so much for all the lovely comments on the Free As A Bird Quilt - they were lovely to read and very much appreciated. 

Summery makes - a sunny baby blanket and strawberry jam

I've just completed a commission for a lovely lady - she was given one of my baby blankets for her own wee boy and asked me to make one for a friend's new born.  Needless to say I was delighted - it is so good to know that something I made has been enjoyed enough to warrant commissioning another.
And here's the wee blanket I made  - for a wee girl gorgeously named 'Eve Tiger Mae'.  I particularly enjoyed making this one, the colours are so happy, sunny and summery.  Some of my recent makes have been quite muted, for me at least, so it was extra fun to work with such vibrant oranges, pinks and reds.

I've also been enjoying seeing the sun shine through my newly made jars of strawberry jam.  Isn't that a happy sight?  They have been, and still are, sitting on the dining room window sill waiting for me to clean up the sticky bits and label them.  I hadn't planned to make any this year as we still have some bramble jam from last autumn........but we made a visit to our local fruit farm last week, when Finn had a friend over, and they picked so many that I didn't have much choice!  I'm sure it will get eaten and I may just give a few away as presents over the winter.

Have you been enjoying any summery sights or colours recently?