Finishing off and beginings

I have finished the commission piece that I have been working on all week and I am very pleased with it. There was a tricky start to it, so I stopped and started again last Monday. Now I am pleased to say it is in its frame, wrapped, boxed and ready to sent to the client. I am excited to learn what they think of the piece. I hope they like it.
The jewellery pieces are all made, not as exciting as I hoped but still good pieces.
I have started some prototypes of shopping bags and shoe bags, aimed at children. Flowers, footballs, skull and cross bones and cats. I have been making them in the evenings this week at home. Foolishly thinking they would not take me much time!!
At the studio we are going to be holding some children's workshops, in all our chosen different mediums and I feel very strongly about encouraging children to create items in textiles. Probably because I love making and I love textiles. I had such fun as a kid sewing and knitting. I spent my pocket money in the haberdashery shop rather than the sweetshop, the trinkets , buttons, beads, fabrics, threads and yarns were so much more delicious than the sweets that my sister selected from the sweet shop. When it comes to making the bags with the kids I shall say they can use some glue to get the design of their image down before they put some stitch onto it, otherwise the poor things will be there all day and will just think of sewing as slow and heaven for fend-boring. And that will never do.

I am back to the studio tomorrow as we have an awful lot of materials to sort out and stack, labeling as we go, (all for the children's workshops) and Sunday seemed to be a good day to do it. It's quite surprising how much stuff 5 artists can collect and stash, and tomorrow is the big sort out. I hope everyone is in agreement to having the Archers on as we sort.

Now I had better get poor little Maurice his tea before he explodes, no doubt as soon as the Big One hears the mouthwatering sound of the cat sachets being opened he will appear for his tea too.

New Ideas

It's been a really busy week, with lots of new ideas which I am really excited about. I'm having to be sensible about trying them out as I have other work commitments on and if I mix and match too much it all gets a bit too much!!
I have wanted to make some new jewellery pieces for ages so that's what I have been making this afternoon. Trying out new shapes and colours, in the back of my head the pieces are ideas for projects I am creating for the book I am writing. The book project is allowing me to try out new areas which otherwise I would feel I had not got time to do. (I am making time)
This Monday I am to start a piece for a client, I did the drawings for it this morning, and was not happy with them, I thought the best thing to do was to do something else (hence the jewellery) and not brood. Brooding just makes me panic, and at present I have no time for panicking.

Tomorrow I want to plant my sweet peas in the juice cartons we have been saving as my friend Rebecca says "sweet peas like their roots deep" she should know her sweet peas was magnificent last year. I hope whilst I stand outside tomorrow in the January cold a wave of summer will come over me.

in the studio

Here is my lovely sewing machine, and my new piece of work that I am working on, it is going very well and I am very pleased to be sewing again. just behind you can see my wall of thread! Ideally I would like to sew all the time, sometimes it feels like I do too much paperwork but of course it is very important to keep up with it all.

Today I have been working from home on my Machine Embroidery book, and decided to light a fire as its a bit nippy here and Maurice was first in the que to warm himself by the fireside.
Tomorrow I am back in the studio and as soon as all the paperwork is done and dusted I am going to start some sewing and I cannot wait!