Blog

11 July 2023

CATCHING UP!

I am afraid I have been rather quiet for a while, but as some of you may know I am one of the Directors of Wonderwool Wales and do most of the organising and running of the show, so for at least 5 months of the year it is almost impossible to work on anything of my own.

Anyway, I am back in Chrysalis mode now, although that is competing with my rather large garden whilst the weather is so nice. I will show you my garden in another blog.

The British Craft House have migrated to a new web site so I now need to work on my online shop that I have with them, to make alterations and updates, as well as work on my own website. Social media is also calling, such a pain when all I want to do is gardening and creating!

I have been teaching felting workshops again which has been lovely and have had some fun groups. Last year I was asked to take a workshop for Rowan Tree Travel who are based in the USA and who organise wool based tours all over the world. They bring a group to Wonderwool Wales and last year and this year I was delighted to be asked to take a felt workshop for them. Both groups were really lovely and such fun, we all had a great time. Next year they have asked for possibly 2 workshops, each for a different group.

There are also several workshops and talks booked for various groups over the coming months, and more workshops to prepare for Textile Junkies and The Qube Gallery, dates for some of these are on the Workshops page of my website. I am taking a two day workshop for Meirionnydd Textiles group at the end of this week, Felting to Embroider. This particular workshop has been very popular, with the first day making decorative wet felt and then using the second day to hand embroider on to it.

On the creative side, I came across some lovely fabric in a charity shop and thought I would use some of it to incorporate into a felt vessel. I was not sure how well it would felt, but after a lot of hand work and rolling I am pleased with the result and have added some simple embroidery to finish it.

I have also been making felt and fabric hand embroidered lavender hearts to add to the collection for sale. Hand embroidery is now a passion of mine and there is nothing nicer to work on than handmade felt. These beautiful hearts will be added to my online shops on my website and The British Craft House.

I have just finished my Frog hanging which was started in a workshop with Nikki Parmenter recently. I loved the technique and really pleased with the finished piece.

Daisy, my little Shih Tzu, and I have been busy with dog training at Puppy Plus in Newtown, where we have been working towards the Kennel Club Good Citizens Awards. Daisy passed the Bronze last Autumn and the Silver this Spring, we plan to do the Gold in the Autumn. Daisy also won the Small Dog Class at Bryngwyn Hall Summer Fair the other weekend, so was sporting a red rosette around the show afterwards. She has come such a long way in the 17 months we have had her, she came to us as a 1 year old lock down dog, not socialised, frightened of everything & no training. It just goes to show that if you put in the time you can have a lovely well behaved little dog that you can take anywhere.

Do not forget to check out the Workshop dates if you are interested in coming along to one.

Catch up with you again soon.