A little while back I had a vision. It wasn’t spiritual or enlightening, I just had a picture in my head I wanted to put in to fabric. A picture of a tree on a hillside in rich autumnal colours. This was the result:
I have now sold this piece and the lovely lady who bought it commissioned me to make the other three seasons. It has been an absolute delight making these fabric pictures. Have a look at the rest of the year…
On the risk aversion scale I am about as risk averse as you can get, so when I started trading I knew I would have no peace of mind without insurance. When I looked in to insurance to sell worldwide I was quoted almost £1000 – utterly crippling for such a small business – so I decided to limit sales to the EU for about £60. Over the months I have had a number of requests from buyers in USA and Australia and have hated having to turn them away, so determined to track down something more affordable…now I have found it!*
I spent much time yesterday working out my ‘everywhere else’ postal charges – ridiculous timing as Royal Mail prices change on 1 April, but hey ho. So, wherever you are do have a look at my shop!
You will find a few new Easter drawstring bags. Photographing them was a bit of a challenge due to Rio the cat’s love of the camera lens…!
I do love daffodils and when I saw this pretty, simple vase at Barrington Pottery at Barrington Court on Saturday (photos in Deere Diary if you’re interested), it simply radiated daffodils. I am sure I will use it for other flowers throughout the year, but for now the daffodils look lovely in it.
* http://craftinsurance.co.uk/
n.b. the little mouse pincushion in the top photo was a free kit in Prima Makes magazine, I just swapped the wool tail for cord finished with a little metal cap, added bead eyes, rather than the embroidered eyes suggested and filled him with crushed walnut shells rather than the toy stuffing provided. I think he is rather cute, but I feel so mean sticking needles in him!!
After what feels like months of grey, rain and gale force winds, we have had spells of sunshine today and I am choosing to focus on colour.
In the January sales I treated myself to a set of colourful ribbons (Cox and Cox) and a set of threads (Amazon) and some bright pins (eBay). On grey days, they hint of Spring.
The cats have been spending the long rainy days keeping me company – Max asleep on the ironing board (why must he do that? I always have to go over it with sellotape before I use it!) and Rio on the chair next to me.
I think the cats have become so used to constant rain they had not noticed today’s sunshine, so I ushered them outside.
I went out with the cats and found the crocus and snowdrops are coming out!
The pots of young raspberry plants where the raised beds will be in due course, and the wind chimes in the Bramley tree add further pops of colour.
In the kitchen, I have been making seville orange marmalade, stacking them on the windowsill to catch the light.
All these thoughts of Spring make me want to dig out the bright Easter fabric I bought a few weeks back. Now, what to sew….!
