WOYWW - working on new designs

Hello dear reader!

Apologies for my absence last week, I was snowed under. More about that later. You're here to see my workdesk aren't you. Here you go then...

Among all the clobber on the desk you can see my nice pieces of wet felting from a few weeks ago and some linen with little needlefelted landscapes.

I've been slowly working my way through the pieces of wet felting to create new designs. I'm guilty of being a bit hooked on the same designs, so for the last fortnight I've been trying out a few new ideas. Still within my comfort zone of fields, gardens and hedgerows but a bit different. Whadda ya think?

Delphinium

Bluebells and daisies 

This said, I've also had to step up production of my existing sheepy and floral designs by popular demand. My work is now in four shops and galleries and three of these contacted me last week to say my work was going...going...gone and could they have some more?! Chuffed to bits, I started dumfing away and this was how I spent most of last week. Here's the collection I pulled together...

After all the hard work, Ben and I had a well-earned day off to see my friend and her lambs at the farm in mid Wales which was the original inspiration for my sheepy landscapes. We had a fab day!

That's all for this week, thanks for reading. I hope to stop by a few desks later. If you're visiting here for the first time, hop on over to Julia's Stamping Ground to meet lots of other lovely artists and crafters!

Happy crafting

Max x

WOYWW - keeping warm!

Hello all! It's a wild, wet and windy 'What's on your Workdesk Wednesday' today at Tilly Tea Dance Towers so we're keeping cosy in our living room. So today's workdesk photo is actually not the workdesk at all but my footstool!

So on my workdesk today you can see a small herd of 'dumflings', my little needle-felted and embroidered squares. I've had an order for a set of four so I've been busy making a good selection for my customer to choose from.

It's been a hectic week already and it's only Wednesday. I've been putting together the last bits and bobs for my workshop on Saturday where I'll get to share my love of needle felting and embroidery with eight lovely ladies. Will let you know how we all got on next WOYWW.

In between this I've been over to Connections in Pontesbury to set up my new display of my work. Connections has a lovely Local Artists department and I'm chuffed they wanted me to be part of it!

So that's it from me for this week. Thanks for stopping by my workdesk.

Happy crafting

Max x

WOYWW - The Shropshire hoard

Hello all and a warm 'happy December' to one and all this fine 'What's on your workdesk Wednesday'!

Firstly, forgive me for my absence last Wednesday. I took a sabatical to help mum (Twiglet) organise the sewing room following the arrival of new furniture and a huge hoard of craft stuff from storage. More about that later.

You're here to see my workdesk today aren't you? Here it is...

In the foreground are yet more little needle-felted backgrounds ready to work on, so there's lots to keep me busy on these long, cold winter evenings.

One day I'll get round to framing them all (but then I'll have nowhere to store them... note to self: must organise some exhibitions for 2016!) Did I just make a New Year's resolution already?!

To the right is a top secret project - a customer Christmas order- so I haven't been able to share it with you in full just yet. But here's a quick peek...

...or perhaps I should have said a quick squeak!

Now I explained earlier that I'd been helping sort Twiglet's sewing room last week. 'Can it really take a week?' I hear a few of you say. 'Can it only take a week?' I hear others chortle. Well it has...there was quite a hoard. I certainly owed Twiglet some help as much of my sewing time is spent there and a good portion of the crafting hoard that has been amassed is actually mine! The full horror of the task would be too grim to share with you, dear reader, so here's the edited highlights!

Needless to say, neither of us need any more crafting bits and bobs and we could both craft every day next year and barely make a dent in it! Did I just make another New Year's resolution there?!

That's all for today, thanks for stopping by. I'll swing by some WOYWW desks later on today and see what other WOYWWers have been up to.

Happy crafting x

WOYWW - Thank you!

Morning all, welcome to my regular Wednesday post.

I've been a busy bee this week, not just with sewing but also with building up my social media presence. More about that in a moment.

Here's my desk this morning...

A few more dumflings waiting to be beaded and mounted. Thanks for all your suggestions received last week for the ideal collective noun for dumflings. I do particularly like a 'snuggle' of dumflings!

Also on my desk is my latest hand embroidered card.

I will probably make a few more of these 'thank you' cards to send and sell but my main reason for making it was to say a big 'thank you' for all my new Twitter followers and Facebook likers/sharers! I know this includes some of you, dear readers - probably via Twiglet and Wipso who kindly liked and shared my Facebook page. I'm thrilled to say I've already taken some orders on the back of my Facebook page so I'll be busy making up these orders in time for Christmas!

Anyone interested in finding me on social media I am @tillyteadance on Twitter and my Facebook page is https://m.facebook.com/Tillyteadance or click here

My other little shares for today are a couple of photos I took of Shrewsbury this week, just before the wild and windy weather blew virtually all the leaves from the trees.

We're really lucky to have chosen to live in this town - these photos are taken from a bridge near my home which I cross every time I walk into town. Currently a family of swans and several goosanders spend much of their time under the bridge waiting for the town folk to feed them - something Benjamin enjoys to watch.

That's all for today, I've got lots of jobs to squeeze in today as the Husband and I will be spending our evening at a wine tasting event at Tanners, our local wine merchant! Thanks for stopping by and I look forward to swinging by lots of other WOYWWers desks later today.

Happy crafting x

WOYWW - Robins and dumflings!

Happy WOYWW to one and all! Thanks for visiting my regular blog about my needle-felting and embroidery activities.

Here's my workdesk this morning...

Did someone say Christmas is just round the corner? Well in that case it's a good job I am in the throws of making my Christmas cards this morning. I'm continuing on my mixed hand/free-machine embroidered theme with these cheeky robins...

This week I had a visit from a lovely customer looking for presents for some special people in her life. As regular visitors to my blog will know, I have been busy recently replenishing my dumfling stocks so I had plenty to show her! Fresh from a visit to Ikea for frames I mounted all my latest dumflings and set them out on display...

As you can see from my workdesk, I've still got loads of little dumflings to finish off (and a little man to entertain) so I'd best get cracking!

Thanks for visiting my workdesk, hop on over to Julia's Stamping Ground to meet dozens of other crafters busy at their workdesks!

Happy crafting x

WOYWW - Sunflowers and Christmas Pud

Hello all, welcome to my 'What's on your workdesk Wednesday' post. Bit late in the day as I've had a poorly boy with a chesty cough to entertain until bedtime.

My desk is looking decidedly sunny today in spite of the autumnal weather. I fancied a change from needle-felting poppies and pansies for my big pieces so I've been working on sunflowers this week.

This piece has been needle-felted and free-machine embroidered so it just awaiting a bit of beading and hand embroidery before it is complete.

I can't say the Christmas countdown has commenced yet at Tilly Tea Dance Towers, but I have found time to start this year's christmas card production line. Here are the first two.

Regular visitors may spot the similarity between these little puddings and the 'new home' cards I made a few weeks ago. Hopefully I'll find time to rustle up a few more over the next few weeks, though I have several ambitious sewing/crafting projects in mind for Ben's Christmas presents so I'll have to get myself in gear!

That's all for this week folks, thanks for stopping by.

Happy crafting x

WOYWW - new home celebrations

Hello all, welcome to my 'What's on your workdesk Wednesday' post. Bit late in the day as I've been for a long overdue hair cut!

I've had a busy week with several different textile projects on the go.

I've produced more needle-felted pictures (dumflings) as I have the exciting prospect of supplying a few shops in the coming months! These are all ready to bead and mount...

I've also taken time to dabble with some new ideas this week. A number of my friends have moved house recently, or are due to soon, so I have made a few embroidered 'new home' cards. These have been both free-machine embroidered and hand embroidered.

Finally, I've enjoyed watching my little man find his feed as he gets ever closer to walking by himself...

(Note: the vase is on the table, not balanced on Ben's head!)

Hope you've all had a good week too. I'll hopefully catch up on your news when I swing by a few desks after the little man has gone to bed.

Happy crafting x

WOYWW - Deck the Halls with...Hungry Caterpillars

Welcome to another What's on your Workdesk Wednesday!

With only three days left until Ben's birthday party my desk has been taken over by all things hungry caterpillar!

I've made bunting and pom poms to decorate the party pad (a.k.a Nanny and Grandad's house). I've done triangular bunting, rectangular bunting and chevron shaped bunting. I am now suffering from bunting maker's finger. What is this hideous blight I hear you say???! Well it is when you chop away so furiously with stiff pinking sheers that you wear a layer of skin off the middle finger of your right hand. Mum blames it on me being a left-hander!

Nanny (Twiglet) has made a fab banner which she is no doubt showcasing over on her blog.

Not much dumfing (needle-felting) has happened this week. I've mainly been trying to find mounts and frames for my latest work.

As anticipated, virtually none of my mounts and frames fit the pictures I've dumfed!! The difficulty is that dumfing and free-machine embroidery both tend to make a piece of work shrink, so what you start with is not what you finish up with! I think I need another sortie to Ikea to track down some suitable frames...

Once mounted, all my new pieces will be going into my Etsy shop.

It's a short but sweet post this week, lots more birthday bits and bobs to finish. Thanks for stopping by to read my blog. I'll hopefully swing by some other WOYWWers today too.

Happy crafting x

WOYWW - Needle-felted miniature gardens, a trip down memory lane and fairground fun

Morning all! Well it's been another busy week at Tilly Tea Dance Towers. Birthday planning continues with gusto ahead of Ben's first birthday, Ive been listing all Ben's baby clothes on ebay and I've finally got round to moving some of my stored items out of my parents house (more about that later). Despite these jobs I've still made time for some dumfing (a.k.a needle-felting).

Here's the workdesk this week...

Now that I am once again absorbed in dumfing, I decided that I needed to stock up on my supply of embroidery threads.

Ok so to be totally honest I was casually browsing the shelves of TK Maxx and spotted this package of brightly coloured skeins and felt that 'have to have it' warm glow we crafters get when we see something nice. You've got to admit it does look tempting. The question is, will I ever disturb the lovely neat rows of thread to use any of it!!

The dumfing I started last week is also on my desk, now embellished and ready to mount. I bet I've got every mount except the sizes I need!

New dumfing has taken place almost every evening. I had almost forgotten how good needle-felting is for helping you to wind down.

I have used the large background piece from last week's desk to start another poppy picture which will be free-machine embroidered, and I've done a few more miniature backgrounds which will be hand embroidered and made into cards or small pictures.

I'm sure by now you will have noticed some extra little friends loitering around my workdesk this week.

These are my 25 year-old Sylvanian families which have been reunited with their loving owner having been boxed up for decades. The intervening years have been spent lodging with mum and dad and, as they've been moving house, I felt it was time to relieve them of their duty of care! I'm not quite sure what I'll do with my vintage Sylvanian empire just yet. The little man may inherit some, whilst other bits might find a new life via eBay. Whatever the future holds for these woodland furries it's been lovely looking back over my childhood!

My last little pic is from earlier in the week when I took Ben on his first carousel. The boy loved it! He definitely has his mum's love of rides so no doubt we'll have many a fun time in the years to come whizzing around Alton Towers, Disney World etc.

Ill be popping over to Julia's Stamping Ground and look forward to catching up with other crafters taking part in WOYWW.

Happy crafting x

WOYWW - Needle-felting fun and a peacock

Morning all! With the bank holiday I feel like I've lost a day and WOYWW has come round mighty quick this week.

I'm delighted to say I've been able to make time this week for a little light dumfing (a.k.a needle-felting). With all the busy book and sensory toy making it's been a few months since my last felting session. I guess it's like riding a bike...you never forget, but I have to say I felt a bit rusty as I prodded away with my dumfing tool.

So here's my workdesk. . .

I've managed to do a bit of everything but not managed to finish anything!

There are some hand-felted mini gardens which I got as far as hand embroidering and beading....

I'll be running workshops on these later this year and early next year so I'm keen to make a range of different flowers to demonstrate.

There's a selection of wet felted background pieces which I have worked on with the dumfing machine (the most satisfying crafting activity I know) ready to add foreground flowers. I've used three different colours to try and steer myself away from just doing poppies, which I love.

Finally there is a long strip of poppies which I have free machine embroidered but not yet beaded. The poppy picture in the foreground is a felters's answer to a crib sheet - one I made earlier!

My last little show and tell is not my work at all but a snap shot of Benjamin's work desk following a little (mess-free) painting activity we did this week.

He seemed somewhat puzzled as to why I was encouraging him to squelch and prod a plastic pouch selotaped to the floor but he stuck with it. Here's his finished piece. Though the poster paint has cracked on the canvas, I think you will all agree it is clearly a peacock in motion!!

Thanks for dropping by. I look forward to visiting a few workdesks today via Julia's Stamping Ground

Happy crafting x