It's poppy season! WOYWW

Good afternoon folks! Thanks for dropping by to catch up with the activities from my work desk this week.

So here's the desk today...

Regular visitors may recall that I love to felt poppies. So you can imagine my delight when I saw was my first little cluster of poppies this year. OK, so it was just on a roundabout on the ring road but it immediately prompted me to pull out the red fluff and needle felt some poppies.

These are a work in progress. I started with a wet felted background onto which I've felted a variety of green wool and other fibres to create a background. Onto this I've felted red blobs then free machine embroidered over the top to create more texture and detail. To this I'll be adding embroidered daisies and beading all the poppies to give them centres.

Shropshire has some beautiful fields full of poppies so I shall be looking for opportunities to photograph them.

On the subject of photos, here's one I took from my lounge window of the summer solstice sunset last night. Whatever was going on behind those trees must have been pretty spectacular - such gorgeous shades of pink, purple and blue.

Visitors to last week's blog post will know I had a 'meet the maker' event planned at Shropshire Hills Discovery Centre on Monday. The centre sells my pictures and the aim was to give visitors an insight into how my work is created. Here's my 'work desk on tour'...

I had a lovely afternoon. Lots of people stopped to look at what I was doing and I had some great feedback about my work. I even did a demo for a group of 15 primary school children who were visiting the centre. Children ask the most interesting questions, don't you find?

"How to you get red sheep wool... do they dye the sheep?"

"How many times have you stabbed yourself with that needle Miss?"

"Do you like my spiderman wellies?"

All good fun and a few enquiries about WI and craft group talks so it was a worthwhile day.

Anyway, that's all my news. I must dash as we've just bought a bicycle seat for Ben to ride on my hubby's bike and we want to take him for a spin before it rains (again!).

Thanks for stopping by, I always really appreciate your comments.

Happy crafting,

Max x

WOYWW - Felting video star

Hello dear reader! Welcome to my weekly blog, a whistle-stop tour of my workdesk and my week's work.

So here's my workdesk this morning...

Ok, so it's actually the sofa today. I've got a stall at a local fair tomorrow so I'm frantically finishing off a few last bits and bobs. The workdesk is covered in boxes and bags to take with me.Today I'll be working on mounting these daisies which incorporate all my favourite processes - wet felting, needle felting, machine embroidery and hand embroidery.

On that note - this week I completed a project I've been planning for a while. I often get asked about the various processes that go into my work so I decided to take a series of photos while I produced a piece. Click here to see how I take a pile of wool, fibres, silk and thread and turn it into this...

When I wasn't preparing for the fair I was card making. A friend of mine is expecting twins so I made a quick little card for her baby shower at the weekend...

Meanwhile, my not-so-little baby has been busy this week too, supervising his Grandad in the building of a garden step.

Right, that's me for this week, thanks for stopping by! You can read about the work of many other artists and craftspeople by visiting WOYWW (What's on your Workdesk Wednesday) this week hosted by the lovely Lunch Lady Jan!

Happy crafting,

Max x

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 - 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