City of Craft - almost ready!

Just one last post before City of Craft this weekend! This year I have new Christmas cards, a vintage-inspired watercolour of a fairy with a young robin. It's a bit sweet & sentimental but sometimes when I sit down to draw that's just what comes out. These come in sets of four with envelopes, and the cards are blank inside so you can write anything you like.

 I also just finished some more new wool embroidered brooches, this time in blue/green.

To make these I started with a knitted swatch, like a small scarf. Then I wash that and dry it a few times so it's a bit felted. Then I do some extra soapy felting by hand to help it really shrink down and get nice and thick.

This time I dyed the swatch with yellow first, then added some blue after that. Doing it this way instead of just dyeing it green in the first place makes a nice rich blend of blue and green that I really like. Then I dry the swatch and cut it into little circles. Each circle is hand-embroidered using crewel wool. Then lastly I sew a little brooch latch on the back. Done!

I also have some new sewn pincushion/ornaments as well, lots of them made with pieces of my favourite barkcloth fabrics. There are two made with grey and orange wool plaid and crocheted lace.

And a few with a combination of mustard yellow linen, a floral print and vintage lace.

And lastly a few with a blue Japanese cotton print with little trees and deer combined with blue striped fabric and gingham on the back.

If you're not a sewer, they have loops so you can hang them on a tree and they make a nice little stocking stuffer.

And lastly I have these little friendship medals. The wood shapes were made by Beside Herself and bought by me at a Workroom trunk show. I decided to cross-stitch little bars of colours on each one then sew a brooch pin on the back. Beside Herself is the collaboration of Toronto based artists Carolyn Self and Alda Escareño - this talented duo will be at City of Craft as well, tempting you with everything on their table!

Ok, back to work for me... don't forget to visit the City of Craft blog to see samples of some of the swag on offer for the first 100 people to the show on BOTH days, and some of the gorgeous items you could win in the raffles that take place throughout the show.