WOYWW CROP 10 week!

Well only 3 sleeps until our WOYWW CROP 10 get together!
We are looking forward to meeting up with everyone and I promise we will take a few photos and share them next week so those of you who can't make it can join in the fun.

I couldn't resist taking this photo and thought today would be a good day to share it.
Don't they look lovely all together in a big group!

I know it's an idea I have used before but, no two pictures are the same and I had lot's of fun making them.
I will take them all to the crop and then share the remainder next week. I know Shaz in Oz will be getting one so I will post mine and anyone else who is sending to her can pop them in my envelope at the crop if you wish. (Shaz in Oz - I hope that leg is healing well by now!)

Diana (velvetmoth) was my PIF so I parcelled up one of my little dumflings for her. Very kindly she sent me this gorgeous ATC and lovely bits and bobs. What a lovely bunch of crafty buddies our WOYWWers are!

I might just have to have a go with the pretty items and see what I can come up with. As you know, I am not a paper crafter but, I feel inspired to try as Diana's artwork is always so beautiful.

So, that's it for this week.

See you soon!!

xx Jo

WOYWW

A little visitor has taken a keen interest in the dumfing machine today! (Embellisher or needle felting machine)

I knitted him over the weekend for my sister in law as she is having a few problems with her arthritis. (She is making them to raise funds for Birmingham Children's hospital).

I knitted one for Ben last year - except that his always looked a bit long in the body. Now I know why!! I knitted the small size ted but gave him the large size body!! Oh wel, Ben loves him just the same.

It's a short post today - I am helping Maxine stock her shelves in Acton Scott Farm Museum, Shropshire Hills Discovery Centre and the Bog Visitor Centre. So we are off to the Shropshire hills!! 

Have a great week.

Thanks for calling by.

xx Jo

WOYWW

Just a late in the day quickie!
It's been a busy few days with little time for crafting, but my dear sis and hubby really deserved a little dumfling for their coral wedding anniversary this week. It was just a hasty bit of dumfing and stitching but I quite liked the result.

Below are my fabrics all sorted for some bunting - perfect for a little girl's christening, I think.

So, now to nip round a few WOYWW desks and see what my crafty friends have benn up to this week.
Thanks for calling and leaving lovely comments.

xx Jo

WOYWW

Here we are again
Happy as can be.....

Where do the weeks fly to?
This week really has flown.

Maxine has been busy dumfing (needle-felting) some fab new pictures and brooches so I have been busy mounting and packaging them in my spare time and playing with diggers, dumpers and dinosaurs for the rest of the time! Happy days!

 I have also been creating some of my woolly hearts made from felted wool jumpers. So here are a few of them!

That's it for this week.
Sorry it's so short but that's good isn't it?

Thanks for calling by.

x Jo

WOYWW

Well - at last, a bit of crafty activity from the Twiglet work desk!!

 

 Firstly, my wool rovings and yarns all laid out ready for wet felting.

I haven't done any wet felting for ages so it's fun to have a dabble and just for a change I raided Tilly's stash of gorgeous yarns and rovings!

Below are the dollies' clothes mentioned last week. Apparently they were well received by Ben's little friend. Her mummy is expecting a new baby so she is dolly mad at the moment and spent ages changing dolly's nappy! I think I shall be making a few more of them for other birthdays coming up in the next few weeks.

These are the latest twiddlemuffs...

Some are going to a local residential home, so I am sure they will be well loved and twiddled.

Today, I will be hosting Maxine and Ben. She is so thrilled with the response to her "Tilly Tea Dance" creativity but with success comes more hard work, so she will be dumfing and stitching while I play diggers and dumpers!

Have a great week everyone and thanks for calling by.

x Jo

WOYWW

 Just a few jolly pictures to brighten a rather gloomy day!

Firstly the lovely ATCs I have received over the last week or so...
I love the way they are all so different and each one a tiny work of art.
Thanks lots to our WOYWW friends from around the globe.. Cardarian, Sharon K, Lisa D. Laura and Elizabeth. They really are beautiful and I now need to make a little book to keep them in.

 Here are two little pals who have been having a snoop around my untidy work table today!
We are calling them Izzy and Ben because they are a little gift for Ben's bestie Izzy.
Ben has a set that like to hide in the pockets on my red cushions and he loves them.
(I think he would quite like these two as well so I will have to put them up out of sight!)
Oh - and of course, all credit must go to Flutterby Patch - the creator of the little knitted dolly pattern.

AND lastly, my Shrewsbury Town Footie Club Twiddle muffs.
(So glad I didn't knit England ones - oops!)
They are all ready to go to the hospital along with the final bunch of about 20 normal ones.
Now I need to find something else to keep me busy - a little dumfing maybe?

That's it for this week.
I am sending a special hug to Julia and a big thank you for writing such an amazing blog yesterday. We are with you all the way and willing you back to good health blog buddy!!

Thanks for calling by.

x Jo

WOYWW

Happy Wednesday all!
I have to take my car into the garage this morning so I am quickly posting a few pics to share with my WOYWW buddies (and anyone else who pops in to see what is keeping me out of mischief this week!)

I finished off my little chick/chicken finger bobs for Ben and then hid them ready for him to find them when he called yesterday. He kept two here and took two home to play with.













In my crafting time, when I have my sewing room to myself, I have been busy with a little project that is nearly finished but I will be sharing it a bit later in the year! Or maybe just a taster pic for you....

At other times Tilly Tea Dance has been beetling away on my table making and mounting more of her gorgeous dumfling pics. Apparently the shops that she has placed them in, are rapidly selling out!

Of course with the dumfing (needle felting) comes the need to restock our rovings.
Just look at this heap of fluffy gorgeousness that I ordered from Sara's Textures.

Sara is brilliant - she created just what we wanted by dyeing or blending yarn specially for us.
It is a blend of wool and silk and will dumf most beautifully I am sure.

And lastly here are my latest Twiddlemuffs - all finished and ready to go to Shrewsbury hospital.

Well that's all I have time for. I hope you enjoyed a peek at all my crafty bits and bobs!

I hope I can get round a few desks this week for a good snoop.
Meanwhile, thanks for calling.
See you soon.

x Jo

WOYWW

Thank you for joining me on this cold and frosty morning.
It's a beautifully sunny, crisp winter's day here.
A day for a brisk walk in the sunshine followed by a cosy crafty afternoon I think!
We will see what the day brings.
Firstly I need to clear my table and sort a few more cupboards.

Last week I was inspired by the lovely stitchy work by Diane - Velvet Moth
Annie and I managed an afternoon of dumfing while the men went to footie.
I tried a few little dumfy embroideries using natural colours.
So here they are alongside my drink mat tile that Ben made me for Christmas.

Not a very good photo and I think I need to practise a bit more before I every reach Diane's standard but a lot of fun was had nevertheless.

Well that's it for today.
I hope I manage to visit a few WOYWW desks a bit earlier this week - it took me till Sunday to get round last week!

Have a great week and enjoy the sunshine.
x Jo

WOYWW - more dumfing fun!

What does a person do when their little playmate is on holiday in the sun?
This week I have my sewing room to myself so I got down to some serious dumfing!!
Well, wet felting first of course to create a woolly background.
Here is the one I started last week - I think I will save this for Maxine to embellish.

AND here is the one I had fun in experimenting with.

This is it with some free machine embroidery added.

One of our greatest sources of inspiration is Marmaladerose.
She makes the most amazing felted pictures and I just wanted to have a go at something different to my usual thing. We usually embellish on top of the background piece whereas Marmaladerose puts most of the detail into her wet felting. It is totally stunning and I can only imagine how tricky it is. Pop over and see what she does.

I hope you have been able to enjoy the late September sunshine. It's been glorious here for the last week.
Well, I will get back to my dumfing.

Have a great week.
Thanks for calling by and joining in with the WOYWW fun!.

x Jo

WOYWW - dumfing!

Good morning fellow WOYWWers!
AND how are we all today? Well, I hope.

Today I am in the mood for dumfing.
I dipped into my bags of gorgeous wool rovings and set out the "fluff" for a piece of wet felting.
This will become the background to one of our needle felted (dumfed) pictures.
It's a wet job so I should really be doing it in the kitchen but the bright sunshine was beaming through my sewing room window so I thought I would tackle it here where all my bags of rovings are stored.

The two little poppy pictures are ones that Maxine made earlier using another of my dumfed background pieces. She is hoping to get a good stock of pictures finished ready for the Christmas rush!!

You will have to pop back next week and see what has become of the latest wet felted piece as I doubt I will have time to do it and take a photo for this post.

Just in case you have no idea what I am talking about - here are a few we made earlier....

Well that's it for this week.
No doubt Maxine will be blogging (Tilly Tea Dance) about our happy birthday party for Ben who is now one. It was a really lovely "sunny day in the garden" sort of party - we were so lucky with the weather.

Have a great week.
Thanks for calling by.

x Jo

WOYWW

I have had a lazy few days and not much crafting by me has gone on at my table this week.
Maxine, on the other hand, has been busy dumfing away and creating some gorgeous needle felted pictures to put in one of the galleries in town. She will post them on her Tilly Tea Dance blog if time allows.

Dumfer at the ready for today's session!

So, my main activity has been playing with Ben - such a joy. He is growing fast and learning all sorts of new skills. He can now walk along behind his new brick truck walker and is so proud of himself. What a lovely age! I can see that I will be running to keep up with him soon - great fun!

My workspace for today!

My other news is that one of my Yorkshire friends has just set up a little business making beautiful knitted hats. She has called it   " Bobble & Squeak" 

Pop over and check it out - they look so cosy!

So that's it for another WOYWW - the weeks are flying by - I can't believe we are in September already.

Thanks for calling by - I shall look forward to snooping round a few desks later.

Have a great week.

x Jo

WOYWW

All change!

I decided to move my craft table away from the window - Partly to make more room for extra crafters (You know who you are!!) and also, at this time of year it is almost too bright in front of the window and we suffer from glare as we craft on a sunny afternoon.
So this was me yesterday....

I was sorting out some ideas for needle felting (dumfing) and had a few of my books out looking for inspiration.

And this is me today....

Table turned through 90% and a little bit tidier!
On the end is a little hoodie that I have just finished knitting.
Ben has lots of little girl friends who will soon need 1st birthday presents. All the mums seem to like hand knitties, so I have been busy.

Lastly, as I sorted out all my bits and bobs, I found my lovely ATCs waiting for a book to keep them in.
This lovely ATC and clever little envelopes came from Robyn (Rainbowweaves blog). It was at my old house waiting for me. I love all the stamps from around the globe - so appropriate for a WOYWW swap!

Thanks Robyn.

That's it for this week.
Have a great week but take care in the heat wave.
I hope our blog buddie Julia has enjoyed her hols - pop over and join our blog hop on her Stamping Ground blog spot!

x Jo

WOYWW

 Good morning all!
Welcome to my crowded work table.
I thought I would take a pic to show my blind in place together with the matching table cover.
That is the last blind I need to make - just a few pairs of curtains to get sorted now.

I took a close up of the table top so that you could have a good snoop...

• binoculars so that we can see what is on the pond the other side of the building site. On Saturday Annie and I spotted a heron, coot, mallards, geese, swallows and a buzzard!
• some blue cotton yarn to make hoodies for Ben
• my hand dumfer and dumfing machine 
• some wool rovings and yarns
• on the left, the reverse side of my ATCs - I have managed to make a few!!

I will show and tell my ATCs on the WOYWW 6th anniversary at the end of the month.
Hopefully I will have made a few more by then.
If anyone wants to swap, leave a message in the comments or email me.
We always have lots of fun sending and receiving them so feel free to join in!
Thanks to the efforts of the lovely Julia, we have been blog hopping around hundreds of crafty workdesks worldwide for the last 6 years! Time flies!

Have a great week.
x Jo

WOYWW

Just a quick post today - from my dumfing desk at Annie's!!
Doesn't she always capture me in a pensive mood! I do smile - honest I do!!!
I am making some bookmarks for our exhibition.
Annie says to note all the boxes and clutter behind me - eagerly awaiting a moving date!

If you fancy popping over to the exhibition - the details are below....

 

Apologies in advance, just in case I don't get round many desks this week.
I am busy getting ready for the above. I will set it up on Thursday evening and then Maxine and I will be there from Friday onwards. I won't have computer access and we will probably spend our days dumfing, demonstrating and chilling out. Bliss!

Have a great week everyone - enjoy the sunshine.

Thanks for calling by.
x Jo

WOYWW - latest crafty activities!

Good morning all!!

This week I have been mostly dumfing little "fairy gardens" and sewing camouflage fabric for a fellow WOYWWer. It's lovely to be able to help out other craty folk isn't it.
Caro asked if I would make a curtain for her little boy's under-bed den. I love a challenge!!
So we bought a double duvet in camouflage fabric and I have been busy with my little project.
I will let Caro show and tell the finished item when it is in place in the "top secret" den. Don't you just love the imagination of a child.

So - here's my table - well it's definitely there somewhere beneath the sea of camo- fabric.

AND here is a little collage of some of my favourite dumflings.

I had a brainwave for mounting and selling them.
These little canvasses are 10cm x 10cm.
I painted little scenes as a background and then attached my little dumflings.
(If only I had LITTLE dumflings!!!)

Let me know what you think.
Some of the others will go on cards.
Some may even go in my little frames that I am re-cycling.

Never a dull moment here!!

Join in the blog hopping fun over on Julia's Stamping Ground.
It's a great chance to see what we crafty WOYWWers get up to and you can give Julia a virtual hug and help her get better!

Have a great week.

x Jo

WOYWW

Another week - another Wednesday!!
Hoping you are all well and able to make the most of the odd fine day we have had recently.
The birds are singing and the Spring flowers are out - we have primroses, crocus and tiny daffs blooming alongside the hellebores - beautiful!
I love this time of year!

My table hasn't seen much activity this week.
This is my SIL's birthday card that I showed a peek of last week.

 



I haven't had much time for crafting in my sewing room...
BUT we had a fab crafty day last Thursday so I will show you my dining area all set out with "dumfing" machines and materials.

Four of us enjoyed a day of happy company, dumfing and lunch with a glass of wine.
The day flew by and a good time was had by all.

Judging by last week's comments when I told you what I planned - there are quite a few folk out there who would have liked to have joined in.
I did suggest to Lunch Lady Jan that, as I am out in the sticks and a long way from anywhere, she would need to bring her PJs if she wanted to come a-crafting!!
Maybe I should be offering crafty weekends to anyone who fancies escaping to the country.
He he-  I can just see hubby's face when hoards of crafty bloggers descend upon us!

I forgot to take any photos of the lovely little dumfed pieces the crafters made.
They all went home with 2 or 3 finished pieces and were so keen to carry on they decided they would each buy a hand dumfer! In fact my school friend Chris bought one and showed her 6 year old grandson how to do it - this is what he made over the weekend! Start 'em young hey!

Well that's it for this week.

Have a great week. Thanks for calling by.

x Jo

WOYWW

Just a quick post for today....

My latest little Katie Morag doll is showing off her "dumfed" kilt. You can see another on the table waiting to be finished. She looks so smart doesn't she.
To the right on that lovely little wooden card stand (the wonderful Julia gave it to me to celebrate WOYWW) is a sneaky peek at a card I have just finished. It looks a bit like the canvas I made a week or two ago. I will show it in all its glory next week when it has been shared with the birthday girl.

Well that's it - got to rush - shopping to do and cakes to bake.

I am having some crafting buddies round tomorrow for a "dumfing" day.
If it works well I will roll it out as dumfing workshops - Ha ha - only joking Annie!!!
I have borrowed Annie's embellishing machine so that we can have two machines going as well as our little hand dumfers (no tittering there please!)
I will fill my dining area with all sorts of dumfable wool rovings, yarn and fabric and we will dumf, eat, chat and giggle all day.
I will let you know how it goes.

Thanks to all those who pop in and leave lovely messages.
I will try and visit a few more WOYWW desks this week.
x Jo

Needle felting with Gretel Parker

Just a few pics to show from our lovely day with Gretel at a workshop in Rustic and White, Wyle Cop, Shrewsbury...

 

 A shelf with some of Gretel's books and little needle felted characters.

 

 

Maxine in action "dumfing" her Christmas tree

 

The array of finished trees at the end of the afternoon.

We had a brilliant day working with Gretel - she was a very patient teacher and we certainly developed our needle-felting skills - though I doubt we will ever reach Gretel's skill level. Her little characters are so cleverly made with such artistic flair  and, no doubt, many long hours spent working on each and every one.

Jo at Rustic and White provided us with the coffee and cakes needed to sustain a high level of industrial activity!! It was just brilliant to chill out and craft together with Maxine and other lovely crafters. I am sure Gretel will be doing more workshops so, if you are interested, pop over to her blog The Middle of Nowhere and see what she is up to this week.

Thanks for calling.
x Jo

WOYWW - felting or dumfing

Good morning all!!

Before you is a nice neat room and tidy table - I just had to clear out some of my untidy mess after my weekend of crafty activity (See gorgeousness on post below!)

On my table this morning are three pieces of handmade felt. I spent yesterday morning wet felting these.

This one is for Annie. She finds wet felting difficult because it hurts her wrists and shoulders so, I offered to make a piece for her to use as a dumfing background.

This is what it looked like when all the wool rovings were laid out ready to wet felt.







And below is my experiment.
I fancied making a flower garden so I wet felted a background piece and then I will work on it with my embellisher (dumfer) and see what happens.

The little pictures below were needle felted onto a piece of wet felted background  and then machine embroidered and beaded.

I think we will pop them in the shop once they are finished off.

I have started the "mini felted picture" shelf already.

I put a few of my little dumflings in there so click here to have a look, if you are interested.

And lastly....

the latest little ATCs to arrive through my letterbox.

They are all so beautiful and will just about fit on my A3 collage board, so I will be finishing that off later. Thanks lots everyone - it's been a fun going global!

Now to see what Julia has been up to in her Stamping Ground this week.

Have a great day.

See you later

x Jo