WOYWW 800

 WOYWW 800 post celebrations...

Well fancy being part of a group who has been posting  and sharing their work desks once a week for 800 posts - wonderful! 

I have been involved since January 2010.... .

twiglet: What's on your workdesk Wednesday! (twiglet5.blogspot.com)

The link takes you to that first post. Looking back through my old posts was fun. I was amazed at how many things I had made and shared with my WOYWW buddies over the years...

My needle felting machine. You might remember we referred to needle felting as dumfing.. it's the noise you make as you felt the wool to the base fabric.

A few things that I decorated with dumfing. . 

And then I found this photo....

A mermaid tail that I made and modelled for you.🤣

And just a few more random bits and bobs..  .

Sock dolls

Katie Morag doll

and outfit - made lots of times!

I don't know how I found the time to produce the multitude of items shared in my old posts but it has certainly kept me busy and it's lovely to share with others.

So, thanks to Julia and now Sarah for keeping us all going.

Annie and I raised a glass to you all last night when she came round whilst the men were at footie.

Cheers!

xx Jo

WOYWW

 Good morning all. 

I didn't manage to link up with Julia last week so, if you missed my post check out below.

This week I thought I would show you the card that I made for Jan and Gordon's 40th wedding anniversary...

It's a little fabric collage held in place with some free machining.

I hope they had a wonderful day and lots of celebrations. It's quite a milestone isn't it.

This week I have been stocking up Tilly's workshop packs and all the saleable packs that she has available. 

I put together lots of fibre packs with wool tops and yarns and fibres, which can be felted into the needle felted pictures that she creates with her workshop folk. I know she appreciates what I do, but I also thoroughly enjoy playing with the yarns and fibres to create little colour coordinated packs.

Well, that's it for this week. Hopefully Annie will link me today so that you can all see me!

xx Jo

WOYWW

Good morning to all my WOYWW buddies and anyone else who pops in to see what I have been busy with. My sewing room has actually had a bit of stitchy action over the last week...

Ben is hoping Santa will bring him a knight's outfit for Christmas so I have been busy delving into my fabric stash. I made a tabard, hood and cloak - all from fabric tucked away in drawers and cupboards! I hope he likes it.

Then, I had a request from a special friend.

She needed 5 little brooches - they were to be worn to celebrate the life of a special lady at her husband's funeral. A lovely idea.

Out came the lilac/lavender wool rovings. The colour was chosen and 5 little brooches duly needle-felted and a tiny scattering of beads to add a bit of sparkle. I think they will be just right for the occasion.

And lastly.. a little hospital tabard to go with Dr/nurses set for a little one in the family.

Never a dull moment here!

I hope you are all well and not too busy with the build up to Christmas.

Have a great week - thanks for dropping by.

xx Jo

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

Good morning all!
This is my desk today until Maxine arrives to sort and clear. She has had 2 fab days at Acton Scott and has 2 more this weekend - then we will get our room in order!

We really need to make space as she has this new toy to play on

We decided it would be handy if she had one of her own and I found this one on ebay. It is really brilliant and the seller packaged it perfectly and even included some books and some wool.

My only crafty activity for this week has been the finishing off of a couple of twiddlemuffs and some picture mounting for Tilly.

Well that's it for this week - I hope I can get round your desks a bit faster this week.
Thanks for calling by and leaving lovely comments.

Have a great week.

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

 Good morning all.
Just a few bits and bobs for you to look at today.
My own crafting activities have been shelved for a while.
I will soon get back into the swing of things once I have the chance.
On my desk is the gorgeous little Bobble and Squeak hat my friend made for Ben.
It fits a treat and is so snuggly and cosy.
Just above it , you can see some lovely purple and yellow wool rovings that I bought for Maxine to make her needle-felted pansy pics with.
Here is one she made earlier..

AND
Here is my little finished cardi that I made for Ben. He loves the little sheep buttons!

Short and sweet today.
I hope you are all well.
I know many of you will be thinking of Shaz and we are sending her our positive WOYWW vibes and lots of love and good wishes for a speedy recovery.

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 - green tartan dyeing!

So - World Book day is coming up and it seems that Katie Morag is a popular character for children to dress up as, this year.
I had a little bit of polycotton fabric which I made up and showed you last week. Here.
It was perfect for a little green tartan dressing up skirt.
However, it is very hard to find any suitable green tartan.
Not to be out done - I found some cream /vaguely green tartan viscose online and decided to dye it....

One old pan and green fingers later.....

It won't be anywhere near as nice as the other one but I am sure it will look good just the same.
So this week I shall be mostly sewing little green tartan kilts!

Of course, my table is already full.
I have been helping Maxine sort out wool yarns and rovings for her needle felting course.
Lots for you to snoop today.









Have a great week.
Thanks for calling.
If you want to join in our WOYWW blog hop then nip over to Julia's blog and link up.

x Jo

WOYWW

Good morning all.
What a lovely start to September we are having.

I had a fun day out with Maxine yesterday visiting the little Shropshire town of Shifnal.
It has some lovely little shops and I found the Flower Fairy book in a charity shop.
I thought I might create some little collages using the book and poems for inspiration.
The green yarns are for our needle felted pictures. They will be useful for the backgrounds to Maxine's little embroidered pictures.
I found the fabrics at our local car boot sale - not sure why I "needed" them but they will come in handy I am sure.
A girl can never have enough fabric!

Annie will be writing her own blog this week, now that she is back online so I will let her tell you how she is settling in to her new "life".

Have a good week and hopefully I will get round to a few more WOYWW desks now that my computer has settled down.
x Jo

Friday smile

 

Look at that blue sky!

Welcome to the Old Bell Museum in Montgomery.

What a brilliant day we have had.

Our little gallery looked so pretty with walls filled with Maxine's needle-felted pictures and other bits and bobs. (I will post more pics next week).

Lots of lovely folk called in to look around including several friends and even folks from New Zealand.

We enjoyed ourselves just chatting and needle-felting a few more items.

I am still smiling just thinking about it!

 

Join in with more Friday smiles over on Annie's "A stitch in time" blog.

 

Thanks for calling by.

 

x Jo

WOYWW

 Good morning all.
This week we have mostly been needle felting!
On my desk is the big bag of wool rovings that I use for wet felted backgrounds and needle felting.
Maxine came over for a "dumfing" day on Monday. (Dumfing is our name for needle felting because it's the noise the embellishing machine makes as it dumfs through the rovings into the background piece).
We had a lovely day - chatting, dumfing and oo-ing and ah-ing over the scan pics of my grandchild to be!
As usual Maxine did most of the dumfing and I was the "facilitator" ie made the lunch, the drinks, set out the crafts and packed it all away again. I don't mind. It is so lovely to watch her being crafty and chilling out.
Now here is the question....

Sunflowers?

 Or.....

Poppies?

I love both but wondered which you like - just a bit of market research. We are going to do an exhibition of our textile work in Montgomery at the end of July and I think we need to stock up on a few different designs.

So please tell me which you prefer - in fact any comments would be appreciated.
I know you will be honest and say what you think and we love to hear from you.

Don't forget to let me know if you want to swap ATCs this time too.
It will soon be our 5 year anniversary of this wonderful blog sharing WOYWW and a good time to share some of our crafts around the globe!

Have a good week.
Thanks for calling.
x Jo

WOYWW

Good morning all.

My desk is looking a little bit tidier this week - that's because all my bits and bobs and piles of fabric are tucked away under the table!!!

As you see - I have still been very busy.
I have a new Katie Morag style dolly to finish - she just needs hair and a face.

On the left are the little embroidered Christmas trees that will eventually become Christmas cards.

On the right is a little needle felted robin and the Christmas tree that I made at the workshop I went to on Saturday with my daughter Maxine. (Scroll down to my earlier post if you want to know more)

In the front of the picture is the juicy, raspberry pink sleeveless cardi that I am knitting for Lexi.

That's it for today folks.
I will pop in to visit later in the week - we have a funeral today.

Have a great week.
Thanks for popping in.

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

Advent day 21

Day 21  Advent  countdown

When two of my Yorkshire friends came to stay I taught them how to dumf (needle felt).
They loved it so, I packed little bags of wool rovings and yarns and sent them home to have fun. Even now, they still get together for a little dumfing session and really enjoy it.
The little shepherd above was made by one of them and sent to me as my Christmas card this year. How special is that? I love it - thanks Pat!!!

Not many sleeps left till Christmas.
Have a fun filled few days finishing off your preparations.

x Jo