Tuesday 22 November 2011

I've been doing covered journals (see previous post) and decided to branch out into 2012 diaries. Everyone needs a diary for the new year, right? So far I'm experimenting with printed cotton, a great range of shweshwe, embroidered maps of Africa, felt and of course, some hearts. The cotton makes for a neater fit than the tweed (very bulky) and I feel you can't go ever go wrong with shweshwe! I don't feel I've quite 'got' it yet. There are elements of all of it that I really love, and then somehow I don't feel like its really 'working' quite yet. I think the felt hearts (situated, of course, in South Africa) probably stand out a bit too much and I might try some fancy embroidery stitch there rather. Hmm. A work in progress.

So I'll be selling these at the NG Christmas Market (1-3 Dec in Grahamstown, Hill Str) but if anyone is keen to order let me know. I'm on c.brauteseth@gmail.com.

Thursday 17 November 2011

Tweed

Working on some tweed-covered, felt-decorated journals at the moment in aid of building up my stock for the NG Christmas Market. I like how the tweed is really textured and the felt kind of sinks into the fabric when I stitch over it. I must say, some frustration has been experienced in the process, such as having the fabric slip and slide this way and that when trying to stitch over the felt. I'm a rather impatient seamstress, and as soon as something doesn't work I'm ready to abandon it and start on something else. The many overflowing boxes in my cupboard bear testament to that. However, I'm determined to make these things work, no glitches, pulls, tucks or mishaps.

Wednesday 9 November 2011

Get your craft on

So the NG Kerk Christmas Market is looming & I'm pulling out all my stuff to get going. It's always getting going that's the hard part. :) These birdie cushion covers have been stashed away in moving of houses, unfinished, so I thought I'd try get them done in the hopes that it will spark some new ideas.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Thursday 3 November 2011

Good news! I seem to finally have been able to get some sort of internet connection at home. So this is my first official post from home. What joy, what delight, what relief. Thought I'd test out the speed of pic uploads and general usability, and things look good. Except perhaps I don't look so good in the picture on the left here (good times over the Grahamstown National Arts Festival)!