All the Greens (almost!)

I'm trying to squeeze the last few days into one post - it's probably not a very good idea, but!!!

We've been busy trying to do a declutter of our little house on top of the hill - I think April has been officially earmarked as Spring-cleaning month, so I have to grab the urge before it dissipates, pheeeew, I'm tired just thinking about it! Horsing on though . . . . :) (Hope any family members are impressesd by this new impetus, if they are reading my post, hehe!)

On to more interesting topics though! I grabbed a quick unexpected hour or two at the weekend (we still had a couple of days of family holiday left) to cut out some froggie legs and eyes for my new kit - it was great to get this part done, as the instructions are all ready, it's just the donkey work of cutting and assembling remaining to do.

So Mr Froggie has been officially dissected - it was a very clean procedure though, no blood and guts, honest - just stuffing, tweed and felt, hehe!! He should be available as a kit, certainly by next week, just got to get a little assembly line going - now where's my youngest child gone? :)

Last night I was invited to the local church group to give a little display/demonstration of my crafts, along with 5 other crafty local ladies. Not being a regular church-goer, this was slightly alien territory for me, but it was a fun evening and I even sold a couple of my applique maps (at much reduced prices, hehe - well half my customers seemed to be relatives!!). Here's the map I was using to give a demonstration of my hand sewing techniques . . .

. . . and here's a finished one which my husband's aunt purchased off me - I'll be framing this one for her so she can send it to her daughter in Canada. I sold a ready-framed map to another lady who was also going to post it abroad to a relative (which is exactly one of the ideas behind making the maps - as gifts for Hebrideans now living further afield - the felt map is of the Outer Hebrides/Lewis and Harris).

The maps are a bit of a nightmare to cut out which is probably why I didn't really continue making them in batches, but I have a little store left of them, so . . . craft fairs coming up soon! I still love to make them though - I think they're a nice souvenir item for visitors, just pretty time-consuming to make! (they're available to purchase on my own site)

At the end of the evening the organiser of the church group asked the craft ladies to choose a free gift from their bring-and-buy stall as a thankyou for doing their displays - I spotted this lovely quilted pin/needle case and couldn't resist it - it's beautifully made:

All in all, quite a pleasant evening and I only had to go 5 minutes down the road - hmmm, perhaps I should start going to church, my mother-in-law would be delighted, hehe!! :)

P.S. One of the ladies demonstrating her craft was showing her beautifully handmade quilts (I think maybe she made the needle case) - I couldn't take photos though as it didn't seem quite the thing to do!