A fishy shoal :)

Sorry, I'm blogging twice in the one day!  No, not really to make up for my shortfall in posting during Blogoberfest, I've grovelled  enough about that one!, but to test out my schedule-posting skills - hope this works!!

Here's my finished fishy shoal, which are now in the shop - they look quite sweet altogether, but they are being sold separately - I'm sure they'll cope, hehe . . . .

Good luck little fishies - safe journey to the wonderful world of the web :)

Alison x

Fish processing . . .

I spent yesterday afternoon making some tweedie-fish for the shop - they seemed to go down well whenever I've taken them to craft-fairs, so they've been promoted to online sales :)  (hopefully once I photograph them and package them and list them - pheeeeew!)

They're now all sewn up, stuffed and embroidered - ready to swim off in a little tweedie shoal - pics coming soon  :)

Alison x

my creative space . . . doodle stitching, and back to tweedying

Ah well, all our visiting family have gone back to the mainland, so there's nothing else to it but to get back to 'tweedying', blogging, and all the various tasks involved in running a crafty business - holidays are over, where tweedie-work is concerned.  A day earlier than I intended but there are 'tweedie' matters to attend to, e-mails to be answered and stock-making to get on with :)

I took a little time out yesterday to do a little embroidery as I'd come across a 'practice' tweedie pouch I'd made a while back when I was trying to work out the rudiments of creating a lining - it's very basic but I thought it was perfect for a little practice embroidery.  I took out Aimee Ray's book, which is fantastic for all  'newbie' embroiderers - it's really well illustrated and gives step by step directions on all the basic stitches.  

Fantastic inspiring designs - I love all the 'doodly' images - it's very creative stuff.  Here's my rudimentary attempts - I really enjoyed just going with the flow though, using her designs as a guide - practicing some  stitches as  I went . . . 

I love her little bird designs - so I tried to make my own version.  After I'd done the bird outline, 'Little S' came up to me, looked  at it and said 'but what's it supposed to be???  More work required obviously LOL, so I tried my best to fill it in using 'short and long' stitch, but it's a little rough - I got the general idea though!  I used stem stitch for the branch - I'm not adept at using this stitch as I don't use it very often, but I had fun adding french-knots for flowers and 'laisy-daisy' stitches for leaves - all suggestions from the book.

Here's a little close up . . .

I really enjoy embroidery as a pleasureable pastime - very soothing and relaxing.

I'm back to making more 'tweedie-stock' for the shop today, it will possibly involve a little basic embroidery, but no stem stitch thankfully, hehe!

I'll try and pick up the reigns of Blogtoberfest after my five day absence - ooooops, well I'm only human :)  To err is human, to forgive is . . . . :D

Alison x

P.S. More creative humans here!

Hey ho, hey ho, it's off to work . . . .

Off to the office job today - last day before I have a week or so off for the October holidays, hurray!  Here's a little view of Stornoway as I make my meandering way to work . . . I could have worse views and a less scenic route, but no, it's very nice . . . and sometimes I have a little look at the ducks in the river as I cross the bridge . . . 

I've decided  to take my October break as usual, so huge apologies, but no blog for the next week - if I had been uber-organised I would have done the 'schedule-post' thingummy-jig but alas . . . sorry 'Blogtoberfest'! (I have tried very hard though - honest!)

Looking forward to a relaxing break - perhaps I'll finish off the 'other' sock, then again there's that lovely Noro wool, hehe :)  Ah, the possibilities!

See you next weekend :)

Have a nice day y'all :)
Alison  x

my creative space . . . . the back of it!

Being a little coy about 'my creative space' today - I'm only showing the reverse side of what I'm working on ;-)  It's going really well so far, it's a large piece - and I'm  cracking on with it!  Suffice to say that it's made  entirely from  Harris Tweed and toy stuffing and is the result of some frantic doodling I did last night when I came home from the office.  I'm having fun with this one - back to designing 'softies'/soft sculpture, whatever you like to call it :)  There are a  few 'doodles' on the go! . . . 

I love this tweed, it's a beautiful  combination of colours, and I was being a bit brave/stupid, to use it today  as I wasn't sure how things would go - as it is, they seem to have gone OK :)  

Today in the post I got . . . .

NORO!!!!! I love this yarn - I've been working so  hard on my 'tweedie' business the last couple of weeks I thought I needed a little treat :)  So I bought a couple of balls of it - it's not cheap, but it IS gorgeous!  It's all part of the grieving process from losing the Noro beanies I made last Christmas - I think this will help me feel better ;-)

More creative yarns here :)

Alison  x

Mondrian inspired?

I'm a bit of a modern art fan, when I get round to thinking about something other than Harris Tweed :)  

My Other Half brought these remnant/reject glass tiles home from work the other day - sometimes he brings  all sorts of useless junk home and I have to tell him nicely to take it back . . . but these I liked, and instantly thought, hmmmm, Mondrian . . . 

What would you do with them?  Mondrian-inspired wall art (I was thinking of glueing them to some cork tiles maybe), create a new disco-inspired floor installation, ah la, 'Saturday Night Fever'??? - I did love that movie, hehe! :)

What would you do with them???

See ya tomorrow :)
Alison x

Playing Dolls

I've been in dolly-making mode this week - it's fun to be back with the toy-stuffing again!  I really enjoyed making the first of these which I gave you a little sneaky peek of, last week.  When I made one though, I decided I wanted to make a little set of 3 of them for putting on my website . . .

They sort of evolved as I went along, although I had an idea of how I wanted them to look . . .

. . . a  little bit of vintage lace here, an  appliqued  flower there . . . they were a lot of fun to make :)   Each one has been finished off with hand-embroidered  features, and I added a little Scottish kitsch with the tartan ribbon (OK, actually that's the only ribbon I had to hand, but I DO love to mix patterns, colours, etc in a 'mixty-moxty' kind of way, hehe!).  They're now in my shop here :)

Better not hang around too long today, my poor laptop is beginning to creak and groan under the strain of my daily blogging, or more like from the amount of photos I've been uploading during Blogtoberfest - time to do a little computer housework I think!!

Bye for now

Alison x