Tree

If you follow Starfish Studio on Facebook you may have seen a photo of some felt leaves that I've been working on.  I stitched onto them using metallic threads and added beads and stars, making each one different.

They were then stitched onto this tree.  The background is lightly quilted in an assortment of yellows and oranges and the tree was cut from a single piece of felt.  It's finished off with red bias binding.

I really enjoyed making this - it took a very long time, is a mixture of machine and hand stitching and involved lots of positioning and repositioning!

Getting organised

My sewing room up in the attic is my favourite place to be, but organising the storage has always been a problem due to the very low, sloping ceiling.  As a result the table surfaces have always been covered with fabric, threads, etc which makes it very difficult to lay anything out properly and also to put anything large through the sewing machine and embellisher.

Determined to find a solution I did a bit of googling and found this fantastic thread organiser which fits into the window recess.  This has to be the best thing I've bought so far this year!

The lack of vertical walls means there aren't many places to fit shelves and consequently these piles of fat quarters had annoyingly been sitting on the desk behind the sewing machine for a long time, but (with the help of my DIY dad) I managed to squeeze some shelves in here.  The result has transformed the place and I'm now spending even more time up in my wee bolt hole! 

Angus Open Studios 2012 - part 2

Part 2 - better late than never!  I spent my second AOS day exploring venues in Arbroath. 

Firstly I revisited Fran Marquis's venue as I enjoyed it so much last year.  As well as Fran's pottery there was work by a variety of other artists on display here.  

Anni Whitehead demonstrating nuno felting.

Bone sculptures 

Anni's beautiful scarves

 Handmade books

Next stop was a collection of fun, quirky work by Kerfuffle, Doodlestuff and Whimsical Lush.  

The tent in the garden was doing its best to take off in the strong winds!

The garage had had a makeover for the event and provided a great setting for the fun, quirky items on sale.

The third venue I visited in Arbroath was shared by three participants - Blue Daisy Jewellery, from whom I picked up some stock, Doris Gilmour with her paintings and encaustic art, and stained  glass artist Sheenagh Young.

Sheenagh at work in her studio.  

Her beautiful hanging hearts, stars and more will soon be available at Starfish Studio.