Tag Archives: Borris Market

I’m feeling pretty pleased this evening following a surprisingly successful bout with my sewing machine!

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I’ve had a reprieve from manning the stand at Mount Juliet today, instead, thanks to Leiko and Emma, I’ve spent the whole day finishing 5 abstract landscapes and creating a vest from a wrap! Basically, I got my super duper straight stitching sewing machine out of cold storage, wound the bobbin and just got to work adding some free machine embroidery to my latest flat felt pictures. Those of you who know me well understand how stressful I find sewing, however, I would like to say that in this case the correct equipment does make a difference, no broken threads, perfect tension and at the end of the day new framed work to bring to Borris market in the morning and Borris House Christmas Fair over the weekend. I was starting to wonder had I been crazy investing in my Janome 1600P last year, fear not though, I’ll definitely get myself organised and continue to do some more stitching in the new year, possibly at Duckett’s Grove considering it’s too cold to felt there at the moment. Pop over to Clasheen on Facebook page to see some photos of the finished work, all these landscapes with the exception of one were felted using a selection of the naturally printed and dyed silk I’ve been working on recently. The odd one out is a piece of needle punch felt which I also naturally printed/dyed, it was then felted onto a backing of undyed needle punch prior to stitching, I’m quite pleased with it and must try some more of this style after Christmas.

Armed with a successful start to the sewing day, I finally was brave enough to cut armholes into a short wrap that I felted last year. This wrap was made in white with a border of black, I dyed it using acid dyes when felted and although loads of people commented on how much they liked it at Duckett’s Grove it never sold.

Armholes underway

Armholes underway

Anyway, after cutting the armholes I pinned the raw edges, tacked them (basted) and having changed the foot on the sewing machine back to a regular one stitched twice around the edges. I’m thrilled with how this turned out, a lovely vest which I hope to take pictures of tomorrow.

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Out and about plus the nuno felting book is almost finished!

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This morning I brought some framed landscapes, two vessels and two of my new felting tools to Borris Food and Craft Market. I wanted to have a fresh display for regulars to browse and it’s nice for local feltmakers to see and hold them in the hand as opposed to on Etsy where I think we only have one ‘Big One’ left. Our second order is being made as I write so Kim you may have that prodder before you know it!

The Modest and Minimalist debut at Borris market this morning!

I’m totally tied up otherwise trying to finish the nuno felting book before Dawn arrives next Tuesday, Chrissie and I are really hoping they will be ready to order sometime on Sunday evening. You’ll have to forgive my lack of words today, I’ve none left over from the book!!!

A lightweight nuno scarf for me!

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On Friday afternoon I felted two ultra lightweight nuno scarves, one for me and one to sell! The ponge silk that I used for both was a beautiful lettuce colour and I combined this with a very fine open layer of my favourite apple green short fibred merino from Wollknoll. I wanted to wear my scarf the following day at the Crafts Council training I was attending and have it match the bag I was bringing so added quite a lot of apple green and turquoise mulberry silk as well as plenty of hand dyed silk throwsters waste. The second scarf I added apple green mulberry silk and plenty of high sheen firestar, it’s lovely to be working with spring shades and I must say it was nice to make myself something for a change! I will be bringing the second scarf to Borris Food and Craft Market on Friday but on the off chance that anyone here is interested it is priced at E40 plus a couple of euros P&P so please just email me if you would like to reserve it and I can invoice via PayPal!

The two sides of my new nuno felt scarf

Still under the weather but felting today

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I’m still trying to shake off the remains of the stinking cold I’ve had. Thanks to a very good cough bottle, horrible but effective black currant Lemsip Max and unlimited quantities of freshly squeezed lemons, oranges and Bulgarian honey I definitely have turned the corner and am feeling quite a bit better. Today I was meant to be felting all day with Carmen, unfortunately she’s now got the dose (not caught from me I might add!) but I’m going to spend the whole day in the studio nuno felting and am looking forward to getting my hands wet and soapy!!! Hopefully this time I will take some pictures, unexpectedly we had our first booking for Tom’s house this weekend so I got tied up finishing assembling furniture and making it comfortable for the guests so never got to post pics (or take any!) from last week as promised. 

Borris Food and Craft Market went well for me on Friday and Saturday, several sales (two nuno scarves and one flower) and another booking for Dawn’s hat workshop as well as another participant for the next workshop I’m teaching at Clasheen myself. It’s very interesting how a continued presence is starting to pay off, I love the social side of meeting the other traders and customers too so all in all I’m very happy that I’ve decided to participate weekly. 

Felting kit winners!!!

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Thanks SO MUCH to all of you who entered the felting kit giveaway, you definitely gave me some nerve wracking hours today as I tried to collate the entries and make sure that no one got left out of the draw! Eventually, between comments on the blog, new likes, comments and shares on FB as well as shares on your personal blogs the final tally was 105 entries, whew!!! I transfered all the names from the various methods (people could enter several times as you well know by now) into a numbered list and used Physic Science to randomly select the winning numbers.

The winning names matched to the numbers are as follows….. 99 – Tracy Dalke (comment on blog) 5 Gay Moller (comment on blog) and 62 Rosemary Finlayson (share on FB), congratulations!!! Please can you all email me with your full contact address and let me know if you would like a ‘cool’, a ‘warm’ or a ‘clashing’ coloured felting kit, I’ll be putting them together first thing tomorrow morning to go out in the post after Borris Market on Friday.

For those of you who are interested in trivia I think that Gay and Rosemary both live in NZ and Tracy is in Montana, the biggest percentage of entries came from the U.S!

Lovely day yesterday, Borris Market and felt flower tutorial is on the way …..

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Alan and I had a lovely day yesterday, thanks for all the best wishes for his birthday!  This morning has been spent making all the last purchases for Christmas (as opposed to last minute purchases!)  and driving into Bagenalstown to hand deliver a present.  Now I have the stove lit, a chicken to go in the oven and some flowers to felt for my mother.  I also need to make a nice piece of flat felt which will then be cut and stitched into a ‘smart phone’ cover as requested by my sister Lizzie.  I am planning to take some pictures of the flowers in progress and then I’ll post my felt flower tutorial as promised, that’s the plan anyway!  As things stand I doubt that I’ll get to any emails or similar today but once tomorrow and the final selling opportunity for my felt is over Saturday is a new day.

Tomorrow morning I will be back in Borris Farmer’s Market with more 3 for E30 specials, please call in and say hi if you are in the area!