Tuesday 24 March 2009

Wednesday 11 March 2009

Other Blogs

I am starting to follow quite a few other blogs to gain inspiration for my own. I'm off to what I think is a bit of a slow start but looking at other blogs is inspiring me to do more. If I'm following your blog I'll list it on my page.

Textile.net

We are now listed on TextileArts.net

Threads Shop

I'm on my own in the shop at the moment. It's been a difficult couple of weeks and I haven't been able to do as much crafting as I'd hoped but I'll get back on track over the next couple of days.
The shop we have is lovely and it's a joy to work here. It's not been easy mind you. I had visions of opening up a craft shop and sitting behind the counter doing my sewing and waiting for the customers to come in but of course it hasn't worked out like that. It involves so much work keeping the shop and the website running. There is so much competition and while we're trying to be different and stand out from the crowd, there are so many other people trying to stand out that we can go un-noticed sometimes. It's a shame because we put our heart and souls into the business. As alway's we keep battling on and I hope that one day we'll become a recognised name in the crafting world.
I have to get on with my jobs for the morning now but if you're ever in our town, please give us a visit. If your too far away that take a look at our site
and let me know what you think. Your kind comments always help to lift us and keep us marching on. Many thanks x

Monday 9 March 2009


I love beading, I find it so addictive and I think seed beads make a piece look so pretty. So I've decided to add beads to my felted piece to try and lift it a bit.
I have soooo many seed beads at home. I've taken to using stacker jars to keep them in. I used to keep them in little bags and then put them into a bowl when I needed them. The problem was that my sons like playing football in the house and they would frequently knock the bowls on the floor scattering hundreds of seed beads everywhere.
Anyway, here's the piece half beaded. I'm not sure at what point I should stop. I find that one of the hardest things in craft (for me anyway) is putting the brakes on. I find I just want to keep going and going and going. I've ruined a few things by not stopping.

I took my needle-felted piece home with my sewing machine and finished it off by free machining on the remaining petals and some leaves. It's not the best as you can see.
Not one to give up on something, I've decided to keep going with it to try and make it into something usable...like a panel maybe.

My singer


This is my lovely sewing machine that my wonderful mother bought me for my birthday (I'll be 29 in 2 weeks) It's my first every sewing machine and I'm having great fun with it. I'm slowly working my way through the instruction booklet and there's an awful lot to learn.

Wednesday 4 March 2009

Craft Blog Link


Crafty Blogs
I'm having a coffee at the moment and wondering what to do first. I tried a bit of needle felting this afternoon which was going well until I snapped the needle. It was mum's as well so I've just bought her a new one and I now have a half finished needle felted picture. I was thinking that perhaps I would leave it half felted and finish the rest of it off with some free machine stitching on my new sewing machine....yay!!! Not sure how successful it will be mind you because I've done very little free machining before now. I'll have a go anyway and post a pic of the finished result. Try not to laugh :-) It might even end up looking quite good but we'll see.
Mum and I are also getting ready to change the window theme to Easter so we need to start making lots of Easter things. That'll be fun.
This is our shop front at Christmas. We always make a big effort with our windows to make the shop look as welcoming as possible. The shop itself is just outside the town centre. If any of you are ever in the South Wales area, you must give us a visit. For our address details and directions www.threadsofimagination.co.uk

This is me and mum in the shop not long after we first opened last May. The shelves seem so empty compared to what they are now. I think thats a needle felting kit I'm holding....another craft I haven't had a good go at yet. I'll let you know when I do.

Beginning

Today is the first day of my blog.
I'm in our adorable craft shop which my mum, step father and myself set up last May (2008). I've been learning about craft ever since the shop opened and absolutely love learning all the different techniques. I'm still an amateur mind you and so I thought I would set up this blog to share my experiences in becoming an accomplished crafter.
We have a website www.threadsofimagination.co.uk
Mum and I try to put as much of the products we have in the shop on the site and we're always open to any comments you may have on how we can improve it and make it more enjoyable to browse.
So welcome along. I hope this proves to be as fun for you as it will be for me. x