Isn't the world beautiful at the moment? I love autumn and all the changing colours, particularly on a day like today when the sun is shining, although the shining sun is highlighting how dirty my windows are right now!

I got a call from one of the organisers of Northwood Craft Market yesterday evening to say that they had a cancellation for this Saturday, I am very excited because-

a) Northwood is only 10 minutes away!
b)They have a Craft Market once a month all year 'round.
c) They had been fully booked until January

Other exciting news......I have just finished an interview for Sew Hip magazine, so much fun! I will let you know when it will be out, there might even be a sneak preview of a new range!

Less exciting and rather annoying news is that my new camera still hasn't arrived, hmmmm. In fact, when I checked it's status today it hadn't even been sent yet. I am not impressed seeing as I ordered it a week ago yesterday and they said it was in stock. Their quoted delivery times are 3-10 working days, we are now on working day number 6 so they haven't failed that yet but I just can't see why they can't get it moving already. It frustrates me that when they say 'in stock' they obviously mean it is 'in stock' with their supplier rather than with them. It feels dishonest and I will not buy through them in future.

Sorry, moan over!

I have just had an exciting delivery; it's my birthday in a couple of weeks so decided to treat myself to a new camera, tripod and light tent. The light tent arrived this morning and it's fab!

It came with white, red, black and blue back drops and it has hooks and loops so you can hang your own fabric as a backdrop and/or suspend a product. It is big enough for all the products I make (save quilts!) yet it packs down to fit in this bag.

I will be busy gradually updating photos of my fabric and products once my new camera and the tripod arrive, I ordered them on the same day but the light tent arrived super fast (thank you Steve's Photo Shop!)

This is the camera I have chosen, it's a Panasonic DMC ZX1 - it has 12.1 Megapixels and 8x optical zoom and lots of lovely extras to stop your photos blurring and face recognition so your chosen people always have the best pictures!

I am upgrading from my old Pentax Option 750Z that I got about 4 years ago, I LOVED this camera when I got it, LOVED the retro styling that concealed 7MP and 5x optical zoom (top spec in those days for a compact!) I still love it but the picture quality is not making the mark anymore and the lens cover doesn't retract properly :( poor old friend, I will try and remember to miss you when your replacement comes!

So sorry I have been absent this week..Michelle and I decided to do our post show wind down in the Cotswolds....we stayed at a lovely hotel called the Lygham Arms in Broadway. I love the Cotswolds, it's so pretty and peaceful there and we were lucky with the weather, glorious bright sunshine until the last day (Thursday) when it was drizzly but it was assigned as a shopping day anyway, Michelle wanted to go to Bicester Village. Our stay was nicely topped off with dinner at my cousin's where it took me almost to the end of dinner to notice that her step dad was wearing a cravat made from two of my fabrics! He looked styling and I will add a pic as soon as I retrieve it from my cousin's camera.

I have been busy booking myself into small, local craft fairs over the last couple of days and so far I can confirm that I will be at -

Bishops Stortford - 22nd October, 14th November and 12th December

Ilford - 6th November

Much Hadham - 22 November

I am also very excited to have made 2 more Etsy sales this evening - both to the same person in Spain!

I am off to bed now, I have an early start tomorrow morning...I am doing a car boot sale to try and offload some of my books - I have a terrible supermarket paperback habit and I've decided I need to cull my collection!

One more day to go

It's the last day of the show today, I am having mixed feelings because on the one hand I am tired but on the other hand I don't want the show to be over, I love the buzz of being there and meeting people, hearing their response to my designs and seeing the same faces in different places. On the familiar faces note it has become increasingly apparant that I am rubbish at recognising and remembering faces and that my sister has a freakish photographic memory. We have had several conversations that are a variation of;

Michelle - "they were at the festival of quilts"
Paula - blank expression

Michelle - "she was looking at our stand this morning, she must've waited to do her spending in the afternoon"
Paula - blank expression

Michelle - "Paula, you just asked that girl if she had a card when you gave her one yourself an hour ago"
Paula - "ohhh"

I sincerely apologise if I have failed to recognise you when we have already met!

We are having a sale today on my handmade products, I have sold about half of the stock and some items are sold out. I was going to keep any left for Etsy or for following shows but then I wouldn't get to make so many new ones!

I also made my first Etsy sale yesterday and it was a lovely lady who had already bought fabric at the show on Thursday (Hi Marion, if you are reading!). I am very, very happy to be having repeat customers already.

Knitting and Stitching Show Day One

Day one went well, it was a lot of fun again to get people's reactions to my designs and products. I particularly enjoyed the fact that there were a lot of school trips there....I don't think a single 15 year old girl walked past my stand without pointing at this fabric and squeaking!

It also made me smile a lot that GCSE and A Level students were taking photos and (lots of) business cards to add to their coursework. I even saw a student from my old school (Hi Lucy!) who did a huge double take to see 'Miss' there!

The most exciting part of the day was being approached by a couple of buyers for stores (one of which will remain nameless but its name begins with an 'L' and it is on a street that begins with an 'R').

More from the show to follow over the next couple of days, I will try to remember to take a picture of my stand to post too.

If you are visiting the show, come by stand K33 and mention the blog to get a free lavender bag!

photos finally!

Covered diaries and address books, they have loops at the side that hold the book closed when you slide a pen through.

Here are the covered notebooks, I bought more this morning so this collection may grow if I have time!

Sorry it is on it's side....this is the baby quilt. I put the top together while I was in France and I quilted it on Thursday - it's backed with baby blue fleece and I used the cheaty sew and flip method instead of binding it.

After finishing the quilt I whipped up some tissue cosies. I didn't have enough packets when I took this but I got more this morning so they are all full now :)

Yesterday's project was cushions - you can see my fabric mountain in the background - the tall boxes are fabric still on the roll and the ones to the right are fat quarters all packaged and ready for sale and the stuff on top is the fabric set aside for me to use.

This little dolly is todays project and she will have some friends coming to join her shortly. The gorgeous boy behind her is my best friend's son Ethan, he's coming to see me tomorrow so I am taking a day off!

And so to the end of another productive day. I managed to do all of the things I set out to do - write instructions, visit Gran, finish quilt - but I also managed to make 11 tissue cosies! The show feels scarily close now, the countdown has started.

Mum and Michelle were making lavender bags today so they have been busy as well :)

eep!

I am just a little bit excited...

...and no...it isn't just because the latest edition of Sew Hip is on the newstand, although that is always a cause for minor celebration in my world.

'Why has she bought three copies?' I hear you ask yourself.

eep!