Get Stuffed...,

Volume 3 is out now, available here. It's full of lovely softies, including my softie shoes.

Thank you to everyone who visits Lucykate Crafts for all your support throughout 2012.

See you in 2012!

The face behind it all...!

HAPPY NEW YEAR

I cannot say those words without thinking of that old Abba song!

* and please note, new camera, present from 'im indoors, new camera is very good, it's my photography that's a bit dodgy!

New year, new leaves...

I can't believe that 2012 is nearly over already, it seems to have passed by so quickly.  This point in the year lends itself so naturally to being a time to reflect, and that's the thing about writing a blog, it's all here, in the archives, a years worth of posts.  As we've been doing a bit of traveling and visiting over christmas, we've also had time to have more of those conversations, you know, the ones where Mr LK opens the top of my head, asks a few questions and then waits for something profound to happen.  He's actually very good to talk to about the important stuff, I've often thought about sticking him online here for a web chat!  He'd certainly open up some interesting thoughts for anyone who feels they were a bit stuck in a rut creatively. 

Our conversation last night was mostly about the future, our future, the house's future, his future and the future of Lucykate Crafts.  There is a lot I don't know the answer to yet, but one thing I do know, is how lucky I am right now.  Lucky to have had, and still be having this time at home, with the children and the time to try out Lucykate Crafts.  It hasn't always been like this, for 12 years I was the main breadwinner, I returned to work when Lucy was only 5 months old, she was with a childminder from 8 til 5, every day.  Everything came to a head when she called me by our childminders name, and we all knew in an instant, things had to change.  And change it did, now Mr LK brings home the bacon, and given that he essentially has 3 jobs, my official post in this house is to look after the family, make sure everyone is fed, happy, and the toilet is clean!  Any time spent on Lucykate Crafts is a real luxury and a joy for me, something to savour and expand.  So, what is going to change here in 2012?  Well, I suppose if I write it down, then I have to stick to it, right?!  So here goes, plans for 2012,

1.  I think I'd like to re-design the blog layout and colour scheme

2.  Learn how to use the graphics software I have in order to design a range of patterns

3.  Launch a range of patterns both in paper and PDF format

4.  Bring together my ideas for a craft book and refine the whole concept

5.  Launch a more official web site to sit in conjunction with my blog

6.  But firstly, I really want to revisit the eye patch tutorial.  I get emails regularly from grateful parents, who after struggling to get their child to cooperate with patching, have made one of these.  It is about time I followed it up with some more detailed instructions for a boys version.

As always, after christmas, there is a pile of new reading material to get me started...,

I love the format of Anna Maria Horner's book, it's like a little folder, a pocket at the back for patterns and is spiral bound inside.  There is something about books like that, that call out and say 'pick me up, open the pages and sew'!  

We're off on another trip in the next few days, so no doubt our in car conversation will continue and help me continue to develop my ideas and aspirations for Lucykate Crafts.  But for now, it's knitting (sewing for me) club tonight, and I have absolutely nothing ready to take along.  No unfinished projects, no softies on the go, nothing!.  I'm tempted to just fling some fabric in a hoop, grab some thread and a needle and embroider up a little stitchette design made up as I go along, what do you think?!

Secrets revealed...

This is the cushion I made for my mum for christmas, it is her family flower garden. There are three hearts planted, which are her three children and nine flowers growing to represent all her grandchildren. I made the cover with an envelope back, I guessed it was wise to have it removable in case it ever needs washing!

And, this one was for my mother-in-law, a sewing cushion as a passion for making things is something we both share.

Just a quick hello to any new visitors from Sew Mama Sew, please come in, make yourselves at home, have a mince pie and some mulled wine!

Plus a big thank you to Beth for mentioning my owls.

Next project is Lucy's birthday on the 6th January and she wants me to make her something, not sure what yet, so watch this space...!

If you got any money for christmas...,

you may be tempted by this,

"Sew it All" is a new American sewing magazine by the people behind Sew News. There are projects by fellow UK designer, Janet Clare, and US designer extraordinaire, Alicia Paulson to name but a few, and also there is me!

It's a really simple idea for homemade napkin rings to spruce up your dinner table.

The leaf motif is aimed at a beginner level, the flower being more suited to a more advanced stitcher. There are lots of lovely projects in the magazine, some even available to download from their website. Happy Stitching!

Merry Christmas,

Christmas Day is almost here,

Christmas Eve is almost over, and so is my husband's birthday.

He turned 40 today,

Here's to our first white christmas in years!

All I want for christmas...

...is to be able to breathe through my nose.

Me & the kids have all been ill, fingers crossed the coughing will stop before the big day.

But before then, we've another big day ahead, as christmas eve is my husband's birthday.

I've only made one present this year, a Fox.  Quite a poignant one given he is on the front cover of the book.  See you in 2012!

I'd like to dedicate this post to...

my Mum!

She's having an upside down christmas this year having just moved house (during which, just about everything that could go wrong, did go wrong), and is still in the process of making the new house habitable.  One of the positive sides to her downsizing, is that certain things have been passed on to me during the clear out.  Things that remind me of my childhood, and that actually my keen interest in making things, has quite clearly come from her.

When my mum was a child, she knitted clothing for her dolls.  I remember playing with all of these when I was little.  I thought they were the most precious things in the world.  And now they've been passed on to me.

They are even more precious now, and I'm reluctant to let my children play with them as I worry about causing damage, but today as I was photographing them for this post, it did occur to me that, yes they are precious, but not as precious as their creator.

my Mum!

Merry Christmas, see you in 2012!

Merry 'crafting' Christmas!

Well, it's almost here, and this year I have never been so relieved that I only had two presents to hand make.  I have been ill, and after three days in bed, am finally just beginning to come back to life.  If it wasn't flu, it was a pretty close second.  Both Lucy and Luke have had it as well, and are also luckily now on the mend, good job too as tomorrow is not only Christmas Eve.  Oh no, far more important than that..., 

it is Mr LK's birthday! (He'd like to point out he's not yet 40, just 39!)

Terrible day for a birthday, but still we manage to squeeze in a party, it is open house tomorrow afternoon for mince pies and mulled wine.

You are welcome to join us,

Merry Christmas from Lucykate Crafts...!

We're getting there...!

Another owl and cushion made, ready for christmas...

...another owl still waiting (patiently!) for her cushion...

...but look, some 'Moo' cards have arrived, and is that a 'Lucykate Crafts' label there on the side of that cushion?. I think someone may be making preparations for opening an Etsy shop in the new year!

For now though, we are getting there. Car play mat is finished, along with some other gifts which will have to remain secret until after christmas. The 'to do' list is still quite long of jobs that need doing round the house, not only do we have christmas eve tomorrow but it is also Mr Lucykate Crafts birthday. Lets hope this year, he can remember how old he is and not have to ring his mum to double check!

Pre christmas postman brought me some little parcels, I won my first giveaway, look at this little selection of goodies from Paper & String!


I just want to thank you all who visit and leave comments. I have had a really enjoyable first year of blogging, made some lovely friends, seen the most wonderful, inspiring work, and read lots that has made me both laugh and cry!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Snow,

I feel a bit embarrassed about how such a relatively small amount of snow can bring the UK to a halt, just after last christmas, Alastair went to Seattle, and drove to Spokane through real snow.

In comparison, what we have here is a light dusting! Still, it has been icy enough to give some icicles on the studio in the garden...,

deep enough for some sledging...,

but cold enough to not want to stay out in it too long, and head home for some tea instead.

Now, we have a party to prepare for. More importantly than the 25th, Alastair is 40 on Christmas Eve!

Penguin pattern,

Coming soon, a brand new Softie pattern for this whole family of Penguins...

where and when, will be revealed after christmas!

Warm & wooly,

It is beginning to get round the school playground about what it is I do, which is great, (there are far worse rumors that could be going around!) particularly when Mum's from school hand me bags of unwanted woolens. One such bag, contained a tiny pink cardigan, which belonged to the baby sister (called Lucy) of one of my Lucy's classmates. It seemed such a shame for this cardigan's life to end (it was from Boden, after all) so I decided to make something by way of a thank you for all the jumpers. Armed with Betz's 'Warm Fuzzies' book, (incidentally, I much prefer the American cover and title to the UK version), and using the scrapwork pillow (page 28) as inspiration, scissors in hand, I got chopping.

I went quite simple with the design, piecing just a couple of rectangles together for the front, with an appliqued row of circles from the cardigan (it's so tiny, there's not much of it to use) and buttons.

The back has an envelope opening with a random flower on it. I was distracted watching Jamie online, in particular his bubble & squeak recipe (episode 3), and went a bit wonky with my stitching, rather then unpicking, the flower hides the mishap rather nicely.

This is the only gift I have made this christmas, everything else has arrived in a box from Amazon. Sounds very unexciting, I know, but anyone who has read this blog for a while now will know, I have had my fingers burnt in the past with handmade gifts, and have learnt a hard lesson. The people who matter (and they know who they are), get the odd handmade thing all year round, but I've said it before, and I'll say it again, please make sure your own efforts are not as sadly misplaced as mine were.

Besides, I can't make roller skates or Spongebob lego anyway!

Meet...,

Marmalade,

and Rusty,

I had a yearning to make some softies, and this fabric was calling out to me from my stash,

it was a felted woollen skirt,

it's now Marmalade & Rusty!

Foxy,

As with last christmas, it seems my last Softie of the year is once again Mr Fox...

This one is a commission and is now going to get packaged up and go off to wrestle with Royal Mail.  

Good luck Mr Fox!

How not to write a craft book,

I always thought that after writing a book, I would be able to offer lots of advice and words of wisdom about making the leap from craft blogger to author, but in all honesty, the best I can do is tell 2 tales of what not to do.

 

(my design file for all the book ideas & patterns)

Tale 1 ::  During the writing process, there are a number of deadlines that come up.  Almost a year ago, I was just finishing off the first chapter which included all the basic instructions, materials and how to's, and have previously hinted at what went wrong.  Yes, I lost it all.  Something in the region of 10,000 words.  Cue a fair amount of swearing and looking for something to kick (I think it was the bin).  On the bright side, I did feel that second time around what I wrote was much clearer and an improvement on the first draft.  Since then, the Apple Time Capsule that failed has been repaired (free of charge I might add as it was a know fault), and I now have that first copy back but haven't yet dared to read it.

Tale 2 ::  As I was heading towards what they call the package date, ie the point at which everything had to be with the publisher, it dawned on me that I was going to have to sort out posting what was months worth of handmade softies over to America to the C&T Publishing offices.  I spent an hour with the 'post mistress' in my local post office packing up the box, checking and double checking paperwork, and deciding on the safest way of posting the parcel.  It was such a relief to have got to this point with the book, I left the post office and cried.  That relief was short lived.

At about 6 o'clock that evening, I had a phone call from the main sorting office to tell me the paperwork was incomplete.  How could that be?, I spent ages asking questions and filling in forms.  Turns out the person I had relied upon knowing what they were talking about, was obviously misinformed herself.  Great.  We filled in a makeshift additional invoice over the phone, and I was told the parcel would still go via UPS and was given a tracking number.  The next morning, I contacted UPS only to be told they had no record of the parcel, and it was still with Parcelforce.  Parcelforce said it was with UPS.  For 3 days, no-one could tell me where the parcel was.  For 3 days, I thought that was it, everything had gone missing and I would miss the publishing slot.  Finally it appeared on the Parcelforce online tracking system.  In New York.  It was actually supposed to be in California.  At least it was somewhere instead of untraceable.  I got drunk when I heard from my editor that it finally arrived.

Easy peasy (no sewing involved!), cotton reel & holly ornament...,

The other day, I had some bits & bobs on my desk, and 20 minutes to spare while I was waiting till it was time to head off to my son's first school nativity play (he was a sheep!). After fiddling around with the felt, came up with this idea. These are just so quick and easy to make, how can you not give them a go! All you need are-

cotton reels

selection of green felt

scissors

some small red felted balls (you can get these ready made, or even use a bit of cotton wool, painted or dyed with food colouring, or just wrap a bit of red wool yarn into a ball)

1. Cut some holly leaf shapes from the green felt, each about 1 1/2 inches (or 3cm) long,

2. Poke the ends of 2 or 3 of the leaves, into the middle of a cotton reel, and using the tip of the scissors, squeeze in a small, red felt ball to hold everything in place.

And that's it!, all done. No sewing, no glue, so after christmas they can easily be taken apart and you can have the cotton reels back.

Make as many as you want, if your cotton reels are bigger, just make the leaf size larger to match. Think I might make some all in white next!

'Countryside Softies' christmas offer,

As it's christmas, I have 6 5 4 3 signed copies of 'Countryside Softies' on offer at the special price of $12.50 (that's about £8, cheaper than Amazon!).  This offer will run until Friday 16th December, once they are gone, they are gone!

Embroidery,

We are having an unexpected weekend at home, after packing the car at 9am this morning, and setting off for the Lake District to visit grandparents, we had to turn back, just 10 miles from home as Lucy threw up!  So, being a person who tries hard to always look on the bright side, I've spent the rest of the day doing all those little, lingering jobs round the house that I never get round to doing.  My tupperware cupboard is tidy, and Lucy's bedroom curtains now hang how they are supposed to.  This evenings job will be to make a start on the only 2 christmas presents I'm making this year, so it's a good job I got in a little flower practice earlier this week!

I'm actually really looking forward to these projects.  The flowers are totally made by hand...,

I love hand embroidery, there is something utterly fascinating about the way a needle and thread can turn a small amount of fabric and felt into something really special.  Not only that, it is both relaxing and theraputic to complete.

Which part of your crafting do you enjoy the most?

4 years on and...

the elf hat is still going strong!

This was my first ever tutorial from 2012, and is still one of the most popular, especially at this time of year.  Who wouldn't want an elf hat made from an old pair of leggings for christmas!

Another WIP...

A variation on the toy bag/play mat linked to here, and inspired by this, (scroll down and you'll spot it!) to create a felt road applique. Firstly, all laid out as a paper pattern.

Then pinned together in felt and fabric, next... the sewing!

This is intended for one of my nephews as his christmas present, along with some little cars, but it is proving very popular with Luke already. He keeps pointing at in on the floor of my sewing room and saying his favorite word, 'mine!'.




... and how lucky am I?

Suzie Sews won one of the owls in the giveaway and sent me this as a thank you!

It's so cute!






EDIT TO POST
Can I just mention something to all craft bloggers, do you back up your blog?. By backing up, I mean saving a copy of your posts and template on your hard drive. If you don't, I would suggest that you do, better to be safe than sorry.

The moral of the story is...

I've used these cushions to illustrate other blog posts in the past, and this time, it's to talk about promotion.  When I began blogging in 2012, I was very keen to forge some kind of online and printed press presence for 'Lucykate Crafts...' and have to confess to having undertaken a few projects which, on reflection, I should have avoided.  One, that seemed like a good idea at the time, was off the back of an article in a UK based sewing & crafts magazine (I won't name it as the magazine has since folded). 

I was approached to write a short piece about craft blogging, and thought that it would be good to maximise this press exposure and also offer 2 giveaways.  The alarm bells should have began to ring as to whether this particular magazine and I were on the same wavelength, when I spotted some of the craft blogging article had been re-written to a point where it just didn't sound like me, the strapline of the whole piece, being something I would just never say.

The giveaways were 2 cushion covers, like the ones illustrated above.  The 2 winners, selected by the magazine, were then contacted by me to find out what wording they would like embroidered onto the cover.  However, one of the winners did not reply until a few weeks later, by which point the response I got was a very abrupt 'Where is my cushion?'.  I explained that I had been waiting for their response on the embroidery, and lets just say our working 'relationship' went downhill from there.  They, possibly assuming I was trying to get out of making the cushion cover (I wasn't, although I did try and make the point that it would have to be fitted around paid work), and me finding their attitude to be just plain rude.

It might be considered to be unprofessional of me to be talking about this here, but I have an official website which is where things remain on a more serious level, I do think the beauty of blogging is that it serves as a platform through which to be able to talk a little more candidly.  So, what's the moral of this story?  Well, I guess it's a way of saying to any other craft bloggers out there who are feeling a little lost as to how, where and when are the most effective ways to promote what you do ::

1. Think about what you are hoping to get out of any offers of promotion that come your way before committing eg, exposure, blog traffic, sales etc.

2. Research the target audience that any promotions via whatever source are going to hit, does this audience match up with your own?
3. Don't undersell yourself.  All too often, craftspeople are expected to give work and ideas away for free in return for a little exposure.  It's not a bad thing to ask 'ok, I'm expected to give you all this, but what's in it for me?' 

As for the 2 cushion covers...,

well, one of the recipients sent me a lovely note afterwards saying how much she loved it and thank you.  I (fortunately) never heard a thing from the other person again!

more nice things...

I love Pinterest.  It's the kind of website I'd like to climb into and live.  It's just so full of nice things.  Here are some of the best I've stumbled upon lately,

a wishing wreath,

chore magnets (I'd need them in UK pounds though!)

perhaps a tooth fairy letter? (good grief I wish I'd known about this last week when at 1am I found a questionaire under Luke's pillow for the tooth fairy when he lost his first tooth!)  Actually, I've just bought this set for him for christmas, he has a thing about giving me notes on tiny pieces of paper.

Yum, can't find a direct link to this recipe, what are they?, muffins with the middle scooped out maybe?

more yum, lasagne cups,

and I think I may just be in heaven, creme brulee fudge.  That's a sugar thermometer going on my christmas list then!