I've been selected to have a stall at the Harley Christmas Market, as well as a few local markets I'm doing, so my list making has gone into overdrive to decide what to make! It's also been a great excuse to go fabric shopping, so off I went. I'm making a quilt, my first ever, for my nephew's 2nd birthday so I'd been looking for something to back the Alexander Henry 2D Zoo fabric I'd been saving. I went to a lovely local fabric shop which has just expanded and found a perfect dark blue polka dot cotton and just HAD to buy some Hungry Hungry Caterpillar fabric too! I also picked up some nice grey spot ribbon and a lovely toadstool painted darning mushroom. 

I couldn't find a binding to go with it so I nipped across the road to Boyes, a fantastic general purpose store that my area of the country is blessed with. They've got some nice 100% cottons in, £3.50p/m!! So the 5 fabrics across the bottom row from the right are from there. The bottom left one is a remnant I thought I'd missed so pretty much whipped it off the table with delight, it's a yellow Peter Rabbit print and I'm going to have a good think before I decide what to use it for. I also decided to make a green crocodile for my nephew so I picked up some felt and a pack of googley eyes. The snowflake fabric and the blue and green birds fabric are both from the great Seamstar online shop.

The sewing machine will be put into service tomorrow as I have a whole day to devote to it. Fewer shifts at work means an unhappy bank balance but at least I have time to craft!
Speaking of work, I tend to use quiet periods to plan what I'm going to make, do you do the same? One thing that's been going round in my head is a 'sprout' design wire bangle and tonight I finally tried it out and I'm really happy with it! What do you think?

I'm going to make more based on this design but first I need to order some more wire! Watch this space for new pieces and I'll let you know when I list them in the shop.

I have been working hard and my Folksy shop is now stocked! Please go have a look and see if anything takes your fancy, otherwise just have a gander at the beautiful things on Folksy.

I have been really busy since New Designers and I will be writing about that more later but for now I just wanted to say I have received a reply from an interview for the Society of Designer Craftsmen and I have been accepted and awarded a merit which means I have offered the chance to exhibit in London in January! I am very excitied and can't wait to get designing for it. After New Designers we received our results and I was ecstatic to find I had achieved a first so I've been on cloud nine lately.

Welcome one and all, this is the first post in what will hopefull be an interesting and insightful blog. You may have followed my blog at foldandstitch.blogspot.com  but I will be continuing most of my posting on here. I will continue to use the blog to keep you updated on my new projects and designs along with new items in my Folksy shop and exhibitions I may be attending. Speaking of which I have to keep this short as I am currently preparing to exhibit with my course at New Designers, in fact my jewellery is on the website! So I may not report back until after, but if i have time I will try to make a quick post about New Designers while I'm there.
Thanks for looking and I hope you'll