It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas...

 What will Santa bring this little mouse?

You may remember the cute little squirrel made for the NRAS Tea Party a few years ago? It was kindly made for us by Sue and was a prize in the raffle! Sue has kindly agreed to take over teaching the Needle Felting here at HH HQ as Jenny feels too unwell to continue sadly. I had been hoping she would change her mind over the summer - we had a lot of fun over the years and I'm sure everyone wishes her well very soon.

 Sue joins us for her first workshop here on Sunday 11th December and we're looking forward to making some cute and fuzzy Christmas Creatures (Christmas Jumpers are optional...)

 Jackie Daly has managed to fit in another one of her popular Polymer Clay and Resin workshops here on the 10th of December where you can make 5 items of jewellery included in the workshop fee with the option of buying more findings on the day! Due to having to leave the resin to harden the finished trinkets can be collected anytime after a week has passed.

 It's been a different kind of week here at the farm with Wednesday seeing me return to my furnishing background. I was kindly asked to teach a Roman Blind workshop over at Snape Maltings, it was a smashing day and at the end we were all exhausted but very happy with the finished blinds. It's part of a new venture for this part of Suffolk and other workshops have included Wellbeing Workshops and demonstrations from an instrument maker!

 A very smart finish!

After I finish the workshop list on here I'm off to get ready for tomorrow's bunting and garland workshop feulled with sugar free peanut fudge!

Christmas Workshops 2016!!!!

Sunday 13th November - Garlands and Bunting for Christmas!

Saturday 19th November - Festive Free Motion Machine Embroidery

Sunday 20th November - Fabulous Day of Festive Stitch Fun using gorgeous Christmas fabrics!

Saturday 26th November - Origami! Gift Boxes and Bags, paper decorations for Christmas all conjured up by Sarah Valentine!

Sunday 27th November - Rag Wreaths!

Saturday 10th December - Polymer Clay and Resin Jewellery with Jackie Daly, make trinkets for Christmas!

Sunday 11th December - Festive Needle Felting with Sue, make a Christmas Creature!

Sunday 18th December - *Silver Clay and Silicon Mould Making. Make shiny 99.9% pure silver for Christmas*

All workshops listed above apart from those marked with a * run from 11-3 and are £40 per person  with £20 deposit required to save a space, full payment on the day of the workshop. The Silver Clay one is £75 per person due to the cost of the materials involved.

Look forward to seeing you on one of these very soon! 

Next Blog Post will be the 2017 workshop list, I'm just waiting to hear back from some talented folk :-) 

Nic x

Workshops 2013

 The very popular free motion embroidery is back!

It is so much fun and a brilliant way to gain confidence in using your sewing machine - there are sessions on Saturday 16th March 2-5pm and Thursday 2nd May 10.30-2pm £30 per person per session.

Following up the May session with a Bunting making session on Friday 3rd May 10.30-2pm - an excellent opportunity to create a work of art and combine the two workshops! The Bunting session costs £35 per person with a discount of £5 if you attend both the Thursday and Friday sessions!

I've been supporting a brilliant local company that provides internet access and advice to young and old residents in Needham Market - The Internet Cafe has been hosting a series of 'Indoor Carboot Sales' and together with my baking chum Lady Galula I've spent a few Sundays selling some of my more unusual wares like these old French needlework magazines. We also have a good old natter and partake in some of the best bacon rolls around...

There's one more before Easter - I'll be at the cafe in School Street 10-2pm on the 24th March and then Jan (supplier of bacon rolls) has planned to hold the fairs on the 2nd Sunday of each month after that.

 Doing fairs and the big Easter Monday remnant sale at HH HQ is a great chance for me to get out some of the rare and hard to find stuff that is looking for a new home! This time I have a collection of hand-printed furnishing fabrics, silks and whole rolls of furnishing fabrics that are going 'cheep'...Easter....geddit?

 Rocks with frocks?! Actually a really lovely way to learn to crochet and aren't they gorgeous?! Friday 12th April is the next session and spaces are very limited...£35 per person including a light lunch!

 The last workshop where we enjoyed a lovely homemade lunch was the needle felting one run by Jenny Tidman - we made these cute ducks which were supposed to be Easter Chicks but we all rebelled! One lady even turned hers into a cat...

 It fascinates me how a lump of fleece can be transformed into some gorgeous creatures by simply being stabbed with a needle - a special needle with barbs down the side. We had a few 'ouches' on the day but everyone thoroughly enjoyed it and it was great having Jenny's expert tuition and funny stories!

 Jenny has blogged about the day here and explains how we became friends and the wonder of twitter, glass and David Sylvian....we are both in awe of the brilliant work that Sue produced following the chick/duckling/cat workshop!

 It was such a lot of fun that Jenny is doing another on Friday 19th April 11-3pm £30 per person including a light lunch and cakes of course!

As you can see there are little felty creations appearing all over the place - it's such a fun craft to learn!

 I can't wait to see what Jenny comes up with next...

Another of Jenny's passions is natural dyeing and anyone visiting HH HQ will see some of the fantastic shades that can be achieved using plant dyes - the dyeing workshops are amongst my favourites to run and are so popular with felters and spinners. 

This year we are adding indigo to our dyeing! It's magic and watching the blue shade develop before your eyes is quite wonderful - dyeing workshops £35 per person and you will dye a skein of yarn and a piece of silk!

Indigo

Saturday 12th April 1.30-5pm

Thursday 25th April 10.30-2pm

Madder and Mordants

Learn about the role mordants play in dyeing and how to use dried plant dyes...

Saturday 8th June 1.30-5pm

Purple Feathery Reed Heads

An invasive weed that we can put to good use! When picked at the correct time the dye produced is a stunning pistachio green!

Saturday 24th August 1.30-5pm

 Scented container candles make lovely gifts and this year there are even more teacups, jars and dishes to choose from....£35 per person and as you can see from the photos below there's always cake to keep us going as we melt wax and choose scents!

 In a previous life I made soft furnishings for interior designers and I'm often shocked to see how complicated piped cushion-making is made out to be in books - learn some tricks of the trade and gain a plump feather filled cushion for your sofa!

Saturday 25th May 1.30-5pm £40 per person - limited to four persons.

 I've been asked time and time again to run some upholstery workshops - it's tricky because everyone's chair is a little different and who wants to lug a heavy piece of furniture around only to work on it for just a couple of hours? I'm having a series of three upholstery days where you can come along for the day, use the equipment and tools required and gain some skills!

Friday 14th June

Friday 5th July

Friday 26th July

 We ran a frame purse workshop last year where we used some gorgeous old fabrics to make a teeny coin purse - I then spied these brilliant bag versions! 

Saturday 22nd June 1.30-5pm £40 per person - limited to four spaces.

 I rather fancy using this vintage silk fabric for mine, I'll keep you posted!

 Not baking though you'd be forgiven for thinking that I'm whipping up a batch of cakes here!

Soap making and other stories...

Saturday 6th July 1.30-5pm £50 per person - limited to four spaces.

The Steam and Craft Fair held at the Museum of East Anglian Life every year is a fantastic event which showcases some traditional crafts and gets everyone together amongst the steam engines! Last year I demonstrated some Indigo dyeing, mordanted some yarns with rhubarb leaves picked from the walled garden and helped some talented stitchers to produce little pincushions.

I was joined by my OH who was doing a little bit of traditional upholstery...

We had a lovely time and met some great people so were delighted to be invited along again this year, we'll be there on Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th with felted stones and big knitting on offer!

All workshops are subject to change and a place is secured on payment - call or text me on 07887511081 for details or drop by HH HQ it would be lovely to see you!

Road trip!

What's Tammy the HH 'Twinfit' dress form doing in a hall full of lovely artwork then eh?
Keep scrolling down and all will be revealed...

I get a lot of comments about all the stuff that I manage to cram into my lovely little basket with the green and orange handle. But yesterday we were grateful for all the odd bit's and pieces that lurk amongst the crochet-covered fruit, mp3 player and pliers...
We were heading over to Burnham Overy Staithe where the Norfolk Arts Exhibition 2011 was being held.
Look at all the lovely bunting!

Helen Brown and Paddy Peters along with some other great artists organise this event every year and this year the committee invited Halfpenny Home to showcase A Green Guide to Country Crafts!
Helen and Paddy are great friends of both Jacqui and I and their 'Old Piggery Pottery' is one of our favourite places, Helen makes the fab mugs that we use at HH HQ! We are also allotment neighbours but I won't bore you with seed talk right now...

Another great friend of Halfpenny Home is Danielle Wade of Polly's Textiles and her 'Dutifully Purposeful' items are wonderful so it's no wonder that the committee had also invited her along too!
We sell Danielle's hand-dyed and screen printed fabric at HH HQ and so we decided to make the long journey up to North Norfolk together!

We had a lot of fun displaying the lovely items that Danielle makes from her fabrics...

The suitcase that is usually at the bottom of the stairs crammed full of beautiful cushions!

Country Crafts open on the page showing Samantha Hayes wearing a Polly's Textiles Apron!

One of the beanbags that Danielle has just to started to produce sits alongside a Roman Blind that I made for another exhibition, we had this on display in HH HQ for a while and everyone loved it, the pleats show off the print perfectly!

Let's hope the visitors to Burnham Overy Staithe Village Hall, North Norfolk PE31 8JD between today - Saturday 16th July and Sunday 21st August like our crafty wares...Nic x

Country Buntkin...The Country Living Bunting Giveaway Competition thing...y

We've been waiting for this issue of Country Living to hit the shelves (or for subscribers their doormats...) with slightly higher excitement levels than usual!
We're in it - or rather, the things that we've made are in it and my (Nic's) hands are just visible...

Some of the 35 beautiful step-by-step projects from A Green Guide to Country Crafts are featured and amongst them is the gorgeous bunting made from old shirts, we LOVE this photo and have very fond memories of the day it was taken by the very lovely and rather brilliant photographer and cake expert (!) Gavin Kingcome.
We couldn't resist decorating this barn wall with it over at Green Lodge Farm owned by our good friend Val Beeson.

How gorgeous do the fabrics look against the black boards??!!

It was fun to make this bunting as we got to include the shirt details like this button tab...

How could we celebrate Halfpenny Home's first appearance in Country Living and getting our 100th blog follower?
Hmmm...

Jacqui had a fabulous idea!
A blog giveaway - a bunting kit with all you would need to make some bunting just like the one featured in Country Crafts and Country Living!

We've prepared some flags from the very same shirts that we used on our 'Bunting made from old shirts' which along with the old, red seam binding will mean that you can recreate your very own 'Country Living' moment (gate not included)!
You've got until Monday 15th August 2011 to enter and to be entered into the draw you need to be a follower and leave a comment and to get an extra go tweet Nic @halfpennyhome
We'll get Mike the Glassman to draw the winner out of a really lovely Czech glass bowl...
Good Luck!
Nic x

Shopped until I dropped...

I paid a visit to the Birmingham NEC at the weekend and had a fabulous time - it was the Craft, Hobbies and Stitch International Trade Fair!

I was supposed to be checking out the ribbons, buttons and fabrics for Halfpenny Home but couldn't resist a look at the Cico Books and Rylands, Peters and Small stand...

and A Green Guide to Country Crafts was amongst the titles beautifully displayed there!

How exciting! Here it is accompanied by the skeins of yarn from The Gedgrave Flock, we dyed them with woad, purple feather reed heads and madder - all beautiful rich and vibrant colours!

But I had a lot of shopping to do! We love ric rac and are always looking out for new and exciting colours and sizes of it. This gorgeous green and sky blue had arrived at Halfpenny HQ during the week but I have found some others, they will be with us very soon...

I was pretty pleased with the recent additions to our range of ribbons but again I have found some others that (I think) are even nicer!

Embroidered ribbon with a vintage feel is always a big hit with us and I couldn't believe my luck when I found several designs and colours that we haven't seen before - I've been frantically taking pictures of them all to get them on the website - they are so lovely!

There was so much to see and there are a lot of treats on their way to us including bias binding in floral prints, polka dots and paisley designs...I was quite worn out with all the excitement!

Visitors to HH HQ have been amused by my attempts to keep the big table clear for cutting fat quarters - I'm trying! I keep getting distracted by the new buttons, these are some of the new cotton poplin prints!

Lovely roses and daises!

Polka dot PVC table covering - who says it's just for tables?! We made bunting with it and with the fabulous gingham bias binding it sets off the OPEN sign a treat!

It makes everyone smile, Nic x