1000 Artisan Textiles & A Visit to Flying Fibers

I took a trip to Landisville yesterday to pick up more Wensleydale wool at Flying Fibers.
When I got home my mother in law Rebecca had a present for me, "1000 Artisan Textiles" by Quarry Books. This is the third book my art has been in, but I hadn't seen a copy yet. So I was very happy to FINALLY! see it- the hair barrette/fascinator I made in celebration of Royal Ascot week in London made the cut.

It is made using wool (from a mill here in Lancaster county),that I carded, wet felted, and hand stitched with gorgeous yarn from Rachel-Marie of KnittyDirtyGirl. I also stitched roving (aka combed tops) to it.

(what you don't see is that on the underside I humorously stitched, "I felt racy." (Royal Ascot is a famous annual horse race, for those not in the UK).

here's a pic of the original art felt that I created to make the piece. Here it is drying, late at night:

and here, Mimi and Jeri meet for the very first time...

Mimi asleep in front of the Wensleydale yarn at Flying Fibers...ahhh....

I can't believe Christmas is only one week away! there's a house to clean, presents to wrap, gingerbread cookies to make, last minute shopping, and one more felty flower delivery!!!

January 2010: 15 days in

Today is only the 15th of January, yet the year is already busy. Each day seems to start out relatively calm, but then there's always some kind of excitement or surprise.

I promised Rand at Thistle and Clover in Brooklyn, a few of my things for the first week of January. got those out and celebrated at the coffee shop with little Max- so so cold the day we mailed them. and the shop was so warm. I'm so flattered to have my little brooches there.

I've met with the Indie girls (see previous post), had breakfast with Rachel-Marie and Occy (www.knittydirtygirl.etsy.com)- had a nice long chat, and have visited Peachy Green and chatted with Rachelle.

Each day there seems to be orders in my inbox, exciting news from family or friends, or neat news from one of my retailers.

I almost forgot about how different our life is in Spring and Summer...so I started dreaming about warmer days and committing myself to some local (and maybe not local?) craft shows.

So exciting, is the fact that www.maggiefrench.net is not just a "website coming soon" page, but a real website now. My cousin Joy of www.c2itdesign.com
has been so great putting this together for me. Combined with my new logo, I feel fantastic.

One evening "Coco Before Chanel" was on...I loved the scenes where's she's working in her room, supplies all about...yes, that's how it is here too. always I'm dying wool in my crock pot, or playing with Max while I sew, or packaging up a package at midnight. while the world just works around me somehow.