Happy New Year!!!

January 1st – a new day, a new year, and a different kind of blog!

Happy New Year one and all :-). My daughter gave me this book for my birthday. It’s poignant because there is one story for every day of the year and each story is 365 words long.

This year I plan to not just present you with a craft experience, but each craft I showcase or explore will have a story behind it. I hope to be able to share with you the highs and lows of creating a drawing a day as I try and improve my drawing in order to finally make a book.
According to my WordPress stats report, I had 7,900 hits on my Squarebird blog over the year. Thank you everyone who has visited, commented, liked and supported me through the experience of writing my first blog. It has led me to new friendships and the discovery of a craft that I love and revisit frequently. It has led to me being able to sell my art and begin workshopping, so others can also learn in a friendly, social atmosphere. It has brought me through trials, where I my patience was tested. An example of this was making the patchwork chicken pin cushion. Not only had a never done patchwork before, I’d also not worked on such a small piece using fabric block panels.
So on the anniversary of my first blog post … Here’s to another 365 days of fun, craft, blogging and sharing. I hope you join me in this next journey. Enjoy your day wherever you are … Happy January 1st! 🙂

Update on Craft Fair

Today was the day of the fair and we woke to thick fog.  Pleased to say people braved the elements and came out to support the fair. both as stall holders and visitors.  Yes, it could have been busier, but there were other craft and bazaar events on nearby all competing to sell their handmades.  If anyone of you has ever done craft fairs before, you are often faced with people admiring the handicrafts and going away thinking that they can replicate what they’ve seen rather than depart with their money.  I’ve also experienced how positive the effect is, if you can sit and demonstrate what you do, what you make and what you’re selling.

My DH shared part of my table today.  It was only when he demonstrated how to use the items he was selling that people began to take an interest, then they became fascinated, then they parted with the money as happy customers.  I believe this is the way forward for the survival of craft fairs.  Crafters need to be prepared to demonstrate their skills and show that what they’ve created wasn’t done in five minutes flat, but has been built; made; created; drawn or designed with love and passion!  Sadly, space today didn’t allow for me to demonstrate Gelliprinting as I’d hoped.  There were too many stalls for that, yet one lady making lace sat diligently working on her next piece while her helper dealt with the sales.  Gelliprinting needed more space so that no paint or ink could spash onto other stall holders’ goodies.  The lace maker was the only stall holder actually doing any demonstrating.  I had no choice but to keep my brayer and Gelliplate stored under the table, bringing the clean plate out only when there was call for an explanation to a potential customer.  There’s always next time.  The next venue is bigger (and if I can’t do it there, maybe it’s time to organised my own artisan fair).

Running this blog this year has given me opportunities to try my hand at a range of crafts including pyrography; pewter casting; decopatch; embroidery and so on.  Some crafts have been difficult to master and taken many practise runs which may not necessarily be evident on the blog.  Making a patchwork chicken as part of a competition was actually quite challenging.  I’d never done patchwork before and I made at least six before I was happy to release one as a prize for the chicken run.  Most crafters I’ve made are their own worst critics and will not think twice about screwing a drawing up into a tight ball and tossing it into the trash.  I threw some of my patchwork away – to me, it just wasn’t good enough.  I’m pleased with the crafts I had on offer today, but then I also know the journey I’ve been on to produce them in the first place 🙂  Thank you to all those who managed to make it today.  We’re grateful.

Chicken on the run again! Still time to enter!

Some of you may remember me running a patchwork chicken giveaway, which was initially started by Avis on her blog

http://ohsewtempting.wordpress.com  

I entered the next leg of the competition and won Ruby Roo, made by Carla. Her skills in patchwork are amazing! http://grannymaudsgirl.wordpress.com/2014/02/17/chicken-run/

The chicken travelled all the way from Australia to the UK and I agreed to make a chicken or two which are featured on my blog page:

https://squarebird.wordpress.com/category/chicken-run-winner/ 

The winning chicken then took off and headed across to southern Germany.  For those of you who entered and missed out on winning one of my chickens, you are now in with a chance of winning a chicken made by 

http://textiledreamer.wordpress.com/ 

You can see the other chickens in Avis’s chicken gallery and the prize on offer this time:)

http://ohsewtempting.wordpress.com/2014/04/13/whoop-whoop-theres-another-chicken-in-the-coop/ 

 

Roll Up, Roll Up! Chicken Run Winner!!!

I enlisted my son’s help in selecting the winner in my recent contest: to win a chicken pincushion. See my earlier post with this link:

And now for something a little bit different! Chicken Run Win and Swap!

Those entering had to

a) choose from these two chickens which one they would like to win 

b) give the chicken a name

c) state where in the world the chicken would be ‘flying’ off to

d) agree to make a chicken within four weeks of receiving their winning chicken as a continuation of the chicken run so that Avis who advertised this little win/swap on her blog http://sewingbesidethesea.wordpress.com/2014/02/17/chicken-run-stage-2/

Avis has a chicken run gallery on her blog:
http://ohsewtempting.wordpress.com  

She would like to catalogue the progress of the chicken run around the world and add pictures of the many different chickens to her chicken gallery. The gallery includes Ruby Roo, the chicken that Carla made

She has a great tutorial and template on her blog 

Chicken run! (a giveaway/swap)

Carla won a blue chicken and of course, we now have a new chicken to add to the showcase gallery:)

The closing date for entries was Friday 21st March and the draw took place today, Sunday 23rd March.  I placed all the entries into a black hat (the Sherlock one went walkabout!!). For some reason, my husband wanted a lot of dressing up hats including a Viking one complete with horns.  I think it had something to do with World Book Day and he dressed up as a Viking at school; my daughter opted for Red Riding Hood and my son, who believes that he will never have another opportunity to dress up again once he leaves for university, chose to go as a character from Hot Fuzz!

How many of you skimmed through that top bit to find out who the winner is?  Hmmm?  Go on, own up!

Actually, I will get on with the reveal.  This little birdie has a new name …

 

 

 

 

 

 

and she’s off to …. south Germany!  
Congratulations to the contest winner from textiledreamer. Please don’t despair, all those who entered and didn’t win this time; there will be another chicken run soon 😀
http://textiledreamer.wordpress.com/
She wrote this on her entry:

‘I also love the plaid one! She’d be called Sunnygirl and come to live in the south of Germany if I win.’

Please email me with your contact details so that I can send you your prize, ‘Sunnygirl’.

 Check out these great blogs 

http://grannymaudsgirl.wordpress.com/2014/02/17/chicken-run/ 
http://textiledreamer.wordpress.com/ 
http://ohsewtempting.wordpress.com