Fabric Brooch Cards

My fabric brooches have developed a lot over the years. One of the first craft fairs I visited featured brooch cards, I bought one and thought what a good idea it would be for me to develop them myself. At the moment I have four fabric brooch cards. 'Thinking of you' features my crocheted poppy and 'With Love' my embroidered heart felt brooch that was originally a pendant. 'To Someone Special' includes my original crocheted flower brooch and 'All Good Wishes' features my virtuous fabric flower brooch.

Fabric brooch innovations

I became a little unhappy with how I was creating my fabric brooches, especially my 'Virtuous Flower Brooch'. I have looked online at how other people make fabric brooches and thought that an extra, larger piece of material in the middle between the felt backing and the printed badge part would make all the difference. I was happy with the result and so got a little carried away with creating a whole range of them. I wore the vote brooch leading up to the 2017 election.

Lavender cats

After creating my lavender owls it was only a matter of time before I created my lavender cats. Maybe my lavender owls and pussycats should get together; they could 'sail away for a year and a day', 'in a beautiful pea green boat'.

Crafts for a May Fair

It has been nearly a year since I did my last craft fair. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to do another one since doing my first one in 2013, but thought craft fairs in the twenty-teens have been a good enough thing to keep going a little while longer. Above and below are a selection of crafts I will be presenting in May. I have swapped my dolls around and expanded my knitted purses and pouches and fabric brooch collections. The books, lavender scenters and cards remain pretty much the same as before.

 

 

Soft Dolly Furnishings

       

These soft dolly furnishings are modelled by Patience, a Star Heart Doll made mostly from material purchased in the Gold Hawk Road, Shepherd's Bush, London, an area well known for the number of fabric shops it possesses. The soft furnishings include a flowerly sheet, linen and knitted cushions, knitted rainbow blankets and patchwork doll quilts. I love knitting and needlework, but because of time limitations I find doll sized projects much more doable.

     

The 13th Craft Stall

I held my thirteenth craft stall on the 16th June 2018. My daughter came to help out which was very gracious of her.

The morning was in aid of the London Church's Refugee Fund, it was slow and quiet, but a couple of people bought brooch cards and someone bought a knitted purse.

     

It was quite sad as I found out that the URC in Eastcote was going to close soon, to be replaced by a Hindu temple.

In the last couple of years I have become more interested in philosophy, mindfulness and Buddhism, rather than church and crafts, so I'm not sure what the future holds for my craft stall. However to have got a craft stall together and put it on public display on thirteen different occasions since 2013 has been a bit of an achievement for me.

        

A choir of sleeping angels

The sleeping angels have gone through a variety of changes since I first thought of them in 2010. The first ones wore dressing gowns, then they grew more angular and their hair grew longer. I'm very happy with my latest design for them which is softer and more flowing.

Doll Accessories

I make my Star Heart Dolls using a range of different needlework techniques including sewing, embroidery, knitting, crochet, ribbon and feltwork. A work colleague showed me how to crochet in 2011 and since then I have been producing small crochet flowers which I use to put on my doll's hair and knitted shawls. I learnt how to knit when I was seven and went back to it as an adult after watching 'Kirstie's Homemade Home'. I knit my dolls' hair and knickers and knit triangles which I use as their shawls. After watching 'Kirstie's Handmade Christmas' I realised what a lovely material felt was and now use it to make the dolls their shoes. I did use it to try to make bags for my dolls, but decided that knitted bags were more successful.

Log Cabin Squares

I love knitting, I find it very relaxing, but I'm very slow, it takes me ages to finish anything. That is a big reason why a lot of my knitting projects are doll size. These doll blankets are knitted in a 'log cabin square' pattern. I find it a slightly mad method as you knit in different directions in a spiral and build up a bigger square from the centre outwards.

Shepherd's Bush Dolls

I was looking to make different coloured dolls and different outfits for them and found out that practically on my doorstep, in Goldhawk Road, Shepberd's Bush, there are loads of fabric shops, selling a mindboggling array of beautifully coloured and patterned fabric. The result of my shopping exhibition can be seen above and below, as well as some pictures of the work in progress.

    

Fabric Brooches

The stock at 'ALF Creations @ the Star Heart Café' has been changing over the past year or so. My collection of fabric brooches started with my crochet flower brooches, then moved on to my virtuous flower brooches and then I introduced my Star Heart Felt brooches (which were originally pendants).

The virtuous flower brooches were inspired by a Sunday School lesson I gave called 'What To Wear'. The lesson comes from these words from Colossians 3: 12-14 (NIV).

'Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience ... forgive as the lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love.'

I probably forget to 'put on' these virtues far too much, but I feel I am a much better person when I do remember to 'wear' them.

Last November I crocheted Poppy brooches and then even more recently I began integrating them all into greeting cards. Something of their evolution can be seen below.

  

Patchwork Doll Quilts



 

I became fascinated by patchwork quilts after watching the bedrooms episode of Kirstie's Homemade Home. After further investigation on-line and further inspiration from the doll quilts of Jess Brown, I thought I would have a go at making them myself. My quilts have a rainbow theme and mostly use up remnants from the dresses of my Star Heart Dolls.