Blueberry Shed holiday cottage is open and new creations

I don't think I've particularly shown our holiday cottage on the blog, probably because it has taken so long to get going but we are open and taking bookings for 2017. It's a bit slow at present but I'm sure things will pick up and we are trying to get WiFi into the cottage this year, that has been an ongoing struggle from the start.

http://blueberryshed.co.uk/

Here are some externals of the Blueberry Shed. A single storey, modern contemporary larch clad building located very near to Portree the capital of the Isle of Skye, with views out to sea and across to the island of Raasay.

Some interior shots of the kitchen area. I went for a German kitchen with mix and match bright coloured cabinets. We pretty much have the same in our kitchen.

The living and dining area, I've made quite a few cushions and other bits n bobs to go in the cottage and give it a unique yet cosy feel.

The bedroom featuring some of my art and craft work to buy

Shower room

I have taken advantage of a bit of quiet time in there myself for crocheting when no guests are in, it's nice to get away from all my stuff and clutter in my own house!

It's really rather a nice place to come on holiday, lots of galleries and arty crafty things as well as the obvious outdoor spectacles Skye is famous for. It's that time of year when spring is about to spring into action and things start opening up again here so hopefully a good year ahead.

 On the subject of making things, I have a few new creations to share which I know some of you have seen on my Instagram page, Twitter etc. I'm hoping to approach a gallery on Skye and see if I can get them in their shop this season, wish me luck.

Above was a needle case which I made my sister for Christmas, family photos of us are in it.

Some of my things are now available in my Etsy and Folksy shops.

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/fabricmountainuk?ref=hdr_shop_menu

https://folksy.com/shops/FabricMountain

Thank you for dropping by :)

What a grey day!

I usually like Friday 13th's but today it's so grey and damp and chilly. 

So here are some colourful brooches I've been making, bit too late for Valentines but I'll list them as Mothers Day gifts in my shop.

We still have a bit of icy slushy stuff hanging around here because there are some parts the sun never shines on the driveway and it's an even bigger mess than the previously muddy pictures I've shown.
Some renovation work is going on, not to the house, no that would be far too practical, but to some disused sheds! The builders and their digger have chewed things up to a state it's virtually only passable in a 4WD, good job I don't have visitors. I try to put people off calling as it's so awful, slippery and dangerous. It looks like a building site with no health and safety taken into account.

Here's some mud, and the landlords expect us to drive up and down this daily, our car is permanently brown, and I have to wade through it to drag the bin up about 100m and it doesn't wheel very well through mud and all the ruts and potholes. It's just disgusting.
We were told the drive will be sorted when the builders finish, I reckon that will be months.

I will finish with a very nice tree. This tree is a marvellous specimen which grows outside my hairdressers and I finally captured a pic of it yesterday when I went for a trim.
One of it's branches, on the left, stretches fully across the path towards the road like a bridge for you to walk under.

Camping fabric latest & other creations

It's always great to receive positive feedback for something you've designed or made, almost as good as making it.
Today was such a day, a lovely Spoonflower customer had bought some of my green vintage camping fabric and she sent me a link to her Etsy shop to see what she'd made.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/154147579/retro-green-overnight-weekend-bag-with

Isn't this fun, it's an overnight bag and it's so beautifully made. Thanks Theresa for sharing that with us.

The camping fabric has proved quite popular recently and I have released it in 2 new options, a smaller design of the brown colour and a retro pale blue colour. I think more colours may follow too.

I've been busy making things for galleries, I took a small delivery to Gallery 49 in Bridlington on Friday. One of my new makes was this fabric roll up pencil pouch. I created the base fabric by fibre felting onto an old woolly jumper and I built up layers of wool, tweed and machine stitching.

I was amazed to get a note from G49 to say they had sold it within 2 hours of me dropping it off, really delighted by that.

I also took a few of these brooches and I'm hoping to do a few more to show the Art & Rose Gallery in Pocklington.

Plus, these recycled wraps for tins to use as pencil pots went to G49 also.

Making things - "what goes around, comes around"

It was whilst reading the lovely Pretty Nostalgic magazine and blog that the question was posed, "have you or your family kept any souvenirs of things you made as a child?" They were referring to things like wonky pots we made in pottery classes, or in my case a book shelf I made in woodwork which weighed a ton!

I made all sorts of things, many of which were inspired by watching Blue Peter and Magpie, the amount of glue, cellotape, glitter, toilet rolls and egg cartons I got through was phenomenal!
I bet some of you are nodding to this also, our poor parents, all this rubbishy stuff we used to make them for presents which they thought were 'lovely'!

However, A few months ago, whilst rummaging in my parents loft, I was both surprised and delighted to find some little felt dolls I made as a child which they had kept. I was quite amazed that they had survived with no musty smells and were still in good condition because I think I made these age 11 or 12 (35 yrs ago).
The dolls were hidden in a little Quality Street tin.

As I opened the tin, I had completely forgotten that I’d customised the inside into the dolls house. 

It made me smile as the memories came rushing back of happy childhood days crafting.

I had used some 1970’s flock, velvety wallpaper which we had in our lounge  to line the inside of the tin. I’d added little windows made from chopped up scenes from greeting cards, I had kept lolly sticks to use the wood for the doors. It seems I was into re-using and recycling from a young age!

I was a big Charlie Brown & Snoopy fan which is why you can see Snoopy on the wall.

Lets take a look at the dolls then, there are 11 in total.

So why did I make the dolls or what inspired me? Well I think it stemmed from family holidays when it was always a treat for me to have a souvenir foreign doll from the different countries we visited. I had some lovely dolls, this is one of my few remaining dolls from Bavaria.

The foreign dolls inspired me to make dolls from places I hadn't been to so the Eskimo was my first and one of my favourites. 

I soon moved on from making foreign dolls and as you can see I picked on some

subjects closer to home like a nurse, a princess and another favourite is the punk with blue hair!

The dolls are about 6cm tall.

They kept me occupied and out of mischief for hours as I busied myself making them in school holidays.

It's strange to think that I've almost come full circle with this and in recent years I have made little felt dolly brooches which I can happily say are much neater and better made.

It's nice to look back on these finds, I wonder if anyone else has such things tucked away still?

Here are some of the felt dolly & button brooches I make today.

And these are some very new ones, not yet finished but using scraps of vintage and other recycled bits of fabric & wool.