Monday 28 January 2019

2018 - A Year in Crafts

Hi there everyone 😀

I was looking back through the photographs of what I made last year on my iPad and, whilst a fair amount have been shared over the course of the year, I thought it might be nice to just bring them all together for a bit of an annual round up ...

January to March
The first three months of the year are typically slow with orders for Hand Made at Number 27, though I did have a trickle of bits and pieces to keep me busy ...
I crocheted four sloths for an order and they really were a labour of love. They may be tiny, but they certainly aren't quick to make 😀

I also had two orders for box frames, one for a new baby girl and one as a family gift.

Towards the end of the Spring I started to have a go at some new makes for the craft fairs that we were planning on attending throughout the year including my first attempt ever at applique ...

Some generic button art heart frames ...

A batch of sensory taggy blankets ...

And ... after a number of attempts ... these little birdies ...


April - June
May and June were fairly busy with craft fairs. We attended our first fair at the Hoar Park Shopping Village in May and we were also out at the Armitage Village day and Lullington Open Gardens in June ...

Consequently most of my makes through April and May were to make sure we had plenty of stock to display including a brand new funky range of peg bags, which completely sold out at Lullington ...

More taggy blankets and my first play with pom poms ...

Appliqued hoops and fold up shoppers ...

And a stack of lavender hearts ...

In spite of all the time spent at and preparing for craft fairs I did manage to complete a pair of sensory taggy blankets as a special order ...

As well as a few bits for myself ...

I also managed to fit in my first morning at my local craft group in May, where I worked a bit more on a crocheted blanket that I have had on the go for quite some time...

July - September
These three months certainly gave me plenty to go at with another couple of craft fairs on the calendar and a steady flow of custom orders starting with these memory cushions that I was asked to make for a friend ...

I also had a fair few orders for personalised frames ... for weddings, teacher thank you gifts and a memory of a beloved pet no longer with us ...

And, even though it was only July it was time to get started on this year's Christmas makes ... some new things for 2018 and some old favourites ...

There was also time for a few projects for me too ... including my flamingo cross stitch phone case ...

... the recovering of our old and faithful footstool ...
... and a patch of crocheted pumpkins ready for my autumn mantel ...

October - December
In October we were really starting to get into our journey to less waste and I had my first attempt at making beeswax wraps, which ended up being very popular in the run up to Christmas ...

Another less waste make were these sets of reusable face cleansing pads ...

I completed a large sensory blanket for a customer who had bought from me before, which she absolutely loved ...
I didn't make many of my own Christmas gifts but I did make this matching pairs game for the little man, which turned out really well ... 

I also made him this cute little robot fabric drawstring bag to hold his toy robots ...

There were a few more bits made for a Christmas craft fair that we attended ...

And I finished off the year with an embroidery session for me in readiness for the Spring ...


Looking back I can't quite believe how many different things I've made and how many new crafts I've had a go at this year. It's been lovely to make things for our own home and garden and I really want to do more of that this year.

We do have more craft fair plans for 2019 but I want to make sure that my crafting never becomes a chore. For 2018 it seemed to work out just right ... Just enough to keep me busy doing something I love but not so busy that I've had to struggle with the pressures of deadlines ... after all, I am retired 😀

Here's to lots more crafting in 2019 😀

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