Fauquier High School Craft Show

Oh my ... I was a bit in a panic earlier this week when I received an e-mail about the Fauquier HS Craft show. I had signed up for it and I must admit ... totally forgot about it! Needless to say I've been pretty busy the last couple of days getting everything ready. I haven't done a market since we left Alice Springs which was July 2008! Gosh I can't believe it's been that long. Anyway, I'm very excited and just about ready for the show which is this Saturday, the 21st of March from 8 till 3. I figure this will give me a practice run for starting the Farmers Market the end of this month and attending the Warrenton Spring Festival in May.

I've attached a couple of pictures of my Chime Girl I made and sold while living in Australia. I really need to get started on making these again .... if only I had more time.

Pretty soon at the Farmers Market in The Plains!

Went to the meeting at the Archwood Green Barns in The Plains yesterday to find out all about becoming a vendor at their Sunday markets starting the end of April. Great meeting and a great bunch of people. I'm so excited about being able to set up my booth and start selling all my felted items. Not sure how I will handle having enough to sell on a weekly basis but I'm sure I'll manage somehow. Of course if I don't sell much I won't have to worry about that part! Come to find out that Robert Duvall (the actor) owns and lives on a farm in The Plains. I don't think he'll be purchasing any of my baby booties anytime soon, but then again ... maybe he has some grandkids he needs to buy something for. Hey, it never hurts to dream you know. Talking about kids ... mine decided to sew up some pillows for her room and I must say she did a great job. She wouldn't let me take any pictures of them yet, not until they are completely finished mum!

A view of Violin Girl

Here are a couple more pictures of Violin Girl.

Pretty Pink Felt Baby Shoes

I managed to finish another pair of felted baby shoes which I put up for sale on my Etsy and Art Fire sites. I love making these little shoes. Making the felt and sewing them by hand are my favorite parts, cutting out the little shoe pattern is my least favorite part. These I made from only sheep's fleece and tussah silk, I didn't use any llama or Alpaca fleece this time. These little shoes always bring a smile to my face when I look at them. My best friend Erna, said to me the other day that these little shoes almost make you want to have another baby! BUT, then we both remembered the sleepless nights, the dirty diapers, tantrums and figured heck no, we've been there done that and we wore the T-shirts! She has 2 teenage daughters and I have a tween and we're both very happy to have these wonderful kids, we'll just leave having babies to that next generation.

Violin Girl

Since I'm not sure where to start with my story I might as well just jump in and go with the flow. In case you're wondering about my violin girl ... I created her, I made her from wire, painters tape, foil, 2nd hand T-shirt, some other fabrics and a textile medium called Powertex. She's one of many girls I made while living in the Australian outback. I haven't made any for about a year since I got in a rut and wanted to experiment with other things, so I went back to felting, another one of my new found loves. Well, maybe not so new since I've been felting for about 4 yrs.

Back to violin girl. I was never sure of what to call my pieces ... statues, figurines, art dolls? Not sure where they really belong, or what category to put them in so I just called them my girls. I did make a boy one time, I will have to post the photo down the road of the little guy, he was part of a mother, daugther and son piece I made for a client of mine. After making and selling about 100 of these girls over a 2 yr period I realized I didn't want to go mass producing them, that just took all the fun out of creating them ... so I stopped.

But, for some reason ... today I made up my mind that I need to get back to work on making some more of these girls and share them. I know they will sell, I've had some people here in the US asking me when I start making them so I figured it's time. I will not go crazy and mass produce them but pick and choose which one to make and make them very special. I hope that all the ones I've made in the past have a good home, wherever that might be. I wonder sometimes where they are at, who purchased them and why. If you happen to be the owner of one of my girls ... I would love to hear from you. My business name in Australia was called Purple Platypus in case you are wondering about the name. I changed my name to Bits of Fiber since Purple Platypus was already taken here in the US.

Love to hear from you.