The power of the internet

So sorry I haven't posted for a while.

As most of you know, I make and sell things on Etsy to raise money for Leukaemia Research. At the moment I'm knitting furiously as my little baby hats, particularly the ones with ear flaps are selling like hot cakes - mostly to the US and Canada, but I think that's because Etsy is much better known over there.

I've also sent little hats to China and Australia recently and the ladies in my local post office always have a chat and ask me about them. They are the same ladies that knew Dave when he used to take in the parcels from our online craft shop sales, so they are always ready with a kind word or two.

I'm always amazed though when people find, and like my shop, so imagine my surprise when a lady in Canada emailed me to say she had featured my shop on her blog! She is going to do an interview with me and do a second post so I'd better keep my needles clicking over the next few evenings incase there are even more sales.

Ironically, her blog is called Organized Mum (http://www.organizedmum.blogspot.com/), so I'd better try and be an organized mum so that I can keep my shop well stocked.

I am hoping to make some journals to add to the shop in time for Christmas, but I like knitting - I find the repetition very calming. Its as good as yoga and meditation, so if I don't post for a while I'm either so busy with orders or asleep in the chair!!

Talking Threads - new TV series

I was so pleased to find out yesterday that there is to be a new TV series starting this week on textile arts.
It is called Talking Threads and the first one will be on Sky channel 171 this Wednesday at 7pm. If you don't have Sky you can view here http://www.countrychannel.tv/.
Apparently there are to be interviews and workshops with various british textile artists including Jill Kennedy, Angie Hughes and Kim Thittichai.
This is such great news. My Sky box is set ready to record, so now I'm really looking forward to Wednesday evening!

Cats sleep anywhere (even on my new quilt!)

A few weeks ago I bought a kit for a quilt at the Festival of Quilts, NEC, Birmingham. I don't usually by kits but I knew I would never get round to making one like this unless I had it all to hand, so I splashed out. It is made from brushed cotton and the seams are left raw, snipped at regular intervals and then the whole thing is washed and tumble dried so that the raw edges fluff up and becone a feature of the quilt. As the evenings have become progressively cooler my kids were urging me to complete it as they wanted to huddle under it whilst watching TV, so I set to and did just that. Until that point I had been working on it sporadically. (hence the reason for the paper pieces with numbers on - I needed to remember what went where!).

As I pieced together the strips I laid them on the floor and as always at least one of my cats came to check up on what I was doing. This is Saffie - she thought she was going to get first dibs on this quilt. I'm sure she was sitting on pins!

I finished the quilt and laid it over the back of the sofa, and feeling very pleased with myself went to get my camera........by the time I came back, our other cat Ruby had claimed it as hers - sorry kids - you just weren't quick enough to get that quilt - its going to be a chilly winter for you!