Bits and bobs

I've signed myself up for a craft fair at the end of November-eek! I'm not entirely convinced this is a sensible idea, for one thing I can't gauruntee I can stay off ivs... and also rather than making things to someones specification I'll be showing off my desgns for everyone's scrutiny, which is much more scary.  Fortunately, its only a day long fair so I should manage to make it through that long and also I won't have to deal with scary members of the public for too long-I'm such a coward sometimes!  So, I've been going back through old ideas to try and pinpoint things that will hopefully sell. This means I've been remaking and improving  and adjusting lots of different things so this post is a few pics of the different hats, headpieces and embroidery I've been trying out.

This is my prototype for a freestanding embroidered damselfly I've been working on. It's not a great picture as you can't see what a nice greeny-blue colour the stitching on the wings is.  For the next version I am going to try using a different kind of stabiliser, as the tear away one I used here is difficult to get out from between the lines of stitches.  I think wash away or heat away would work better. It also needs a little bit more sparkle, so some beads are definitely in order.

I've also been designing some embroidered word art. My machine does such beautiful lettering that I wanted to see if some amusing sayings would sell...

I've also been doing some more feather ornaments. The left over part of the feathers from making my butterfly headpiece have been hanging around for a while so I thought I'd use them up by making peacock feather pom-poms.  I've been curling the tines to make them into little corkscrews curls, and the iridescent green is gorgeous.

My favorite hat block has also been getting some use.  I'm trying to build up a selection of colours for the fair. I love this burgandy colour, so I may have to make anoter one to keep...

This orange button is going to be an autumn leaves hat to go with my leafy green hat. I'm going to decorate it with a swirl of orange and red leaves.  I want it to look like they are being blown in the wind.

And finally I've got a sinamay boater with a pinwheel bow decoration that I am just finishing off. It'll get its own post later when I've taken some better pictures.  This block is another lovely shape that I hope will be popular.