Martha's Sewing Event

The booth was a lot of fun and I met so many terrific ladies! So many of had no idea of how an Embellisher worked and were amazed that it only had needles and no thread - I actually had to prove it to one of them by taking the machine apart to show them that there is no bobbin!

I have such a great respect for Martha Pullen, she is not only a very clever lady (and so funny!) but has been instrumental in keeping fine sewing alive which I think is so important; she remains a kind and decent person as well.

I remember years ago (early 70's) trying to find someone to teach me "whitework" and when I did find someone who knew about it, her eyes were failing so she wasn't able to teach me.

Here I am on stage, I must say while I wasn't at all nervous, I was anxious to do it well since I had never done a power point presentation before. I got some good feedback which I appreciated and will keep in mind in case there is a next time - keep to one picture per slide -- some ladies were so far back, it was difficult for them to see the detail in some of the slides but other than that, it was a great success (and I was able to relax when it was over).

Here is Andrea modeling at the fashion show on Friday night - poor thing had no notice at all, I just sort of "suggested" that she should do it and she did a fabulous job - much better than the pictures that her Mom (me) took!
This is my blue shawl with a needle felted top and "scrumbles" along the bottom - still a favorite.

Here's the lucky winner - her name was drawn after my presentation and her prize was an Embellisher! She stopped by my booth the next day and got some goodies to play with.

Felting Again . . .

I did manage to work on a nuno vest here and there in the past few weeks to wear with a long dove grey dress that I purchased. The collar is hand-dyed silk needle felted/wet felted. The body is a lovely sheer white silk gauze - with silk/merino fiber and hand dyed silk leaves in various shades of soft green; it was very difficult to felt due to the very high silk ratio - but it fits me well and looks great with the dress. It sits back on the shoulder a bit and dips down in the back. It won a fourth prize at the MD Sheep and Wool last weekend. My other green "leafy" vest won a first prize!

Judy at Artistic Artifacts in Alexandria, Virginia, offers loads of vintage linens all hand dyed in a variety of yummy shades. Of course, I couldn't resist and brought home quite a few to experiment felting with. This handkerchief seemed like it would be a great candidate for fancy "pockets" to adorn a fine cardigan (I have one in mind). Simply cut in two and machine needle and wet felt some detail along the top which naturally gathers when it shrinks.

After I shipped all the materials I had dyed for the booth, I had plans to felt samples in each colorway but I found to my dismay that I had SHIPPED IT ALL - even the pieces I had set aside for samples!!!! . . . a little stressed? hahahaha!!! Anyway, I'll just have to use what I still have in my stash and "wing" it - here is an iris created from silk gauze. The background is nuno wool and silk gauze in green.

Some more pins and buttons - this time using my new pin cards and adding a little "bling." You can see the front and back of the new postcards - I'll use these for my business cards. The new fiber pack label is shown on the bottom right.

Sighs of Relief and New Branding!

There was a deadline to meet to get all the contents that will be in my booth at the Martha Pullen Sewing Event in Arlington, Texas, by the specified time - I can laugh about it now but not being experienced at this, I just don't know quite what to expect. I wanted to have enough but not too much - now I can finally get excited about the trip next week. Thank goodness that Andrea will come to help (Jenni would love to come too but she'll be at a seminar for her new job).

Our son, Ian, has worked really hard to implement another of his Mom's whims to have new branding. Using just "Margo" for labels and packaging just seemed to make sense since that is "Her Majesty's" name after all!!! (hehehe)

When I decided to accept Martha's invitation, I knew I'd need a booth sign so I felted quite a huge one using machine-needle felted (of course) and stitched letters so Ian designed a font for my labels, etc., using my fabrics in various colors within each letter to match the sign and I just LOVE how they turned out; it sure helps to have talented children willing to help.

I honestly meant to take pictures as I went along but truly didn't have any spare time at all - thank goodness for Andrea, our eldest daughter who came to help making fiber packs and flower kits.

Since never having had a booth before I had to ask a lot of questions from experiences vendors of all the "what and what not to do" nature. At first I wanted to offer lots of felted items but early on I realized that I'd never have enought time to accomplish this so I set out to make lots of kits - and this meant lots of dyeing on the weekends. I probably dyed 20 - 30 yard of various silks and some curls/roving as well. The bottom line is that it is all SHIPPED and should arrive in place tomorrow - Yippee!!! what a feeling.

And of course, the presentation - organizing tons of pictures was just the beginning and now to practice to keep within the hour (I could go on and on and on . . . )

There is more to come tomorrow - I actually had time to felt yesterday - ahhhh, "felt" so great and just the therapy I needed.