Finally on FACEBOOK!

For all of you out there that can't get enough of social networking, and want all their family and friends to know exactly what they like, when they like it, we have some good news: we are FINALLY on Facebook!

Come and join the group, join in the discussion and generally get yourself in on the action.

See you at the The Eternal Maker Facebook page!

Charlotte

The Trunk Show

We are very excited to tell you all about The Eternal Maker Trunk Sale.

Happening next Thursday, Friday and Saturday [26th, 27th & 28th November!], the excellent line up of local makers and lovers of all things vintage, are selling their crafty and inspiring wares at our shop! Sellers are displaying their goods in gorgeous vintage trunks dotted about the shop itself. All in all it sounds like a festive and creative excuse to shop!

So if you are around in Chichester on Thursday 26th 5.30pm - 9pm, Friday 27th 10am - 5pm and Saturday the 28th 10am - 5pm, then pop in for some handmade and vintage finds!

See you then!

Charlotte

24th October 2009

I always seem to post things after the fact, especially when it comes to our 'schoolhouse' event days.  So for once I am going to do things the right way around (although, my tummy is rumbling and i may have to pop to the kitchen for a slice of toast first.)

Ok, done that (am feeling much better for it, thank you for asking, my tummy isn't disturbing the street anymore.)

So where was I?  Oh yes, schoolhouse:  A day of classes, yummy food, meeting new friends and old, cakes, goodie bags... I think I haven't left anyone out.  And it's all right here in Chichester.

Yes, Chichester.  Ha ha.

Teachers include - Debs Winrow of the fabulous Delish Designs, Carolyn Forster - she of Quilting on the Go fame, Amanda Fowler (that's her in the pic above, doesn't she look nice?  And she's pretty clever too), & the funtastic (i can't believe i just made up such a nerdy word) Sue Allan (go look at her clever stuff she makes under the name Sew Sister).  And there are more besides.  You can choose 4 classes out of 8, and it's all, everything included, for £65.

There you go.

Oh, and this last pic is because i promised Amanda I would blog her needle felting class, which was a couple of weeks ago now (sorry about that, been a little busy, and my blogger has turned itself onto Russian which makes it hard to log onto).  But, here is one of the things made on that class - and how, how fun and cute are all of them?  

My personal favourite I think is the psychedelic one at the back, although the rest of you, don't get jealous, I think you are all equally special.

The cutest overlay to grace our shelves - ever.

I love this overlay. I know I'm not alone, because Rachael has threatened that one day I'm going to come in to find all the hippos and elephants cut out:

Anyway - this card is made with Bazzill Dark Taupe  (one of my new favourite colours), the overlay, alphabet stamps, detail white embossing powder, and scraps of blue or pink (depending on whether it's a boy or girl, of course)

The cardstock is cut 6"x 12" and folded in half, the overlay is cut 3 babygro's high (this is a highly technical measurement, but I will leave you to work it out.)  Fold that in half too.

Sew down the centre of the card, joining the two together.  Use an old needle, as seewing through card will blunt your needles, so you may as well start off with a blunt one.

Pull your threads through to the inside of the card, and tie off.  Do this by pulling on the bobbin thread (see here the darker one) until a loop comes through from the front.  Pull this loop out the whole way, then tie in a knot, and trim.

Cut a scrap of pink or blue, the size of one of the babygros.  Put a tiny bit of double sided tape in the centre of the back (this will hold it in place while you stitch) and position it behind one of the babygros.  Stitch all around, and tie off the ends as before.

On a scrap of the dark taupe cardstock, spell out congratulations, or whatever word you like, in Versamark.  Then emboss with detail white embossing powder.  

position on the top left corner, about half a centimetre from the top and right hand edges.  Use a thicker sticky pad, to create a little depth.

And that's it...

A x

The Eternal Maker Trunk Show

What is this,  I hear you ask?  A trunk show? 

Well, on 26-28 November 2009 (thursday night, friday day & saturday day) we are holding our very first handmade and vintage trunk show. 

Come and celebrate handmade, and do your christmas shopping all at the same time (it feels pretty early to be saying that but I know how some of you - and I most definitely do not include myself here - like to be organised and buy early, so I'd best tell you!)

Local makers (and many of the staff of the eternal maker) will be filling a suitcase (a la the ones above)of their handmade and vintage pretties and offering them to you - yes, you - for sale.

We still have some spaces left for these suitcases and the prices are pretty reasonable (in fact, very reasonable!) so if you are interested please let me know!

I for one am pretty excited about seeing what Chichester has to offer in crafty talent, I know many of you are super talented so come and get involved!

x A

5 weeks, 4 days, 4 lorry bays, 1500 bolts of fabric

When we were told we had to move, it took a while to sink in.  Despite the pure terror of the actual move, we were initially optimistic, this could be a good thing, we thought.

And then we started looking.  

Apparently, our criteria is a pretty tricky list to fulfill in this area.  Parking, space, light, easy access.  We soon discovered that although we could tick one, maybe two boxes on our list, to tick all was seemingly impossible.

We spent days driving up and down each road leading into town, trying to find THE place.  It had to exist.  Mum pointed out each potential place while I mentally tried to convince myself that this could work yet all the while it's negatives helped to confirm an image of the place that couldn't possibly exist, yet would be perfect. 

Finally Mum pulled in at one end of Terminus Road.  I was just thinking to myself, this is it, we either shut up shop, or go to one of the places that was wrong,and move again in a year.  This was not what I wanted.  Mum lost patience with me (obviously this happens a lot, but this time was pretty bad).  "What is it exactly you want?" she asked.

"A cross between an old brick warehouse and an old fire station" I said, having seen a cool fire station conversion online recently.  

I can't remember her answer, and quite possibly it's not something I want to repeat here, I must keep her image as a respectable lady.  The point was, there was NOTHING like that to be found in the vicinity.

We drove on.  And 2 minutes later, there it was.

Now, unfortunately, I don't have any before photos of the building as a whole from outside, but I have some closeups.  As you can see, it needed a little bit of work.

It was an old lorry depot.  The walls and ceiling were covered in diesel, grime, and goodness knows what else.  The fittings were dated from a time long before regulations, and the windows were cracked and peeling.

It's a shame not to be able to show you better pictures of this stage.  You'll just have to take my word for it.  It was bad, but it was great.  It was awful, but it was PERFECT.

After a few weeks of back and forthing with agents and solicitors, it was ours.  

First thing was a clean.  Armed with boiler suits and sprays and all sorts of cleaners, the workmen went in.  Ian, John & Jan were our workforce, and they worked and they worked.  Here it is during and after the clean:

 

and then came the painting.  800 litres of white paint later, and suddenly things were taking shape.  Flooring got laid, window panes replaced.

then, as false walls and shelves were being built, we could get on with the decorative parts: I made my friend lizzie (an illustrator, if anyone needs any great illustrations done, she can do small scale too) draw the biggest pair of scissors I think that maybe has ever been seen on the south coast of england (do you think?)

and lizzie and Rachael our shop manager and I painted some signs...

mum multi tasking- taking phone calls and dredging a pit...

And then came the move. As we had to move out of the old place, and the work wasn't finished yet, suddenly there was a big pile of boxes we had to work around.

and then trees started sprouting in odd places...

we ate a lot... (to keep our energies up of course) and look how many people turned up to chip in towards the end!

literally last minute cleaning before the doors open

and here it is, finally, the eternal maker and the button company craft warehouse, incorporating just sew sewing machines, wholesale & retail supply of fabric, paper, buttons, threads, and all round lovely stuff.

finally space to get out all those jars of buttons, and look at the fabrics and threads, it's like rainbows.

workshop space, fully equipped with big tables, sewing machines, & everything else necessary to make beautiful things...

view from the door looking left

my lovely trees, trimmed to perfection by foxearth tree surgery, I'm pretty sure it's the first job they've had where they had to trim dead branches to someone's specifications- a little off here, please, you've missed a bit.  A bit shorter, yes perfect.  Chainsawed to perfection.

sofa, bought at a car boot sale for £20, re-covered in Momo's wonderland fabric, in home decor weight, by the very clever Rachael (look out for her in next month's sew hip!)

the view to the right from the centre.

giant coat hangers, perfect for hanging your quilts on, or for giant's clothes.

we used some old wardrobes on their sides for shelving, perfect for fabric bolts

and cut slat board to size to fit in old drawers, to put in hooks and hang things from.

an old dressmakers dummy from a car boot sale, I wish I could reduce or increase my size with knobs and dials in my middle.

our old kitchen table from when I was growing up - now a handy cutting table.

I think they like our new home, we certainly do!

Jelly Roll Quilt Class with Christine

Last Thursday, 9 ladies &  1 teacher all gathered in a little shop in Chichester.  The results were these:

Schoolhouse mark 2

It's hard really to know where to start talking about such a big day.  With such a huuuuge undertaking it seems tricky to boil it down to one point, to begin.  But here goes:

95 ladies, 10 teachers, 1 primary school, and an infinite amount of fun and creativity.  Those are the basic facts.

Here were the teachers: 

Amanda Fowler - Using shrink plastics, chain, beads, inks, stamps, & cord, some lovely jewellery was made - 

Debs Winrow from Delish Designs - another great Delish mini album

Mandy Shaw's gorgeous linen, red gingham & ribbon scissor keep - matching the lovely pincushion from last July 

Sue Allan's funny felt buttoned up bears..

Jane Gill's living floral punch craft flowers...

Jane Randall's layer cake delight - using a moda layer cake, some quick cutting & stitching, et voila! It's a cushion, or a table runner or the start of a quilt!

Corinne Amos made some fab fimo millefiore beads

Kim Reygate was stamping with chalks...

Sandy Bower was making folded boxes - an ever popular class!

and last but not least, Carolyn Forster made these fabby - let's see if I can get this right: 'poor man's biscorneau' and a project bag - all in one hour!!

Add to that lunch, cakes, afternoon tea, goody bags and all the usual excitement and kerfuffle and that is school house!

So all that remains to be said is thank you for everyone coming - I hope you enjoyed it!

And thank you once again to all those who helped on the day, and in the run up and wind down too, it was greatly appreciated and much needed!

 I would post more pictures but silly blogger won't let me...

A x

the Bubble Bag Pattern Tutorial at last

Bubble Bag Pattern

ages ago - and i mean aaagggessss ago, I promised a pattern on the bubble bag.  Finally I have had the time (and patience) to figure out how to add a pdf here.  phew, my head hurts just thinking about it.

I hope it works, if it doesn't bear with me...

I'm going to ignore the fact that I haven't posted anything up here for at least a month and just go headfirst into all the squillions of things that need saying.  Or showing.  Whatever.

First up was Alexandra Palace Knit & Stitch show.  We had a massive delivery of Japanese fabrics in literally the day before and decided what the heck - lets take it.  So for the first time we had a little open area for cutting, and all the fabrics on the bolt.  Whew!  At one point my arms were seizing up with so much over use.  I guess you could say it seemed to go down well.  We didn't bring back quite as much as we took, lets say.

But of course I did my fair share of fabric buying too, some lovely liberty prints & others from Fabrics Galore (we seemed to just be swopping fabrics at one point).  

I also met the lovely Manda, from the amazing new magazine Sew Hip which if you haven't seen yet you should definitely check out.  Finally a magazine for people like me!  I am going to get a shop subscription - so if you want to know where to buy it, hopefully soon I'll be able to help you out.  I am especially excited about the next issue, but I won't tell you why - you'll understand when you see it...

The stand next to us was Clothkits, who we have come to know fairly well as she too is Chichester based and has popped into the shop on more than one occasion.  There are very few times I wish I worked somewhere else (I do love my job) but I do secretly want to work for Clothkits, they are doing such exciting things, really bringing the company up to date and then some.  After much umming and ahhing (is that how you spell that, I don't think I have ever written it before) I forgoed  (?) the purchase for me for now, (which would have been this) and I purchased for my fake neice (she isn't related but I think she should be) this cute little dress, 

which I sewed up last night and have thus created my first item of clothing from scratch.  (Unless you count a big skirt I made when I was 17, and it really shouldn't be counted.)

Anyhow, straight after that little dressmaking fire was in me and I just had to spew out another, this time with the new Sandi Henderson Farmer's Market range from Michael miller.  mmmm....  too cute...

 

Look at the cute cherries fabric with the gorgeous stripe lining....   oooh i like. 

and the frills.... aahhh...

So next step is to utilise some of that green liberty fabric I just showed you and make the Amy Butler Lotus tunic.  This is very nerve wracking for me, but I will do it.  If only big cat will get off the pattern pieces:

Oh, and lastly, I just wanted to show you the pics of my 3D card class we did on Saturday.  I was pretty pleased with the results, although it was fiddly and frustrating so I'm not sure how everyone enjoyed it.  I sometimes like to really keep my cards simple, and other times like to overwork them ridiculously.  This was one of the latter times.  So here is one using a paper artsy bauble, stamped onto acetate, embossed, cut out, slotted together, hanging in a little triangular box... you get it.

and then a diorama using Just Johanna's three french hens stamp... I love this stamp.  Seriously.  This whole range is just very funny and cute.

 

so, it's stamped seperately, I just used a tiny bit of red and blue colour on their berets, I stamped and embossed on acetate at the back, using a Amuse stamp, and my little letters stamps which I love (but didn't go down too well in the class, too fiddly, but I love that I can stampe ANYTHING with them on ANYTHING) saying ooh la la on the acetate and the greeting on the front. Here's a close up:

 they are Claude, Michel et Henri Hen.  It's great that the classes have more space, even though they are staying with the same amount of people.  I get frazzled enough with tiny classes so I'm not sure how I would do teaching a big one!  And now at least we don't have to worry about the fabric getting ruined in the tiny fabric room and we have natural daylight.  Great stuff.

Soon the last room should be ready and I can move some of my stuff in - finally!

So next it's off to Houston again for quilt market - is it that time of year already???  Hopefully I'll have lots of lovely things to show you when we're back.