Reason for the season

Sorry about the chunk of writing to follow I promise there are some awesome pictures to come below.
I'm an involved member of our local parish church, its been my church all my life and after joining the choir on a regular basis just over three years ago I've been roped in to various other aspects of it as well.
This winter the church is undergoing major roof work and we have had to vacate for several months and hold services at various other locations around the village. During a committee meeting how to handle the Christmas services was discussed including our very popular family Crib service on Christmas Eve afternoon, Where we tell the Christmas story and prepare the crib with our rather old and large traditional figurines. The point came up that moving them from place to place and carrying them about might not be the best idea. Our vicar commented about seeing a nice knitted set at another church and maybe something like could be produced in time for the service. This is where I got looked at as the "crafty one". Now I don't knit but I do crochet so I said I would see what I could do, a quick look on pintrest for some suitable free patterns pulled up these. A blog by a lady called 5 little monsters, I loved the gentle look of them, less cartoony than some of the designs available. I quickly hooked up Mary and Joseph ready for the Sunday service and with the teams approval I set to work on completing the set.  When I had finished the set I was so proud of them I thought they deserved some really good photos so I took the set to another church in the group to create a proper photo shoot with the help of my awesome other half Alex.

This is the full set, there are some alterations and additions to Erica's lovely patterns which I will discuss as we go through the groups. 

First up the main group Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus in his manger and the animals a donkey and ox I call them Daniel and Ollie. The first addition to the set is Ollie the Ox. There wasn't a pattern for him, but I know our traditional set has an Ox and normally him and the donkey are the first characters to be placed in the Crib scene as we remember that it was their home before that special night and they didn't mind sharing. The ox is based on the donkey pattern in a more suitable ox colour with a shorter neck and wider/shorted head. I also added some little cream horns.

Next is the shepherds they consist of a Shepherd, Shepherd boy and three sheep (well lambs maybe they are quite dinky.)  The pattern calls for a wire to be placed inside the crook but I decided to just sew it on to the hand of the Shepherd and at the base of the body as well and I think it works well. I also made his headdress in stripes just to give him abit more difference from Joseph as them as pretty much the same pattern. The sheep are done in three different colour combinations white and brown,  black and white and brown and cream. The pattern calls for chunky wool to give a textured look but I hadn't got any so after stuffing I stitched some loops on to them to make them woollier. Yes of course they have names too, Barry, Larry and George.

Next up are the wise men, Although we don't really know how many there were its traditional to have three each one with a gift. I did these in brighter colours to give them an opulent and distant look. The patterns all for thinner yarn and tiny hook but I just used smoother dc cotton and a slightly smaller hook, this has made them come out bigger than Erica's but I rather like how they look and aren't over large.
The camel isn't part of the 5 little monsters set and we don't have a camel in our traditional set but I like a camel in a nativity scene like the often missed out verse from a favorite carol In the bleak midwinter " The ox and Ass and Camel, which adore. "  The pattern for him came from here  which was in Spanish so needed translating before I could start. I left out some details like the beaded edge to his blanket and safety eyes to make him match in with the set more. He's called Humphrey and is a big hit with the team at church so I'm very glad to have gone the extra mile and make him.

 Another character which isn't present in our traditional set but often features in scenes is the Angel and since there was a pattern for her as part of the set I made one. Shes done in white with white sparkly wool for her wings, which for some reason I found a tricky bit, (there might be a spare set at home which aren't even) Her hair was also I little tricky with the braid around the front. There's also a star which is such a lovely shape I may use the pattern to create some for hanging on my tree.

Another addition to Erica's stunning pattern I made at the suggestion of another member of the church team. It is a recreation of our Vicar and his faithful beagle dog Archie who attends services. The vicar is based on the standard Joseph pattern with suitable colour changes to make it look like a cassock with surplice over and a couple of stitches of white yarn after stuffing added the dog collar. I them crochet a stole in green making it slightly narrower with Slst in the middle so it would sit around his neck. The dog is a pattern from Teeny Tiny Crochet. Which I did in normal dc but used a much smaller hook than the rest to make him as suitable size as i could, I also added some brown crochet spots on his back for his colouring.

So there you go quite a project but it will be used to tell the wonderful story this year and hopefully will find a use at church for years to come.
Huge thanks to 5 Little Monsters for the pattern and for saying on her blog that I'm allowed to sell items I make using them. I will consider making sets to order for next year (after my wedding) If you are interested please get in touch.
I wish all my readers peace and best wishes for the coming season.

Gunby Apple Day 17

Our last outing for the year to Gunby hall was to take part in their annual apple day. This event has turned in to a very popular seasonal day with many visitors. I tried to lay the stall out abit differently to encourage repeat visitors to have another look incorporating the shelved stand again like at Wragby as it displays the rag wreaths well and I haven't had time yet to make them a dedicated stand, and bringing the the light box although is was such a glorious day the light didn't show up.

I brought along some dried fruit, pine cones and bunches of mixed grasses for a seasonal touch these items are also available now in the shop. I think the mixed grasses are particularly nice in a vase this time of year them give a lovely autumn/ harvest feel.

We also took along a few Christmas items handmade felt decorations and knitted stockings with chocolate in all ready to the tree.

A closer look at the rag wreaths on the stand mum has created a couple of Christmasy ones to go with the general floral ones. These attracted quite alot of attention which was nice.

After a relatively disappointing couple of trips to  Gunby this year due to stall relocation which looked lovely on paper but didn't turn out to work well with visitor flow we tried a new pitch on the front lawn. This turned out to work really well, Visitors could see us as the approached the property and the circular drive was easy to walk round all together it gave a really nice feel and we hope to be able to utilize this space again.

How the stalls looked from the courtyard gate,very inviting.
Overall we had a much better day selling a good range of items including friendship teas, felt sausage dogs and of course our popular lavender bags. It was also lovely to see some returning customers who purchased from us last apple day and were looking out for more bits this year.





Our next stall will be at Lincolnshire food and gift fair on the 2nd and 3rd of December. This is a week later than last year due to a change in the city's outdoor Christmas market to the week after so if your disappointed about the other market moving its date and still wanted something to see the first weekend in December why not come along. There is an entry fee but parking is free and ample, there are two massive indoor halls to peruse and many hot food stalls joining the two buildings to get some lunch so make a day of it. 

Wragby Show 17

In the run up to Wragby show I made a new batch of friendship teas to add to the stock and its just as well I did as these proved really popular. I've also been sewing up a new batch of felt oak leaves ready for autumn.

 Mum also launched her new rag wreaths at this show, aren't they just so pretty. An excellent decoration for all kinds of places around the home. £15 each.

Because I knew the space at Wragby is narrower than alot of the events I attend I decided to have a practice at setting up the stall in a different way at the shop before hand. I was really quite pleased with the layout and the height I created.
I used a different stand in the center of the stall which displayed the wreaths and used both my display trees.  

 And is the stall on the day, complete with illuminated Hannah's Craft Cottage sign which i think is rather quirky. Unfortunately the tent was laid out differently to last year and we didn't have an edge space as we were expecting but we made the best of what we had and worked at the ends of the stall rather than behind.  I put my half apron with pockets to use for this so sales could be made from either end of the stall.

Here's why the second tree has been brought out for the stall a few Christmas bits have snuck out. The mini drying rack was working well again with a mixture of items being displayed on it.

The pocket tissue holders have been changed in to these two oblong baskets with a suitcase creating height and depth. I think this works really well much better than the old giant oval basket, here there is enough choice on display without over phasing the customer.  I have a couple more of this style of basket displaying the fabric hearts and crochet flower brooches and they help give abit of uniformity to the stall and seem to fit in the space better than round ones.

On a quick wander around the show I happened to spot this giant tortoise isn't it awesome, there were several of them wandering about in an enclosure.
We sold a good mix of items at this show and had a couple of repeat customers which was nice. However overall it was not as good as last year. I've sent some feedback points to the organizers about what may have had an influence on sales hopefully next year will be better.
Our next stall (weather permitting) will be Sunday the 8th of October Gunby Hall Apple day.  

Partney Fair 2017

 Recently we had a stall at one of our favorite fairs of the season. The annual Partney fair. this is the fourth time we have attended this fair.
As I said in my last post I was abit concerned about the stall always looking the same so I moved things round abit this time. Placing the lavender bags in the corner and the candles further forward.  

 The bunting looked good strung around the shelter. I'm hoping to add to the range available with some cloth bunting before to long, maybe some festive ones would be nice.

Something new for the stall this time, this petite drying rack makes a wonderful display piece for all the different ornaments and received lots of attention. To enable the items to be displayed this way I have spent time putting Hannah's Craft Cottage tags on the hanging items this helps bring the branding to the forefront and hopefully might mean people look me up online after seeing the stall out and about and means pieces can be individually priced. I think the tags are working well and saw some people picking items up and looking at the tags. The prices are put on with easy peel labels so the tag can be left on if the items is given as a gift if desired. Over all I was pleased with the look of the stand and will defiantly be using the drying rack again. I do enjoy the Partney fair with its stalls, traditional teas, vintage vehicles, fun dog show and entertainment (this year provided again by the Horncastle Ukulele band) I do hope it continues for many years to come.

Gunby NGS Day

 It was a lovely sunny day for our second trip to Gunby this year for their NGS day with the gardens looking stunning. Again we had a pitch on the side of the main lawn behind the house.

The weather was so nice we where able to leave the third side off which I thought would work well for creating flow with people looking at the stall and also because to that side of us was a gate and path leading to a different part of the garden.

Our buddy from Fern Cottage Crafts has recently purchased a Coleman shelter after see how well we get on with ours and the pair of them looked rather good either side of the path.









However we didn't have an overly busy day this may be due to a number of reasons including another country show happening near by,  but partly I think it is due to the change in location at this event and how now the stalls are in three different locations around the grounds and people don't always seem to be finding us and with it being a very open space people just glance from afar and don't properly look at the stands. Having looked at pictures from Rose day and compared them with this stall I've realized my stall dose look almost identical and maybe when I'm in the same location I should try vary it abit more in case people are repeat visitors then I will look different and interesting each time.
I do think at the next event we might see if we can have a different location and see if we do any better. fingers crossed.

However the day was not a complete waste of time I took some crochet with me and made some progress on making the elements to create these cute crochet  sprouts which are going to be new to the Christmas range this year.








Our next stall will be this Saturday at Partney Fair we have attended this fair for a number of years now and is a staple of our summer fairs and always alot of fun. Come and see us there.

Gunby Hall Rose Day

 So we are back at local National Trust property Gunby Hall for our second year of Stalls. This year some of the stalls have been moved out of the courtyard and located around the garden this time there were some in the walled vegetable garden and some tucked in on the side of the main lawn, this is where I was. It was a much more sheltered spot then the courtyard which can be a tad breezy. However I do feel the foot flow past the stall was alittle less than our previous position and maybe some signage and a few more events in this location people will find us better. As you can see the gazebo looked good with the matching cloths working well.

I tested out a new display piece for the felt cats and sausage dogs its a vintage cake stand. I like this piece and it does free up abit of space on the stall as we keep adding new lines combining two items together and adding abit of height but I'm not completely sure about it yet, I'm not sure people are seeing them quite as well on it as the original baskets, I'll try it on a couple more stalls before I make my decision.

A new item on this stall were these cute vintage teacup arrangements with faux flowers in, these attracted alot of attention although I didn't make a sale of them, fingers crossed for another time. I'm also hoping to turn some other tea cups in to pincushions. Items that did sell well this time were the handmade cards, which I was pleased with and will have to find time to replenish the stock of them, lavender bags were also popular again as always.

I also provided a fresh flower arrangement to decorate the church which held a service as part of the day. I think this made up for me having to miss my duties in the choir and helping with tea at the Burgh morning service. The Gunby Church is such a quaint little building and is often open when the hall is open do remember to pop down and have a look at it if you visit.



We shall be back at Gunby on Sunday the 6th of August. as part of NGS day Do be sure to find us.

Woodhall Spa Country Show

 So this was our third year attending Woodhall Spa country show. This year our stall was on the edge of the marquee allowing us to display the crochet bunting.We maybe weren't quite as busy as last year be we sold a good mix of things with the lavender bags and Friendship teas being popular as always. We also had some repeat customers who purchased items off us last year and were pleased to see the expanded range of felt ornaments.

The new felt Sausage dog ornaments made their debut at a fair and lots of people commented on them. I'm hoping to also get some on Folksy before long.
Someone also commented on having seem our items in Stuff with style so that's reassuring that they are being seen.

Overall I was pleased with the layout of the stall, still liking the longer brown cloths we introduced last year, Beginning to think about possibly painting the white crates as they are getting abit marked with moving about so much, maybe a blue color to tie in with the branding.
A couple of gripes from this show, this is a large show which has both a Craft marquee and individual trade stalls under gazebos outside so I feel the organizers could be a tad more selective in traders inside the marquee I stood opposite a large double stall which didn't appear to have anything "Craft" on it. Also the show is technically on till 5pm but being a Sunday show it always seems to quieten down around 4pm, however I personally feel stall holders shouldn't start packing up until told to by the event organizers as it puts off anyone who is still around from looking in the marquee. But there's my couple of personal moans for a change.
Next stall should be Rose Day at Gunby Hall on Sunday the 25th of June.

Branching out abit more

So as well as being able to purchase mine and mum's lovely crafts in Snapdragons Florist, through our Folksy shop, when we are out and about at craft fairs and in Stuff with Style in Woodhall Spa. My handmade cards are now available to buy from Tastee farmshop in Gunby.
So when your next popping in their for a tray of their yummy free range eggs why not have a look for them.

So this is the current range I have send down, starting with a bunch of Chickens, appropriate for a farm shop and eggs. These are made using the very popular Hey Chick set from Stampin up, this was a limited edition set I'm really glad we picked up.  These are done on square cards which are a nice size between the mini ones and the standard ones great for when you just have a little something to say.

 Next is the always bestselling banner style cards. these are done in a range of colours and embossed card patterns to suit all sorts of occasions.

 The next little set are a colourful collection using the circle of spring set they have cut away centers on the floral wreaths to show a sentiment.

 A few using the pedal pusher set. I thought the tandem bicycle had a nice country vibe to it, and the little birds in this set are too cute for words.

 A few floral cards with some dainty colouring in I really like how these ones turned out even if they do take abit longer to create with the colouring.

 A couple of cards on a larger base to give a variety of sizes to choose from. A pretty birthday card and a sympathy card the background for which I made using a new lace border stamp I think its rather effective.

 The last three are abit more manly as I never seem to make enough blokey cards. Sketchy images from the wetlands set paired with brown card blanks deep green card and a hint of copper embossing. For something subtle but different.
So thats the cards I have currently send down I think there's a nice mix and good selection there and I'm hoping in the future there will be lots of different ones if these sell well.

And here's the basket of cards complete with sign saying they are made by Hannah's craft cottage.
Fingers crossed they sell well.  

April how did that happen

I really don't know where this year is going to. Guess last month I was rather busy with the flowers for Mother's Day and I'm starting to get bits and pieces made behind the scenes for my wedding. (sorry readers but you'll have to wait till the middle of next year to read all about that. )

So as promised here's a post about the crafty gifts I received at Christmas. My sister added to my collection of Toft patterns with the new Imaginarium book, Like the Edwards menagerie which are animals all based about a basic pattern so they have a family look to them these are all monsters. Pictured with the book is my fist monster made in a three round stripe pattern with funny fingers and toes.We call him Squigley monster

 The extra unique part about this book is the flip feature so you pick different heads, arms and legs to go on the basic body, and with added colour changes and spots this means for a nearly endless range of monsters to be created, I'm going to have so much fun with this. There's also lots of inspiration in the book to get you started.

Carrying on with the crochet theme a friend got me this kit of star wars crochet. The kits comes complete with book of 12 patterns and yarn ect to make a yoda, which I have done and storm trooper which I haven't dot around too yet but I did raid my wool stash and find bits to do the darth vader. These are super cute and are going to be hanging out on my dvd shelves in the future.

I also received this rather lovlely needle felting kit of a fox. Needle felting is something I've fancied having a go at for a while I now have two kits (a friend got me a flower brooch kit for my birthday) so now I can when I find the time. Look out for a future blog post about how I got on trying this new popular craft.

A peek inside the box shows everything I need and this kit is made in my lovely Lincolnshire which is rather nice and nice surprise since the sender isn't from the county.

In our house at Christmas we have fill your own crackers which we try to find awesome little extras for mine this year have these super cute pom pom makers in them which make the dinkiest pom poms. I've been thinking about getting some for a while so was really pleased. thinking how I might incorporated a few pom poms in to the wedding crafting.

In this post I'll just quickly share with you my latest toft critter I made it for another baby which has just made her appearance in the family.  Its a swaledale sheep, now technically I didn't have the pattern for this sheep, I believe it was handed out a a yarndale a while back but I had seen pictures of it online and from this I think I managed to work it out. Mixing and matching from other patterns in the series. The body is done as standard and when assembled covered in fleece as other sheep are. The legs are done with a black foot cream for a couple of rows and then with a colour change about every three stitches to give the black and  white molted appearance I maybe didn't get these precisely even but then real sheep aren't that even so I'm happy with the outcome.

 The head is quite clever I think the nose is a cream with the rest black and eye patches are the same as the ones in the panda pattern and the awesome horns I found the pattern for in the imaginarium book on one of the monster heads.
I rather pleased with the finished sheep and hope they find a happy home with their new family who like a walk in the Yorkshire dales.

Here's the card that went with the sheep I first one suing the new bookcase builder set from stamping up I think this shall be a versatile set and I love the not the norm sentiments. This one says "Today's little moments become tomorrows precious memories" Isn't that sweet for a new baby.