Local Flavour

So, imagine my delight on returning from our half-term jolly to find the above catalogue on the mat, featuring my little bits and pieces inside!
Jarrolds is an independent department store, local to Norfolk only. Earlier this year it was voted by readers of The Times as the UK's favourite department store, and personally, its always been a favourite of mine, even though I am not a Times reader!


Jarrolds now run The Forum Shop, which focuses on products made in the region or which capture the region's unique character. They sell a lot of my little hanging decorations and thought they might sell well over the Christmas period.

Speaking of which, the lovely legs below belong to a larger version of the little angels in my last post. This larger angel will be part of a Christmas Exhibition which I hope to take part in during December - of which more later.


I particularly like the message on the ribbon and hope she will eventually find a home with 'someone special'.


I also finished this Christmas piece destined for the same exhibition. I got a bit fed up with Christmas Trees, so I went for old-fashioned building blocks instead. Am quite pleased with the outcome.


Am not pleased with my new camera, though .... so apologies whilst I get used to it and find out quite what all the 'menus' are about. I think they are about 'progress', but am yet to be convinced!

Sing Choirs of Angels ....

So, here are the girlies ... they survived 1040 degrees and their true colours are shining through. My 'army' of angels, as I called them out loud the other day. We then all tried to work out what the correct term is for a group of angels. A 'flock' of angels sounded ok, but I knew that wasn't quite right. Then I remembered the above words from 'O Come All Ye Faithful' and before I knew it we were singing carols in the kitchen before October's out!

But actually, the correct collective noun for a group of angels is a 'host' or 'chorus', apparently. I remember learning all these oddities of the English language, along with my synonyms and antonyms, back at primary school. I know - giving my age away there - they don't learn this stuff these days.

I always liked 'a gaggle of geese' and a 'parliament of owls', and 'an embarrassment of riches' was an oft heard phrase in our house as a child. But I digress ....

There are patchwork angels -


and Flowery angels (below), and stripey ones, dotty ones, zigzaggy ones, plain ones and many more. All are now on my site in the 'Christmas Gallery'.

They look so sweet all sitting here dangling their legs over the edge of my stock shelves. Very cute ... speaking of which, I meant to publicly thank Cuteable.com for doing a feature on my work in their blog back in September. Its a delightful blog and will be great for tracking down unusual little Christmas gifts. Have a look.


I do wonder if I should really concentrate on my more serious work, but the galleries did ring to ask if I do anything especially Christmassy, and of course, little bits like the angels fit into all the little gaps in the kiln around the large pieces, so no space is unused, keeping firing costs down.

Larger pieces like this one below, which came out at the weekend. Its my own contemporary take on a patchwork, and was commissioned by someone who visited my Open Studios back in May. They've had a ridiculously long wait for it, so hope they'll think it was worth it!


So, what do we think the correct term for a group of Bloggers should be? Don't think there is one at present. I like a 'babble', but that is already used for a group of .... Barbers .... believe it or not!

Pieces finished, in progress and just ideas ..

..... IN PROGRESS

So, the above picture shows work in progress ... armies of Christmas angels waiting to go into the kiln this weekend, after which their true colours will shine out. They will then get their ribbon legs and little slippered feet attached and can fly off to their new homes. Will let you see the finished results next week.

.... JUST AN IDEA

Below is what I bought at the Norfolk Quilters' 30th Anniversary Exhibition held at the Assembly House in Norwich this week. It is officially a 'table runner' but as there is never a table clear enough for long enough to put it on in this house, I have just draped it over the back of our old oak settle for now. I loved the colours - very Christmassy - and had the idea that I might make a quilt bowl to match it. I should of course have asked what the quilt pattern is called - but I forgot. Just as I forgot to take my camera with me, as the quilts on show were quite staggeringly beautiful, and I would have liked to show some more.


Anyway, I also bought a book of raffle tickets to win a full size quilt, so maybe I'll show you that one when I win - ha ha!

.... AND PIECES FINISHED.

The piece below is the finished commission I blogged about earlier for a couple with five year old twins. The pattern is called "Crazy House" and whilst they absolutely love it, they are almost too frightened to put it out for fear of two sets of little hands getting hold of it.

Have a good weekend everyone.

And Pigs Might Fly

Well, these look as though they could! Thought I may as well make the pigs fly since all my other hanging decorations seem to have wings. The baby birds are learning to fly ...

and the owls can swoop ...

and a heart can take flight and even soar, once in a while ....

Mine certainly fluttered a bit when these were given to me earlier today.

What was the occasion? There wasn't one.