Commissions and orders

Such excitement last weekend, when we received our first order from Texas - Karen's lovely minimalistic wreath.

We are learning all the time with postage and packing - boxes are heavy!

Next, a colleague commissioned a button-heart for her bathroom, in browns, beiges and creams. Mmm - I was a bit concerned that it would look dull and wondered how I could lift the colours.
None of the brown buttons I had were terribly exciting, so I ordered two different selections (ebay and Amazon are great sources!  no surprise there)  and meanwhile experimented with wrapping the heart form, first in cream ribbon (didn't have quite enough) and then chocolate brown (still not quite enough... Frustration beginning to build!) then in both cream and chocolate .... Too 'busy'.  Final decision - wrap the heart form in white lace and use the chocolate and cream ribbons to hang the heart with.  I twisted them and secured them with glue and a button. Sorted.

The buttons duly arrived and I laid them out on my dining room table and got to work.  Using gold star sequins to help secure and stabilise buttons with large holes, blending pearly white and cream buttons with the browns, and filling spaces with white pearl beads - and at last I was happy with the results.

I'm happy to report that my colleague is also happy and sent me a picture of where the heart is hanging - in her bathroom, alongside other heart shapes.  It glows!

Sue

Applique letters

I love making baby blankets, and have dabbled in using bondaweb to applique shapes onto fleece, quite successfully.

 I've seen some wonderful quilting on Pinterest such as this link for a very cute gnome's house: http://pinterest.com/pin/416160821788553133/ -
I wondered what appliquéd letters would be like to do with a bit of padding.... I found a website for free downloads of letter stencils  - really cool as you can choose the font, size, etc and simply print it off, or copy and paste to a Word document which is what I did so I could fiddle about.  I got the right size and cut out the paper stencils then used then used them as mini-paper patterns on some fabric scraps I had......

I use polystyrene wadding - inexpensive, durable and very practical for something that will be well used like a baby blanket! The backing fabric is also any sort of scrap material (remember to keep those odd shaped bits when you cut something out). Next task: to machine sew round the edges, making sure you catch the edges.

Whoever invented double sided sticky tape needs a medal!  I stuck the letters onto the blanket in the position I wanted them... Pinning can all too often result in movement and endless frustrating unpicking! Stitch round using a fairly narrow zigzag stitch - I chose a contrasting colour.... And here's the result....

 How sweet is this!

Sue

Introducing Dunn Crafting!

Hello!  I'm Sue and this introduces the Dunn Crafting duo - mum, (me!), and daughter, Karen, (the gorgeous one) who have ventured into the world of crafting and, hopefully, of enthusing others.

We are both keen sewers - Karen has made some brilliant things for her children just by looking at pictures - and of course, Pinterest is the best place for inspiration!
It all started over the Christmas break - Karen made some beautiful, festive quilted baubles (pomanders), I knitted some baubles with Norwegian designs - and we decided on the spur of the moment to launch Dunn Crafting on Etsy.com. - DunnCrafting.etsy.com

Since then, our range has grown, our techniques are developing all the time (don't you just love hot glue!)

And the best bit is the experimenting with new ideas .

We also have a Facebook page where you can see photos of what we're doing. -

We hope you will enjoy these posts as we share our journey with you


Sue