Brunswick's first Indie Holiday Marketplace

 Mark your calendars spread the word and grab a friend. Thursday night is the first ever Artsy Affair at the Frontier, Fort Andross in Brunswick Maine. It's starts a five, don't bother cooking dinner plan to enjoy Frontier's delicious food and wine.

The gorgeous Frontier Cinema and Cafe.

Artsy is the brainchild of Brunswicks own Carrie Sullivan of Sheabella Tutus. She had participated at similar evening events in Boston and knew the concept would work in Brunswick. Carrie and I sat down to coffee and made the commitment to bring her idea to reality. 

One of Carrie Sullivan's beautiful tutu creations

Enlisting the help of  Amanda Smilien of Maine Street Events has been the key to creating a successful evening. She has made launching this event a pure delight! From the very inception our goal has been to create a unique handmade marketplace, filled with some of the best design talents in the area. It's amazing how quickly the planning has fallen into place. We've been overwhelmed by the response of the Frontier, artists and the community.

Here's a sampling of the twenty two vendors that are sure to make this evening a success:

Whimsy skirts feature gorgeous fabric, playful trims and a comfortable adjustable waist band!

One of my favorite vendors is Kendra Haskell's line of 'Whismy' skirts bags and accessories. I couldn't resist choosing one of her skirts at Higgins beach fair this summer.

Original wire work jewelry by Susan Bryant Caron

Susan Bryant Caron will be showcasing her amazing wire work jewelry - this is a lady I could learn some wire work tricks from!

Amazing cupcakes from Fields of Cake

I'm looking forward to meeting Carrie Fields of Fields of Cake in person. She's offering six packs of the following amazing cupcakes: Chocolate Cake filled with homemade salted caramel and toasted pecans, lemon cake filled with lemon curd, Triple Vanilla Brown Butter cake filled with wild Maine Blueberries and topped with Maine Maple Buttercream, Gingerbread stout cake filled with cheesecake and topped with Caramel Brown Sugar Buttercream ....Oh my goodness I'm salivating!

Wendy Jung of Soggy Dog Design's photography will be on hand to photograph the evening and showcase her playful portraiture.

Adorable kids in Little Planet fleece!

To take away the chill Annie Roberts is bringing her colorful fleece hats and sweaters from Little Planet Creations and Regina Kusche will displaying her elegant Akosua knitwear designs.

Lovely bird magnets from Littleputland

Casie Metcalf Hitchcock is our Maine Etsy team leader she's bringing her Littleputland scrabble tile jewelry and magnets. She introduced me to Anna Low of Purple Bean Bindery in Portland, I can't wait to get a closer look at her incredible handmade books.

Whimsical handmade book from the Purple Bean bindery.

Charlotte Agell will be signing her books and offering a chance to win a child's portrait to be painted at your home. Her very talented daughter Anna Simmons has her own creative business entitled ANNAES and will be selling her graphic narrative pieces.

Charlotte Agell's newest title, great reading for young people!

Sitting alongside Charlotte will be illustrator Lisa Bossi, who'll be selling her gorgeous prints and books.

Barbara Berry Palm's 'Warm Earth' necklace, takes my breath away!

Our very own Barbara Berry Palm (art teacher at our junior high) will be showing the elaborate polymer clay pieces she creates for her Moose Winks line.

Cool Earth Tone and Fish tone belts - completely adjustable so that you can still enjoy cupcakes!

Chake Higginson and Catherine Worthington are two more fabulous local artists. Chake and Peyton will have their very popular shirts on hand and Catherine will have her gorgeous fabric art pieces from her Earth Tone and Fish Bone line.

If you're looking for homemade preserves and jams Berts Awesome Stuff will have a great selection on hand.
 
We invited Spindleworks to be our guests, I'm looking forward to seeing what their artists have cooked up.

Also in the line up is Penobscot Porch Swings, Lacey Pots, Zinnia Clothing, Christine Detroy and Lily Pad Designs. They're so many talented people in this event, but if I don't stop posting links and photos I won't have time to get my own work ready.

Jon and Heidi Boyd are adding these new coat hooks to their fair wares.

If you live in the area please come join in the 'Artsy' fun. I'd love to meet you - my booth will be the one filled with birds owls and lobsters!

Hometown Halloween

Our town shines especially bright at Halloween. Creativity abounds as families and friends make costumes to parade down Maine Street. Our daughter Celia loved finding her school friends and teachers in the crowd. Next year Jon and I have vowed to create costumes of our own.

Here's a shot of our pre parade party group, our little ballerina is on the left wearing her Sheabella tutu. When the junior high band walks by, we know it's time to make our way into town.

The 'mall' is our green space in the center of town. In the summertime it holds food vendors, farmers market and evening concerts in the bandstand. The junior high band leads the parade and the high school band pulls up the rear. The play a great rendition of the Adam's family theme song for this event.

Surrounded by chocolate and candy this healthy string cheese stands out from the crowd. High school students from the key club distributed glow in the dark necklaces.

This trio displayed seriously impressive techno crafting skills!

Some of my favorite creations are the stroller and wagon makeovers. Tucked inside this truck was a fireman and a dalmatian puppy.

This lovely jellyfish caught the afternoon light in it's beautiful iridescent fabric.

Who doesn't love Shrek? The teal dress is perfect.

You had to see this pup in motion the spider legs were the perfect length for his body and jiggled with every movement.

Jon calls this the money shot, the throng of parade goers getting into formation. It gives a glimpse of the tail end of our fall colors and the historic New England architecture. The police are busy blocking off traffic, once they give the all clear the junior high band starts the procession. This year many onlookers brought candy into town to fill the kids treat bags.

We spotted several men with Yellow hats carrying monkey's in the crowd.

This may just be a professionally made costume, love the Mad Hatter!

Love the brilliance of Anna's simple costume!

The parade ends at our rec department, a final chance to see friends you might have missed along the parade route. They host a fabulous costume party and give out treat bags. We always dash home to grab a quick bite to eat and then go door to door trick or treating around town.

After marching in the parade this great bunch of girls are heading out on a candy quest. Check out little miss smarty pants on the left!

How to make your own Zombie Plushie

For the last month I've been all about creating felt and fabric for my new sewing book. I spend more time pushing the pedal of my sewing machine than I do driving my car. I'm completely immersed in the stitching zone. When it came time to plan a library event I knew I wanted to share my enthusiasm for plushies with teens and zombies were the perfect way to grab their interest.

Coming up with this Zombie pattern was a snap, I folded a piece of loose leaf paper in half and then outlined a large head, short neck, arm and foot. Cut  through both layers of paper and unfold, you'll have a perfectly symmetrical pattern. I use this trick whenever I design patterns.

Stack two layers of fleece over each other and then pin the pattern ontop of the layered fabric. Cut a quarter inch away from the edge of the pattern, this will be your seam allowance. You've just cut out the front and back of your zombie.

Set the pattern aside, re-pin the two fabric layers together to stabilize them while you seam around the outside edge. Leave a two inch opening on the outside of the leg.

This is where all the teens started the craft, we had pre cut and pre sewn zombie bodies to this step. Trim away any excess fabric and turn your zombie right side out through the opening.  Start feeding Fiberfil stuffing through the opening. It's important to tightly pack the head arms and legs and then cram more into the stomach. The fleece will expand to accommodate the stuffing and tighter fabric is easier to embroider.

I passed out sewing needles and a thread for them to hand stitch the openings closed, I was amazed not single person had trouble with this step!

I laid out pre-cut circle eyes (thanks to my Sixxiz Big Kick and circle template) and passed out a crewel needle with a full strand of DMC embroidery floss so that they could stitch a face on their zombie.

It's a good idea to pass the needle inside the head between the eyes and mouth so that you can use one continuous strand of floss. The most popular mouth design was a single horizontal stitch that gets intersected by a row of three or four vertical stitches. I taught them to tie the ends in a knot under the edges of the felt eyes.

I love the creative stitching on the right eye of this zombie! I had a pile of straight fleece strips that we free for the taking, they made great bandages to wrap around the zombie.  I wished I'd brought some red paint to make these creations a little more gruesome.

Hootenanny!

A couple weeks ago I had the privilege of putting on a birthday party for a special seven year old girl. I came up with an owl project that encouraged the party goers to color, stitch and stuff. At the end of the party each child went home with an owl softie of their very own.


Before the party I created a simple pattern with folded newspaper. I made a top and bottom piece for the owl front and a single piece for the back. I pulled out assorted fake furs, and white cotton knit from my fabric stash. This is a great time of year to purchase fun fur, it's on clearance with Halloween novelty fabrics.

I pre-stitched the owl heads to the bodies to cut down on machine stitching at the party.

The first step was to have the children decorate the white owl bellies with fabric markers. Be sure to place a piece of scrap paper under the fabric to protect the table.

Next we outfitted each girl with a crewel needle strung with a full strand of embrodiery floss. They stitched felt flowers, circles, large button eyes, and a triangle beak to the owl's head. I encouraged them to keep the embellishments away from the sides where they might get trapped in the seams.

After a quick demo the kids pinned the fronts and backs right sides together. This is when the line began to form at the machine, fortuantely not everyone was ready at the same time. It took me a couple minutes to make a continuous seam around the outside of each owl. Many girls left their owls with me while they enjoyed snacks and cake.

I left a three inch opening at the base and snipped the excess fabric off the top of the ears. I showed them how to turn the owls right side out and sent them to stuff their owl. This is a favorite step, I've yet to meet a child who doesn't like to stuff! For time sake I needed to stitch the opening closed on the sewing machine. We found that lightly stuffed owls were much easier to get through the machine. Be sure to tuck under 1/4" of the cut fabric edges in before seaming up the opening closed.

This party took place at one of my favortite creative places Art Mind and Soul Studios in Fort Andross.
Wishing the party girl many happy returns of the day!

Autumnfest Craft fair

Fall is one of the loveliest times to visit New England, and this weekends weather was perfect for Autumnfest in Bath, Maine. We were overwhelmed by the fantastic response to our booth, so grateful for all the kind words and many purchases. Half of our customers were local and the other half were on vacation enjoying the peak color.

As expected the owls where the hit of the day both the Hilarious Hoots and Little Hoot ornaments literally flew off my tables (not just because of the wind!). I'll be spending many nights stitching up new flocks before the holiday season is over.

Scentsational sachets were a new product I unveiled today. They're filled with a combination of Balsam and Lavendar. I hand stamped the images with Fair trade textile stamps from India. They're backed in bright cottons and embellished with wooden beads and felt leaves.

The owl version has a felt bead in an acorn cap, thanks to my husband Jon for drilling the acorn caps!

 

I had such great reactions to the seashore bracelet I made for Crafts n Things on-line newsletter that I whipped up a bunch for this sale, they quickly sold out!

After the successful library workshop these Mermaid and King Triton Kits have become a new staple in my fair inventory.

This much admired felt trio were a hit in the booth. Originally featured in this falls issue of Crafts n Things magazine, they're still in need of a good home!

The ponytail holders were a hit, I'll be replenishing this supply before the holiday fairs kick in!

Wire Beach Blooms with sea glass centers made great mementos for tourists to bring back home.

These new little wood fish feature spiraled wire hangers with glass beads. It's a little early for tree ornaments but we'll be working on several more editions with different brushstrokes. Lisa Marie would like a set for her store in Bath were hoping to add inventory to Penobscot Porch Swings in Brunswick as well.

I love single day local fairs, it's wonderful when friends stop by our booth. I make new connections and meet interesting vendors each time we set up. Tonight I'm completely relaxed, tomorrow I'll try to put the house back together before the work week begins. I've got a big book deadline this Friday!