Hats, hats, hats...

I've been horribly absent lately, but for a good reason, I promise. I have had an order for lots (well, lots for me!)of sunhats via my Etsy shop. They are off to the Aardvark Tea Room and Craft Gallery in St Leonard's on Sea, here in the UK. It looks like a fabulous place (I wish I lived closer) and I am very excited that they wanted to order from me. It seemed like such a great opportunity that I agreed to come up with half the order before I go camping tomorrow. So I have been working very hard to get 5 hats made (including working out a smaller pattern for a different size hat) in the last week. And here they are! I feel pretty proud of them. They're all made with preloved fabric from a pattern I developed myself. It's a real lesson in not giving up hope - I developed the pattern and did all the work early last year and haven't had any interest until now. I apologise for the rubbish picture by the way... I was rushing to get these into the post this morning and couldn't come up with anywhere tidy or with good light. I had really hoped to get a pic of them all hanging on our washing line - I think it would have looked really cool - but sadly it was chucking it down here this morning!

The other exciting news is that I won Blotted Copy Book's Duelling Crafters competition! It really means a lot that so many people liked what I made with my dad's tie. I've blogged my business card holder before, but I also made a needle book for my sister's birthday. She was so pleased with it that she had to call me from a rehearsal to tell me about it. There's still quite a bit of fabric left (they made ties big back in the olden days!) so I am going to try and come up with something else too. Thanks Vonnie for running such an ace competition - I look forward to the next one. And am now trying to avoid your Bake Swap, which sounds fab, but not good for my diet!