The badgers keep moving the goal posts

Ok so I can't do the poem, but I can make the cushions

badger cushion by www.treehuggery.co.uk 

poem by Carol Ann Duffy

22 Reasons for the Bedroom Tax

Because the Badgers are moving the goalposts.
The Ferrets are bending the rules.
The Weasels are taking the hindmost.
The Otters are downing tools.

The Hedgehogs are changing the game-plan
The Grass-snakes are spitting tacks.

The Squirrels are playing the blame-game.
The Skunks are twisting the facts.

The Pole-cats are upping the ante.
The Foxes are jumping the gun.
The Voles are crashing the party.
The Stoats are dismantling the Sun.

The Rabbits are taking the biscuit.
The Hares are losing the plot.
The Eagles are kicking the bucket.
The Rats are joining the dots.

The Herons are throwing a curveball.
The Shrews are fanning the flames.
The Field mice are sinking the 8-ball.
The Swans are passing the blame.

And the Pheasants are draining the oil from the tank-
but only the Bustards have broken the bank.

Perfectly Perfect Presents!

I'm feeling very flattered to have been asked on the brand spanking new website www.perfectlyperfectpresents.com , there is some lovely work on there, and although it's only been launched for a couple of days, it feels like Christmas has already arrived, maybe it's the change in weather, and people starting to feel seasonal, but orders from there, and from all of my other outlets are rolling in.
To help with the launch of perfect perfect, I've doing a give away of one of my hare cushions,  I've also got badgers and pups, and am working on a range of h'animals (huggery animals).

I'll post some more photos later, but here's a picture of the hare, and a link to where you can enter to the draw.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Perfectly-Perfect-Presents/150638951804891?fref=ts

Hare cushion by TreeHuggery

A dog is for life not just for Christmas

I've been making some of these little chappies just recently, they're really nice to make, distressing and layering hand dyed voiles and each one has its own little character.  Whereas with my silver birches and poppies a few slight differences (it always happens they're all completely handmade) only makes for a slightly different cushion, a few slight differences here can create a very different character - a couple of extra downward stitches can make one of these little chaps look really really sad and worried.

Doggy cushions by TreeHuggery

Black Pigs

I was exhibiting at the Eastwood Expo yesterday, which is mainly an event for local authors to promote their work - fantastic.  The event was at the lovely Beauvale Priory which is close to us, but we previously hadn't visited.  We'll definately be back though - the priory remains are interesting,. and there's a lovely tea room serving high teas, which also hosts a summer beer festival.  As well at the exhibitors there was quite a lot of entertainment - my favourite being the black pig border morris dancers. The woman at the stall next to me kept urging me to go outside and look at the morris dancers, and I was just "yeah, yeah" but I'm really glad I did - don't think traditional morris dancers, think "steam punk"  brightly and chaotically dress, covered in feathers and ribbons with blacked out faces, playing their own instruments and attempting to thrash each other with massive sticks - Hugely entertaining.
Apparently the tradition was started by farmers, who needed to earn money, once the harvesting was done.  They would tour the pubs and turn their jackets inside out and decorate them with ribbons and scraps of materials.  They would black their faces so that they weren't recognised by the church, who were disapproving of people having fun.
The Black Pig Border Morris dancers were all really friendly guys, and are well worth checking out

Winter's Here

The weather is changing, and quickly - the gales are blowing again, and it feels like time to hunker down.  Always much easier to sew in the winter than it is on the red hot days, where I feel I should be making the most of the sunshine.
Here's my latest hunker down picture - I took a photo of a frosty fence post years ago, I loved the pattern and the textures, but have never been sure how to progress with it.
Karina at Studio 61 and I often work together on seasonal projects - shes a water colour artist, and sometimes she'll do something and I'll make something in textiles that is inspired from that, sometimes its the other way round.
With the request of "do something wintry" it felt time to revisit the frosty fence post - I've incorporated silks and angelina fibres (ideal for winter sparkle) as well as lots of burning..... I'm really pleased with the overall effect and am going to get some prints and cards created.
Now to hunker down again.

Frosty Fence Post

scruffy pups

Thanks to my neighbours lovely animal pictures that are created by pyrography (wood burning) I've just been playing around, and have come up with this little chappie - he's stilll a work in progress, but I think he's got potential, and am feeling inspired about the possibility of creating a new collection
Just need to think of a name for him now.

Giant dragonflies

Another busy weekend.
Col went over to a fell face at Longshaw sheepdog trials on Saturday; brinsleyrunner.blogspot.co.uk

And then yesterday he helped me with my stall at the Brinsley Headstocks.  It was a great day; despite the gloomy forecast the sun shone all day, and the volunteers who take responsibility for looking after the headstocks and organising the festival did a fantastic job.

As well as my stall, I'd bought along a giant dragonfly sculpture that I'd been commissioned to make with young people from the Eastwood Youth Club.  We'd designed it so that people could stand in the middle, and have their photograph taken, and write and weave things inside the wings.  It was lovely to see how popular it was.

It was also really nice to have persuaded my  neighbour to come to his first ever event and sell his beautiful work - he's a pyrographer, burning art in to wood, my personal favourites are the hares, and I'm really tempted to create some animals in textiles.
Our little bit of the village is quite a creative corner, with photographers, textilers, painters and pyrographers - oooh a Brinsley art trail would be nice......

Dragonfly 

TreeHuggery at Brinsley Headstocks Festival