We made it!  After a weekend of playing ‘pass the toddler’ and having very square eyes from uploading so many courses, it’s great to see the bookings coming in and we are ready and waiting for more.

It’s been a really exciting programme to plan as we’ve expanded our range of subjects, improved some of our ‘favourites’ and are working exciting new teaching spaces at Fred Aldous to boot. I’m sure as the nights draw in we can tempt and inspire you to and you to do something a bit different, instead of sitting at at home watching Corrie!

I honestly can’t pick any favourites (because that would be wrong), but I’ve always quite fancied being a flower arranging, Christmas present making, crocheting kind of girl…Did I give too much away?

There is so much going on I don’t know where to start. It’s a busy time right now as we are starting new courses, finishing off others and planning the new programme. Our hall looks like the hold of a cargo plane!

So I’ll go with the bread and butter - the courses and show off some of the goodies our customers have made.

The creative people of Manchester came out in force for ‘Screen print your own t-shirt’ and there were lots of intricacy in the designs that I wasn’t expecting to be honest. I think I get very focused on getting all of the materials and forget about the end results. During a bit of hectic construction of craft knives, Nell (our lovely tutor) cut herself. Motto: do not injure your tutors, they are too precious!  But she recovered and got everyone printing away and the nice thing… we had two male crafters amongst all those women.

In order of appearance: Tamzin, Shameema, Paul, Paul (in his t-shirt - a happy man) Lynsey, Lucy, John ( hard at work - sorry no final pic) and Alison

Intro to digital photography finished yesterday, much to the disappointment of Rik, my other half - no more playing with other people’s cameras for fun for a while. It sounds like the group got on like a house on fire and enjoyed the company of the Anne, the tutor with leopard print fashion tendencies! Thanks so much for all of the feedback - it was good to hear how much you enjoyed it and have some pointers to work on for next time. No photos to show for this one … surely that must be wrong?

And I haven’t forgotten the felters, but will update you on that after the weekend. I need to go and get creative … unfortunately only in the kitchen.

3D light shade: Creating with veneer, which is totally new craft in my book ended this week and as the group was small I got to have a go myself . Again everyone did something completely different and taking bits of inspiration from all of Jane’s brilliant pattern samples. I have to admit that I took a bit too much and copied her ideas directly (no copyright hopefully). The pyrography pen (not as scary as it sounds) went down a storm and we all admitted there is a weird pleasure about burning stuff … it brings out the inner destructive teenager in you!

Have a look at these lovely shades … wouldn’t go a miss in any home. In order of appearance: Sara, Lynsey, Nell, Alison and mine (the one in the middle)

Well we did it. After much lugging of heavy sewing machines in the steamy mid week weather last week we completed our first sewing course. 5 lovely ladies walked away with 5 fabulous cushions. The bird was a popular choice, but each one had it’s own individual features from a bit of double stitching to some contrasting fabric colours, cottons and patterns. There was also a homemade template in the form of a silky green apple and the brave choice of the silhouette flower which took a lot of intricate stitching… but take a look for yourself to see the results.

In order of appearance - Louise, Sophie, Ruth, Emma, Francesca and Elisha

Welcome to the Ministry of Craft blog… the chatty side of the business.

Well we launched last week and there were nervous butterflies in my stomach as we welcomed out first customers to Sew your own appliqué cushion, but our customers were lovely, the machines worked like dreams and Sue put on her best show… Since then we’ve talked lots of technical terms on Intro to photography, all of which I am proud to say I understand. The downside is that my husband feels hard done by – he’s been trying to teach me about aperture for years! The upside - he will now be Anne’s photography helper, while I get to stay at home and work, babysit and watch the Apprentice! Our knitters were natterers and we got the thumbs up all round. Even the playlist on the ipod was complimented on and we all finished our fab purses, which is a first for me as all my previous knitting projects are in carrier bags, in the bottom of a box hidden in the loft (I suffer from heavy craft guilt). I am amazed at how addictive it is is and one of our customers, who shall remain nameless, will be at the Manchester Christmas Craft Markets selling knitted wares, I am sure of it….