I have quite enough to do so why do I do it? My daughter will be thirteen next birthday and wants to have a party in the garden with bunting and lots of candles. Candles – easy, I’m just saving all my jam jars of course. Although she;d really like them to be all different colours so there will be more work involved. I’m already wondering if I should paint them or just wrap them in tissue paper. Undoubtedly if I paint them I’ll end up doing designs rather than just colours because I always create more work for myself. Why do I do it?
There are lots of places to buy bunting and she’d be delighted with it but oh no, I have to decide that I will make the bunting and that if I’m doing it there’ll have to be lots of it. So I’ve worked out that I need a minimum of 60 flags to make the bunting. Easy you might think and it would be if I got out my sewing machine, but of course, I haven’t. I am a feltmaker so obviously I’ve chosen to make them from hand rolled felt. Again, it wouldn’t be so bad if I made large pieces and cut them up, I’d have the requisite sixty quite quickly.
No, in my wisdom I’ve decided that each flag must be different (like who’s looking that closely?) and they will be in colour only, no neutrals (even harder for myself). Did I stop there? No, I went on to decide that as they’d be used at night I’d like some sparkle on each one to reflect all these flickering candles I’ve yet to make holders for. Why do I do it? I have realised that if I put the sparkle in during felting then I won’t be sat there sewing on sequins later which would be another task on the list. I’ve used sparkly yarns, sparkly fabrics and angelina fibres where I can.
As soon as I had the idea I began to make a flag whenever I had a few minutes to spare and I now have twenty flags. It felt good to reach the one third stage but now, I’m still busy with other things and the two thirds yet to do seem to be looming larger every day. Here’s the ones I’ve done already.
Not brillinat photos but the light’s not good today, there’s a very brisk breeze and the cats kept helping so it’s the best I can mange for now.
I’m beginning to crack, maybe I should include knitting and crochet in the production methods as I could use some sparkly yarns and they would still be wool. So okay I’ve cracked, knitting and crochet are included and that will increase my potential working hours as I could crochet whilst watching TV in an evening. The bunting doesn’t have to be ready until early October but the school holidays are rapidly approaching and I have a show coming up next month for which I need to do work, so time may be in shorter supply than I’d like. Plus of course we will go away on holiday and if I try to take my feltmaking kit with me I’m sure words will be had. Reckon I can sneak in some crochet though 
If any of you lovely people would like to: donate oddments of sparkly yarns; knit or crochet a flag or make a felt flag for inclusion then I would be absolutely chuffed and delighted to accept it. Not because it’s less for me to do but because I love the idea of including flags from different people and I’ll be reminded of those people each time the bunting is used. In return, you’ll go on a roll of honour on my blog and I promise faithfully to contribute to a project of yours whenever the madness seizes you and you’re sat with your head in your hands saying Why do I do it?
I know of course why I do it – I’m a besotted Mum and despite the extra work I think it’ll be fun. If you’d like to jon in and I hope some of you do, the flag should be approximately 8″ (20cm) wide at the top and 8″ from the top to the tip of the point. Any suggestions on other ways of including sparkle are also welcome.
