Vintage Loveliness

Saturday saw Mr Treasure, Little Treasure and I heading to Chipping Sodbury for a day of vintage loveliness at the ever brilliant Vintage and Handmade Textiles and Fashion Fair.

Here's my stall, complete with my new 'wine boxes covered with vintage adverts' shelves. I was up until 1am one day last week getting them finished!

I took all sorts of vintage treasures to sell, from clothes and cushions, to fabric and hats. Mr Treasure has even started to join in the treasure seeking having found a gorgeous Brexton picnic set. He was very pleased that it found a new home on Saturday!

I love having a stall at the Vintage and Handmade Fairs...there's always a lovely atmosphere and it's a fabulous opportunity to catch up with familiar faces as well as meet new ones! I do find I get itchy feet when I'm behind my stall, not because I'd rather be somewhere else, but because I can see so many other stalls bursting with vintage treasures that I want to go and investigate! Luckily, I did manage to leave Mr Treasure in charge and sneak off for a look around the fair. Here's a peek at just some of the vintage lovelies I found... (I'm afraid I can't remember the names of some of the stalls, so apologies for missing out a few names here and there).

Hen's Teeth

Viv is so talented and I absolutely love her work. I've got a few of Viv's brooches - I call them my little rays of sunshine because they make me smile every time I wear them. I couldn't resist adding a couple more to my collection on Saturday!

Hen's Teeth

Betty and Violet

Betty and Violet

Sal's Snippets

Sal always has the most amazing array of vintage feedsack fabrics. I think it would be lovely to use them all and make a quilt.

Country Cottage Chic

I loved this jacket. The fabric's so pretty.

Suzie Johnson

I met Suzie at last year's Vintage and Handmade Textiles and Fashion Fair. I would happily give any of her knitted designs a home (as long as I didn't have to make them myself...I'm not known for my knitting skills!)

Suzie Johnson

You might recognise the little knitted house from 'Kirstie's Homemade Home'...it was Suzie who created them and was featured in the first series too!

My mum made me all sorts of Clothkits clothes and toys when I was little and I loved them. I'm really thrilled that Clothkits is back on the scene... now I'll be able to make things for Little Treasure too!

Hesta Nesta

Donna Flower

A mouth-watering display, as always!

Donna Flower

Donna Flower

What divine bags!

I do love a touch of glitz and sparkle. I'm a big fan of brooches - you can change a whole outfit in a matter of seconds just by picking out different brooches to wear.

Such pretty accessories...perfect for any summer occasion. I love the vintage hues, especially the dusty pink and powdery blue.

It really was a fabulous day. A huge thank you and three cheers to Jayne and Michele for organising another glorious day of vintage loveliness!

A Colourful Day

I really want to start this post with a long overdue thank you...for all the lovely comments and best wishes that have been left since Little Treasure arrived. I don't always have time to read blogs or reply to the words that people leave for me, but I really do appreciate each and every one of them, so a huge thank you to everyone who visits me here in my little corner of blogland!

Yesterday I had my first day of unashamed selfish indulgence since Little Treasure arrived...a get together with the other girls in The Wednesday Group (the textiles group we formed after studying City and Guilds Embroidery together). We all made our way to Lois's house for a day of chatter, cake, laughter and fun with colour.

Our get togethers always start off in the same way...with a good natter, a cuppa and cake.

Lois is a master in the kitchen and the brownies and cookies she'd made soon disappeared!

We all work on our own projects between catch ups, be it the textile postcards we set ourselves to do each month or things we're experimenting with ourselves. There's always a great deal of "oooo-ing" and "ahhhh-ing"! Here are Ann, Anni and Kathleen admiring some free machine stitching that Grace has been working on.

To our joy, Lois has been having a sort out of her studio and let us loose on all the fabric she's parting company with. We all went home with black bin bags full to the brim with all the pieces we found and claimed for our own!

Here's Lindsay having a good rummage. The 'snip snip' of her scissors, carefully cutting scraps from fabrics she discovered, could just be heard amongst our whoops of delight and the rustle of fabrics being turned out of bags and boxes!

Kathleen loves using woollen fabrics in her work, so was particularly pleased when she found the sleeve of an old Aran jumper.

Unfortunately, it was a bit small to use as a hat, so she'll have to find something else to turn it into!

When we could drag ourselves away from Lois's exciting stash of fabric, we de-camped to her studio in the garden to try our hand at printing, dyeing, painting and daubing fabric with all sorts of colours and designs.

Kathleen looks on as Grace uses one of Lois's gorgeous indian print blocks to create a tea towel.

Grace's hand printed tea towel...a closer look at the work in progress.

Ann prints some fabric with an indian print block too. The gorgeous colours she chose even matched her apron!

Here's Kathleen, working on her tea towel design.

Lois treated us all to a truly mouth-watering homemade lunch...

...with chocolate and raspberry tart for pudding. Yummmmm!

After lunch we all tried our hand at using silk paints. We rolled, tied and pegged our fabric before painting, daubing and splattering it to create all sorts of patterns and effects.

The finished results looked really pretty drying on the olive tree outside Lois's studio.

Here I am working on my silk scarf creation.

I tied up parts of the scarf with string before daubing various colours on to it whilst it was in a plastic container.

Here's how it turned out...before I tried out some more techniques and added other colours to the design.

Everyone's designs were so different. Ann created colourful spots, Alison's design was made using pegs and Anni and Lindsay created fish scale-inspired patterns.

A group work of art, worthy of any gallery I think!

We even managed to fit in some fabric dyeing using a sachet of Dylon colour - Rosewood Red.

Kathleen was very valiant in her role of 'Chief Fabric Fisher Outer' from the bucket of dye...and ended up going home with hands that were a slightly different shade to what they had been at the start of the day. Let's hope she's managed to wash it all off by the time we all get together again next month!

Lovely Day For A Kickabout

There are lots of things in a day that Little Treasures enjoys...food, sleeping, cuddles, looking at lights and 'chatting', to name just a handful. However, one of her very favourite pastimes is kicking about on her quilt.

Her arms and legs move at an astonishing rate, accompanied by her happy gurgles and coos.

I found the quilt in a charity on my travels just before Little Treasure arrived. I was drawn to the lovely pink vintage fabrics, especially because I knew I was expecting a girl!

What made me think "I have to buy this quilt" was when I noticed the pink and white squares of this Laura Ashley fabric. Laura Ashley was the decor of my childhood years - my parents had the fabrics and wallpapers in just about every room in our house! They bring back such happy memories.

I hope Little Treasure will grow up to love the fabrics she's surrounded by and forge her own happy memories of her childhood...

...as well as discover all sorts of interests and passions of her own.

Vintage Fun

What a gloriously sunny weekend we've had! There's nothing like good weather to lift the spirits. As if the sunshine wasn't enough, we also had the Vintage and Handmade Fair in Chipping Sodbury to get excited about on Saturday. It really was fabulous to catch up with so many V&H friends...and also introduce them to Little Treasure (who I'm hoping will be a fan of vintage herself one day).

Here's a look at just some of the gorgeous stalls at the fair...

Hen's Teeth

I absolutely love Viv's work, it's so unique and always makes me smile. I already have one brooch by Viv and have worn it so much, I couldn't resist adding two more to my collection!

More of Viv's fabulous creations.

Treutmade (Gertie Strahl)

Treutmade (Gertie Strahl)

There's always a lovely atmosphere at the Vintage and Handmade fairs. I've met and made friends with some fabulous people from visiting and selling at the fairs. It's like being part of a happy vintage-loving family!

Jane Winton

Jane Winton

Cowboys & Custard

Emma Boyne

Donna Flower

The next Vintage and Handmade Fair is the Fashion and Textiles Fair on 4th June, so be sure to put it in your diaries now!