Busy Bee

Hello readers.  I hope you enjoyed a restful/fun filled/generally brilliant weekend.  So great to see the sunshine appear here in Blighty!  Well, I don't know about you, but for me it's been a busy old week.  Some of you asked to see my quilts on display in the window of Stag and Bow, so here you go.  So nice for me to see them there!  I think they look good with the new lettering on the window and have apparently attracted a lot of attention.

Tuesday night was week one of my Patchwork and Quilting course.  5 lovely ladies arrived at Stag and Bow to learn P&Q from scratch.

They are a lovely lot and all seemed keen and enjoyed themselves, starting on their own quilt.

We selected fabrics and laid them out, learned how to organise our rows and finally, start chain-piecing them, before pressing.

I can't wait for next week, here's hoping they feel the same, when my ladies start learning to make a sandwich, of the quilty variety, and make a start on quilting.

We nipped off to the West Country on Saturday morning, just in time to catch the brass band playing and have a good mooch round the shops.  A visit to Girl's Own Store was a must, of course.

On Sunday, we had a fabby time at the giant flea market at Shepton Mallet.  We arrived early and were rewarded with lots of treasures.  We rewarded ourselves with a cream tea back at the cottage in the afternoon.  The drinking glasses, large plate and book were all very cheap loot found this weekend, easily costing less than a fiver for the lot.  I love thrifting!

Talking of cake, I whipped up a giant sponge for crafty Wednesday morning at Stag and Bow yesterday.  My waistline is not going to forgive me all these indulgences, I fear.  (I found the green fabrics at Sunday's flea market so wasted no time incorporating them into my hexy patchwork.)

I grabbed up my ever-increasing hexy project to work on.  I started this intending it to be a sewing machine cover but have since decided I don't want to use it for that after all (what would happen when I bought a new machine and it needed a new cover?  All that work wasted.)  So, I'm just carrying on.  So far, I have managed to keep all the hexagons different and they are all vintage fabric, mainly 1930-1950.  As I get new ones, I add a hexy to my pile to incorporate into what I suppose is becoming a small quilt or throw.  I will just keep going and work on it every now and then when I have the time or the urge.  I love that it's a sort of archive of my vintage fabrics.

A few new (old) fabrics arrived yesterday, and the sunshine and emerging flowers outdoors, prompted me to have a little rearrangement of my Bagpuss table to inspire my Spring-time making.

Talking of making, last week was spent concentrating on these...

Yes, it was back to posies, lots of them, 1940's style.  These were so popular during the Second World War because real flowers were not readily available and equally, it was very difficult to buy jewellery as metals were being used in the war effort.  Enterprising ladies, with the help of the magazines of the day, were encouraged to make these posy brooches using felt, which was unrationed, to cheer up their outfits, which were becoming somewhat jaded with the clothes rationing in place.  I worked on some new designs, working to original patterns or drafting my own patterns based on original posy brooches in my collection.  Sometimes, I tweak the patterns as some of them make up into huge-sized posies, and the felt we have available today is nowhere near as thick as that used in wartime, so the flowers often need extra help to keep their shape.

 
I trundled off to Stag and Bow to take my wares for a window display.

I think they look cute on this gorgeous green knitted top. The shop sells yarn and knitted this one up as a sample.

This frame was from the £1 shop and I painted it green, as you can see, and inserted a padded, vintage fabric covered board to allow me to pin my brooches to it.  An easy and cheap make over which looks a million times better than the tacky original!

So, this Saturday is the first posy-making workshop at Stag and Bow.  Do you fancy it?  Stag and Bow is a gorgeous shop with lovely owners (you can read about it in a past blog post here), located in Forest Hill which is less than a 15 minute rail journey from London and then literally a two minute walk across the road from the station.  We'd love to see you there, there are a couple of spaces left, starting at 9am (until 12) on Saturday, the workshop costs a bargainous £38 (all materials provided).  The tea and biscuits will be out so we'll have a good old natter and of course, you'll be able to go away with your own posies and some new skills.  Just ring the shop if you are interested.

Enjoy the rest of the week... Xxx