Spring is finally Sprung....

Galliers here.....Our early spring break on Siesta Key obviously put us in such a laid back mood we came home and did almost nothing for about six weeks.... but are now full of good intentions to plan and make... here are a few photos of a couple of little projects I have managed to undertake....a beautiful old baby blanket dredged up from my Pa's houseful of the flotsam and jetsam of life.... the moth have had a feast and moved on... it has been lovingly laundered in soapflakes and dried on the washing line and lived to tell the tale of... Spring!... Hare in Foxy in the Springtime - I thought I would back it with some vintage cotton and it could be a little wallhanging for a nursery, motheaten but still beautiful I think. The label is lovely "Swando" registered by the Institute of Hygiene, so that's alright then. The other photo is a shoulder bag made out of a pink tweed skirt I got at a jumble sale ... I took the zip out and sewed up the gap, cut the whole skirt in half across the width and put a seam across the bottom, edged the top with pink velvet ribbon, created a strap from some wonderful vintage black and white striped hessian upholstery webbing (charity shop find) and more pink velvet ribbon, stitched a turquoise flower on the front. The flower was made last spring in a period of "let's make felt" where we felted beautiful hanks of wool into flowers with strands of Angelina (heat fusible shiny rainbow coloured fibres) mixed in and handsewn beads. We made smaller ones for corsages but I made 3 large flat ones in various colours which lend themselves very well for stitching down onto cushions and bags. Final touch to the bag was to make a couple of ribbon ties one with a wooden bead from a 1970s necklace and the other a tiny toe-ring of tiny pretty dangly bits! I am rather pleased with it myself, I have another little bright magenta cashmere skirt to make into a bag too, so there could be a run of these. We have already booked our stall at Barnes Fair in the summer July 10th and are in line to have one at the Kew Summer Fair on Kew Green in June. SO we better stop procrastinating and start stitching! It was my birthday this week and I received today from my friend Mairead the most beautiful handtied bunch of amazing flowers (see photo) including pink lilac, purple clematis, sweet peas, deep pink peonies and more... her shop is called Rebel Rebel and is in Broadway Market in Bethnal Green.