Stitching til our fingers bleed...

Galliers here. We are now fully paid up stallholders to be at both Kew Fete on Kew Green 19th June and Barnes Fair on Barnes Green 10th July. Now we just have to make stuff to put on them!...... I am halfway through another "skirt-into-bag" - a lovely bit of magenta cashmere with handfelted flowers beads and embroidery... also into a bedroom "comforter", or small bedquilt, which is from a lovely faded 1930s green "Swando" brand blanket appliqued with bits cut from a vintage cashmere shawl and the words "our bed of roses" in soft red canvas.... two things in production... managed to sew through the tops of BOTH my index fingers yesterday in my efforts to push ahead... so literally "stitching till my fingers bleed"!... luckily no drops of blood on the fabrics so thats ok. More haste less speed... or something like that. Roxy is steaming ahead with her tea cosies. We have a page in the local free magazine "Living in Kew and Richmond" devoted to us this month ... "A day in the life of Rescued and Revived".... how exciting!... my friend Pippa who publishes it kindly offered to put us in and drum up a bit of interest for our stalls, she is also a mover and shaker organizing the Kew Fete. Few photos of my on-going items to show you. Also a photo of a mosaic for my garden which I started at least 2 years ago and finally finished - just needs the back and edges waterproofing and it can stand outside and brighten up a gloomy corner. More photos of items for sale when they are finished which hopefully when my savaged fingers heal up will be soon...

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.