Yesterday afternoon I was delighted to be invited to have afternoon tea with Kirstie Allsopp (and 49 other crafty ladies) at the V&A. I’m sure you’ve heard of The Handmade Fair which is taking place this Autumn at Hampton Court Palace. As a Super Pinner (are you following me on Pinterest?) I was able to spend a really fun couple of hours enjoying an afternoon of tea, cake and crafting. I love paper cutting but so far I haven’t been very adventurous. I was excited to learn how to create beautiful paper cut-out bunting with the help from artist Poppy…
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You know how much I love to sew. I’ve been making lots of doll quilts for my daughter as the size means I never get bored! I was recently sent an amazing fabric bundle of 6 Truly British Fat Quarters from The Bead and Button Company to craft with. The Truly British fabric selection contained 6 different fabrics, each measuring 45cm x 55cm and 100% cotton. The selection was really good and I decided to use five of the pieces to make a maverick star doll quilt from my favourite craft book Doll Quilts. It was surprisingly easy to put…
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Last weekend I attended a workshop at Tate Britain. It was one of a series of workshops run in conjunction with their latest exhibition – British Folk Art. British Folk Art at Tate Britain This is the first major exhibition of British folk art. What is British folk art? I’m not sure I’m any clearer after visiting the exhibition, but I would still recommend it to anyone with an interest in British history! image source The exhibition guide states that: Folk art has often been neglected in the story of British art: by uncovering this treasure trove of folk art objects, this…
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Over the past couple of months I’ve been slowly embroidering hexagons for Wild Olive’s Spring Stitching Club quilt, a fun weekly stitching club. I finished the embroidered panel but needed to put the quilt together. I’m not great at finishing projects so I blogged about my progress in the hope it would encourage me to complete it. I’m pretty pleased to say I finished my quilt over the weekend! It’s lovely to see it finished after working on small hexagons for weeks. It’s actually come together quite quickly and I really love it (as does my 4 year old). After I…
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Last Christmas I made a fun Christmas tree from vintage folding rulers. I’m not sure I ever blogged about it but it left me with quite a few pieces of vintage rulers to play with. I thought a little tray would be a good use of some of the pieces. There are always bunches of keys and receipts lying around so I thought a tray would be useful to tidy up our hall. Upcycled folding ruler tray materials: Hardboard Vintage folding ruler PVA wood glue Sand paper How to make an upcycled folding ruler tray: I re-used a folding ruler…
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Petit Collage is a collection of 25 vintage modern handcrafted designs for children and families, from award-winning designer Lorena Siminovich. The fun, imaginative projects range from a paper toy dollhouse and personalised baby blocks to an adorable bunny clock and Petit Collage’s signature name plaque, growth chart and paper mobiles. Many can be made with the help of your children and there are ideas throughout to make them ‘kid fun’. The book also contains gorgeous photography, step by step instructions and additional tips for each project. Petit Collage will help parents create handmade items for kids that adults will also…
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I like nothing more than having a couple of sewing projects on the go. I’ve been working on Wild Olive’s Spring Stitching Club for a while and thought I’d write about my progress to spur me on to finish it. The Stitching Club in a Seasonal sewing club where you receive a weekly email with an embroidery pattern. Over the weeks the individual pieces are made into something bigger, such as a doll quilt or cushion cover. So far I’ve only completed the Summer Stitching Club but I have the Autumn and Winter patterns too which I will get round…
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You may have noticed we’ve been a little obsessed with the Gruffalo lately. We recently spent a lovely time in the deep dark wood hunting for the Gruffalo and friends on a Gruffalo activity trail. My children also enjoyed a fun Gruffalo-themed bento box for their lunch. I thought I would keep the theme going with some Gruffalo Story Stones. Gruffalo Story Stone materials: Smooth stones Decopatch glue Colour images of the Gruffalo, Snake, Owl, Fox and Mouse How to make Gruffalo Story Stones: First I chose some smooth stones from our stash, every time we visit the beach we…
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This week we sent off a parcel to the Reading Residence as part of the 2014 Love Books Summer Exchange. We took part last year and had a lot of fun with it. Basically you send a book and related craft suitable for the age of your child and receive the same. My son eagerly awaits the Postman knocking on the door as he often receives packages with things to review. You can imagine his expression when he opened the door to a large cardboard box! It contained a copy of Herman’s Letter by Tom Percival, and everything needed to…
