The Village Haberdashery: Open Weekend in London

I interrupt my mini "blog vacation" to bring you some good news. The Village Haberdashery is one of my favorite online fabric stores and they are celebrating the opening of their new "bricks and morter" store this coming weekend. If you are in London, please give it a visit!

What: The Village Haberdashery's first Open Weekend!
Date and time: Saturday, 15th December 11-7 and Sunday, 16th December 11-5
Location: 47 Mill Lane, West Hampstead, London NW6 1NB (West Hampstead Tube station)

It's Home Time....

(image via CBS New York)

I'm off to New York tomorrow for a pre-Christmas trip to visit my hometown, friends and family so things will be quiet here for the next week or so. 

(There will be no sewing on this trip... although I did sneak some knitting needles into my suitcase!)

A few things on the agenda:

- Take little miss to see the Christmas tree and ice-skating rink at Rockefellar Center (just like my parents did when I was a child) 

- Stuff myself with NYC street food (just like my college days)

- Consume multiple medium sized cups of hazelnut coffee from D&D

- One word..."iHOP"

- Stock up on US craft supplies (Target, Michael's, Joanns, The City Quilter)

- Outlet shopping!!!

See you folks on the other side of the pond...

My First Craft Fair!

I finally had my very first craft fair experience this past weekend. I signed up to have a table at my daughter's Christmas fair and gave myself about 1 month to prepare. Here's a quick photo of my table set-up...

I shared a table with another school mom/friend who sold water color paintings so it was good to share the experience and cost of the table.

There was a lot of foot traffic but I didn't sell as much as I had hoped. I made enough to cover my cost of materials plus a small profit but it was all about the experience for me. I've always wanted to try my hand at selling at a craft fair so I kept an open mind. But all-in-all, I would probably do it again as it was great fun meeting and talking to new people. 

Just not for another few months!

W.I.P. Wednesday - Christmas Fair Home Stretch!

It's been all about sewing for the Christmas Fair this week.

I put together a few quilted ornaments using more of Aneela Hoey's Cherry Christmas fabric...

Some simple felt bunting for the PTA to sell at their decorations booth...

A few drawstring bags that need to be finished and a small London themed cushion to donate to the PTA raffle...

Two small cusions/pillows made up of some French inspired fabrics panels that I had...

Oh, I also put together a full Thanksgiving meal last Saturday for 10 people and even managed to put up our humble Christmas tree.

With that, I'm on the home stretch. The Christmas Fair is this Saturday, then Christmas itself and then I can finally do some sewing for ME! Hooray!

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Btw, I'm linking up with W.I.P Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Easy Christmas Bunting + mini tutorial

Here's some super simple Christmas bunting that I made for the upcoming (can you guess?) craft fair. It's made from a charm square pack of Aneela Hoey's Cherry Christmas along with some double fold bias tape.

(Sorry for the horrible lighting. This is English winter after all!)

I won't go into a full fledged tutorial but here's what I did in a nutshell:

You'll need: 

- 6 x 5" squares of fabric/charm squares

- coordinating bias tape or ribbon 

- rotary cutter with a pinking blade (ideal) or pinking shears

- quilting ruler or regular ruler

Here's what I did:

- I used my ruler and rotary cutter (w/ pinking blade) to cut my 5" squares of fabric into equilateral triangles. I think a diagram will be easier to follow...

- Once you have all your triangles cut, arrange them across your bias tape and pin with a 1" space between each triangle. I then used a zig zag stitch to sew them together. Leave approximately 8"-10" of extra bias tape on either end for tying up your bunting.

And that's it! Just hang and enjoy :)

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PS - In case you're looking for more ideas, I created a "Christmas Inspiration" board on Pinterest to keep track of my holiday inspired project ideas. Please come and visit :)

W.I.P. Wednesday + My 100th Post!

Hello All. 

I noticed today that this will be my 100th post. I also noticed that I now have 100 followers on Pinterest. I call that a happy coincidence!

I actually never thought I would have come this far when I started this blog. Initially, I just wanted to use the "non-baby" part of my brain and share my creative side along the way. I never thought that I'd actually have followers and meet so many nice online friends who share the same interests as me. It's really been a rewarding journey.

Ok, enough of the mushy stuff and on to finished makes!

1. I made 3 little dollies as gifts for little miss (center) and her friends. Because my daughter is a mixed ethnicity (Filipino/Caucasian) I have a hard time finding manufactured dolls that resemble her in any way. Thus, I'm forever pinning doll patterns that let you customize eye color, skin color, hairstyle, etc. This particular pattern is from Sew News and dolls are donated to a good cause. It was great fun creating a doll for each girl.

3. I popped in the the Selvedge Magazine Christmas fair on Sunday and came away with some beautiful fabric from Karen over at Bluebery Park. 

3. More softies for the Christmas Fair! 

4. Finally, this is how I get some sewing done while little miss "helps" mommy. I often print off a coloring page of whatever project I'm working on so that little miss can work right along side me.

Until next time. Linking up with...

The Softie Invasion has Begun...

I heart Spoonflower!

Woohoo! My very first Spoonflower order arrived yesterday. Spoonflower had a 2 for 1 fat quarter sale last week and the fabric arrived nearly two weeks ahead of the guaranteed delivery date (int'l shipping too). I was very impressed with their customer service also.  I think Spoonflower has found yet another repeat customer!

And here's a peak and some of the fabrics I'm using for the upcoming school fair...

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Finally, here's the finished Japanese fat quarter pillow/cushion that I started earlier in the week.

Until next time...

Let the Holiday Sewing Begin!

So I mentioned in my last post that I signed up to have a table at my daughter's Christmas school fair. It's literally only a month away so I knew it was time to do some sewing. I've decided to keep it simple and only sell pillows/cushions, softies and cheaper items like hair clips. No quilts at the moment although I will if I have any time left to make a few.

I've ordered some new fabric and craft supplies but they won't arrive until next week so I thought I'd get started on using what I already have.

1. A quilted pillow/cushion using fabric from my recent Japanese Charm Swap. This one is for the boys...

 2. My very first covered button hair clip. I used some Liberty scraps and plain hair clips that I already had on hand. A bit fiddly at first but I finally got the hang of it. Funny enough, little miss was wearing the matching one yesterday and it has since "disappeared."

Linking up with W.I.P. Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.

P.S. Happy Halloween!

W.I.P. Friday

I've been off sewing for a bit lately. DH has started a new job and works longer hours now so by the time the little one is asleep I have no energy left to sew!  I think I just need some new projects to get me going again. Here's what I've been up to lately:

1. Recieved this lovely package from the Village Haberdashery. I needed some basics and a few supplies to start several holiday projects. Annie does such a nice job with her packaging!

2. I finished a fabric covered journal for a friend's birthday. I used the tutorial from Bloom and Blossom I liked the general instructions but next time, I will use my own measurements for the book as I had to adjust the measurements in the end anyway. The pink and yellow mechanical pencils aren't proper for sketching but how often do you find a perfect color match like that?

3. Yet another zippered pouch for a friend's birthday. I'm using up more and more of my precious Hello Kitty Liberty fabric!

4. I somehow signed up to have a table at Little Miss' christmas fair. Not sure what I'm going to sell yet but I always wanted the experience of having a stall at a craft fair. We'll see how this goes. Eeeks!

An Afternoon at Liberty...

The LMQG recently had a chance to sit down with Sholto Drumlanrig, designer of the new Liberty Lifestyle Fabric collection. Read all about it on the LMQG blog...

p.s. - this is my very first guest blog post so check it out :)

Fresh Sewing Day - September

Gosh, it's October already? Not too much sewing this month but rather, learned a few new skills so I guess that counts? I made some zippered pouches for the very first time and learned how to do some hand embroidery. Oh, and I participated in my very first fabric swap. So I guess September was a month of "firsts" for me :)

(From top R: A little stitch card, yellow zip ouch, Aneela Hoey cushion, Union Jack pouch & Union Jack cushion.)

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Linking up with Lynn at Lily's Quilts for Fresh Sewing Day & Small Blog Hop...

Embroidered Cushion...Finished!

This week, I finally had a chance to complete my Aneela Hoey embroidered cushion. Again, I used the "Girl on a Tree Swing Pattern" from Aneela's new book, "Little Stitches." I then used some of my Liberty Lifestyle Bloomsbury Gardens fabric to create a simple pieced border. 

I think it came out really sweet and it was great fun to work on!

Funny Friday

My sister sent this to me on Facebook. I thought it was pretty funny...

Have a good weekend :)

WIP Wednesday...Embroidered Cushion

This week's task is to finish sewing up my Aneela Hoey embroidered cushion. I began the project during Aneela's class the other week. I've finally decided on what fabric to use to finish it off...my Liberty prints from the Bloomsbury Gardens collection. It will be tough to cut into but worth it as I think the colors really complement the embroidery.

Also, I found this great fuzzy mustache applique that I plan to make into a Can't Grow a Mo', Sew a Mo' block for DJ Coolbear.

Linking up with...

A book signing with Oliver Jeffers

This week, we were lucky enough to attend a book signing with Oliver Jeffers at our local Waterstones book store. Oliver Jeffers is one of our favorite children's authors and he was out promoting his new book, "This Moose Belongs to Me."

Little miss waited patiently in line so that I could get her a signed copy of the new book (he even drew the moose). The author was also kind enough to sign our copy of "Stuck" which is our favorite Oliver Jeffers' title. 

The kiddos waited patiently in the queue as my good friend, Mrs. Brown read "Stuck" aloud. 

I have such a great love for children's books and I'm so happy that I get these types of opportunities to meet our favorite authors and expose the little one to my love of reading as well. 

What's next? Another book signing by another favorite, Rod Campbell, in a few weeks time :)

DIY Christmas Ornament Tutorials (Christmas in July)

I'm still trying to shake an annoying cold so new sewing this week. However, as part of the LMQG, I put together this little mosaic of DIY Christmas ornament tutorials for a swap that we're doing in November. They're all so darn cute that I thought I'd share.

1. Scrappy Stockings 2. Felt Ornaments 3. Sewn Birds 4. Matryoshka Ornament 5. Quilted Coasters 6. Quilted Trees 7. Felt squirrel 8. Hexagons (for any EPP people out there)

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Can you believe that Christmas is in 94 days? Keep Calm and Panic now :)

Embroidery Class with Aneela Hoey

I had the great pleasure of taking an embroidery class with Aneela Hoey last Saturday along with some fellow members of the LMQG.

Aneela was such a great teacher and really down to earth. The class was fun and relaxing and I'm sure that everyone had a great time. We were all given a copy of Aneela's new book, "Little Stitches" and worked on the project called "Cherry on a Tree Swing" in class.  Initially, we went through some basic stitches and then spent the afternoon getting on with our embroidery.

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Aneela personally signed her book for each of us. Did I mention how nice she was?

I only managed to outline the little girl and tree during the class. I'm happy to do my homework though :)

I also picked up one of Aneela's new journals and a charm pack of her sew stitchy fabrics.

All in all, a great day out and looking forward to doing it again soon.

W.I.P. Wednesday

Not much sewing lately so I'm hoping to get back into the groove with these projects:

1. Sweet Little Dress Pattern by Leila & Ben: I've had this pattern saved for a while so when a fellow guild member made one last month, I was inspired to get out the scissors :)

2. Japanese Charm Swap: I'm up to my ears in cuteness with this one.

Until next week!

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Japanese Charm Swap

I'm participating in a Japanese Charm Swap over at Sarah's Narcoleptic in a Cupbaord.

I chose Postage Stamps by Pushpin for Kokka. 

Even the selvage was super cute...

All cut up and ready to swap...

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I can't wait to see what I get back :)