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 :)

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!

Festival of Quilts 2012

It's Monday and I'm recovering from a weekend of quilts and fabric. I was lucky enough to make it out to Birmingham over the weekend to visit the Festival of Quilts 2012. 

There were so many lovely quilts on display but I think I was too distracted to take many pictures of them. Other highlights included a visit to the Eternal Maker booth (my favorite), gawking at Liberty's new quilter's cottons from Fabrics Galore and seeing Tula Pink's new fabric & book at the Coats & Clark booth. 

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Oh, and here are some of my favorite purchases from the show:

Cloud 9 simpatico fat quarters, scrap bag and gorgeous zippers from The Eternal Maker.

 Liberty fabric and quilter's cotton from Fabrics Galore. The fabric on the left is called Tuesday Trees and is one of the designs by Lauren Child, author of Charlie & Lola. My daughter really likes C&L so I was even more pleased that I found it :)

Liberty 9 patch cushion kits from Alice Caroline. I'm giving a friend a sewing lesson so I thought this would be a great first project.

Did anyone else out there enjoy the festival?

London Renegade Craft Fair 2011

I managed to visit the London Renegade Craft Fair over the past weekend. Nearly half the tube network was not running (very typical London) so it was quite a trek to get to Shoreditch. However, I wasn't disappointed when I arrived. 

The event was held at the Old Truman Brewery so the space was very open with wonderful natural light. It had a very relaxed feel and felt like something I would have found in my old East Village neighborhood back at home (live DJ included).

People were very friendly and I managed to chat with several of the vendors. I was surprised to find that many vendors made the trip over from the US to attend and even met one who grew up near my home town in New York (small world!).

I generally gravitate towards children's clothing and gifts at craft fairs, particularly hand made dolls and softies. But this time I was drawn to several t-shirt artists, picking up a few unique gifts for little miss and family.

From top left:

1. I loved the light filled warehouse space

2. wee toddler tees and onesis made by joy nevada little ones

3. "happy tee's for wee people" made by tee and toast

4. fabulous batik t-shirts made by Hiho Batik of Miami

5. I wish I had a little boy for this great punk rock t-shirt (also Hiho Batik)

London Craft Fair Roundup - Fall 2011

For this crafty girl, the drop in temperature, warm coats and pretty colored leaves means that the Fall and holiday craft fair season is about to begin.

I thought it would be nice to compile a list of some really interesting craft fairs in and around London. Although I have not been to many of these in the past, I'm looking forward to attending as many as I can in the next few weeks.

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Origin - September 22-28

Old Spitalfields Market London (E1 6EW) 

"The Contemporary Craft Fair"

The Knitting and Stitching Show 2011 - Oct 6-9

Alexandra Palace, London (N22 7AY)

"The best textile exhibitions in Europe!"

The Renegade Craft Fair - October 8/9

The Old Truman Brewery (91 Brick Lane, London E1 6QL)

"The Renegade Craft Fair is a large-scale DIY marketplace event, featuring hundreds of the best indie craft designers and makers around."

(This is has great reputation back in the US so I'm really looking forward to this one).

Spirit of Christmas Fair  - Nov 2-6
Olympia Center, London
(Although not an "official" craft fair, I'm sure their will be some really great work by different crafty artists. Plus, I love Christmas fairs).

Made in Clerkenwell Winter 2011 - Nov 24-27

Craft Central, Clerkenwell (2 locations - EC1M 4DS and  EC1R 0DX)

(I've been to this fair in the past, it's a nice mix of local artisans).

BUST Magazine Christmas Craftacular - Nov 27
York Hall, Bethnal Green (E2 9PJ)
"The BUST Magazine Christmas Craftacular is London’s hippest craft fair..."
(I went to this craft fair 2 years ago and really enjoyed it's artsy, homey vibe along with their many independent artists.)

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