DIY Easter Bonnet

The little one is having an Easter Parade this week at school and we (parents) were asked to make an Easter Bonnet for each child. I'm fairly sure this is an English tradition because I don't remember doing this back home in NY. My family and I used to visit the Easter Parade in Manhattan every year where the Easter bonnets are crazy and fabulous. Alas, this is pre-school, so here's my very first attempt...

Again, times like these beg for a trip to my local Michael's but as there are none in England, I made due with picking up supplies at my local Poundland (hat, nest, pompom chicks & bunnies), Tiger Store (ribbon, felt flowers) and even Butlers (bunny & duck ornaments).

I then used a combination of glue dots and Aileen's tacky glue to affix all the ornaments. The nest and and teal ribbon were sewn on by hand. 

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Here's the bonnet in action...despite near freezing temps!!!

Stay warm folks :)

It's been a while + Purl Soho Review

Hi Folks. Yes, I know it's been a very long time since my last post. I think I needed a blog vacation for longer than I thought. I suppose I felt a little burned out after the holidays.

But the real reason for my long hiatus is the very happy fact that we are expecting baby #2 this summer. I've been experiencing a lot of fatigue this second time around so instead of using my spare time to sew or blog, I am trying to rest as much as I can.

I hope to get some, ok, any sewing at all done in the next few months but I'm going to let myself off the hook and just do what I can :)

With that, I'll leave you with a quick review of my trip to Purl Soho when I was in NYC over the holiday. Enjoy!

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I finally got the chance to visit Purl Soho back in December while I was in NY. I've been drooling over  their blog for ages so I'm glad I got the chance to actually visit the store. Unfortunately, I have to say that I was a bit disappointed. I guess I was expecting to find some new and different fabrics but didn't come across any.

The store was certainly attractive, but I came away empty handed despite spending a good 30 minutes looking for some project inspiration. However, it was exciting to see many of the actual projects featured on the purl bee to touch and admire.

The verdict? Purl Soho is great for fabric/yarn eye candy but I'm still loyal to The City Quilter for fabric.

 Modern holiday display & wall of fabrics

 Pretty quilts on display

Handmade wool felt ornaments

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)

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!

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?

New Art Supplies :)

Whenever I have a new craft project in mind, I always think, "Oh man, I wish they had Target, Michaels or Jo-Ann store here in England." I really miss being able to one stop shop for sewing supplies, fabrics, paper, yarn, etc. I generally stock up on crafty stuff when I go back but today I was lucky enough to find some supplies for a few future projects.

Cardboard letters! I know, every Michaels store carries these but not here! I found these at my local Tiger store for £2 each. I plan to decoupage them somehow and make something similar to these map monograms. I also picked up a pack of decorative paper for card making. 40 sheets of paper for £2? That's a score in my book.

Acrylic paints and mini canvases for some DIY artwork from Rhymans. I don't think I've ever painted on canvas so this should be interesting. I want some new artwork for my desk space and hope to create something similar to this chevron wall art.

Oh, and finally a work in progress. It's a quilt to go with the pillow that I made here.

Sass & Belle

I visited the sass & belle store (not to be confused with sass & bade) during a recent trip to Covent Garden and was completely delighted with all their wonderful crafty gifts and decorations. They have a wonderful collection of cushions, bunting, children's decorations and vintage inspired gifts.  It's a great stop for some affordable souvenirs if you are ever in London. I came away with some really cute owl ribbon and will definitely return!

sass & belle: 21-20 New Row, Covent Garden, London WC2N 4LE