Festival of Quilts: Shopping!

Of course, it is impossible to visit the Festival of Quilts and not do some shopping! I am operating on a strict "no fabric buying" policy at the moment as I need to use up my fabric stash not add to it... but I couldn't resist buying a few pretty, crafty things.

Here's me (in the turquoise blue) doing some shopping...

(Photo taken by the lovely Kirsty of LovePaperFish while she was patiently waiting for me to finish buying things!)

I bought some cute mini ric rac from The Button Company whose stall (pictured above) was so deliciously colourful...

... I've included a spool of thread in the photo so you can see just how tiny this stuff is!

I bought some on my last visit to FoQ and have really enjoyed crafting with it, it's just so cute (you can spot some on this Christmas Stocking, these Owl Ornaments & this Ribbon Card)... so I was glad to have an opportunity to stock up on some more colours.

I can't see any on their website at the moment, but you can also find lots of mini ric rac over at Paper & String (who also sells fun felt ric rac!).

I also bought some nice buttons from Textile Garden...

 ... an adorable little sheep, a tiny fish, a sweet donkey, a shiny turquoise button, and a rather cool button printed with a vintage needlework design.

I don't have a specific project in mind for any of these yet but they all simply had to come home with me! Mmm.... yummy buttons....

Festival of Quilts 2011

As promised, here's a (much longer!) post about the Festival of Quilts.

I have to admit to knowing very little about quilts and the wonderful world of quilting (I have never made a quilt in my life) but after seeing so many fab quilting projects on other peoples blogs lately I've been very tempted by it.

Then I heard people mentioning this mysterious thing called "FoQ", found out more about it and could not resist buying a ticket. I'm very glad I did, because it was quite wonderful!


If you've never been before, The Festival of Quilts is a mix of exhibition spaces (displaying quilts and other textile pieces) and retail spaces (selling fabric, thread, buttons, felt, embroidery patterns, books, magazines, stitched wares by an array of designer/makers and all manner of other crafty goodness). Oh, and there are classes and talks too though I didn't go to any of those.

Here are just a few of the quilts which caught my eye...

Stars and hexagons quilt by Lu Summers of Summersville (made using her own screenprinted fabrics)
Huge quilted flowers:


Teacups quilt! Complete with panels made from old tablecloths, 3D teacups, ring marks and (if you look closely at the bottom there) brown seed beads spilling out of a torn "teabag".


One of the competition winners. The detail and bright colours in this = amazing.


A lovely traditional quilt - I loved the pattern and fabrics used in this.


A knitted quilt! Knitted pieces, stitched together in the log cabin style and quilted. So many hours must have gone into this...


Black and white quilt with circles of richly textured & incredibly detailed colour embroidery. Gorgeous.


A detail from a quilt made as a series of panels. This quilt makes me want to make an embroidery sampler RIGHT NOW.

A memory quilt about the quilter's teenage son's travels in his gap year. There was a map of his journey in the centre and then the rest of the quilt was covered in extracts from his emails home during the year. (Apologies for the very blurry photo - my camera is rubbish!)

I was also very pleased to get a chance to see Lu Summers' Portholes quilt (which won its category at last year's Festival) as it was displayed on the Fat Quarterly stand...


... and I got to meet lots of lovely crafty people, including Lu (Summersville) and Kirsty (Love PaperFish)...


... plus Katy (I'm a Ginger Monkey) and Ruth Singer.

I was also delighted to discover the work of Janet Clare...


... who sells gorgeous embroidery and applique patterns over in her Etsy shop including (be still my beating heart!) two sets of patterns for making quilts appliqued with British birds.

I didn't do much shopping - though I wrote down a lot of shop names to visit later when I've got the funds and/or a specific sewing project in mind - but I did treat myself to some wooden flower buttons and some super cute mini ric rac.


I've included some standard sized ric rac in the photo so you can see just how tiny the mini ric rac is. I bought the buttons & ric rac from different stands, but I was clearly in the mood for those colours that day, huh?

All in all: total textile overload! I'm already planning to go back again next year, maybe for two days as there was just so much to see.

Gift Wrap Idea: Buttons

With all my business parcels packed and posted for the year it's time to turn my attention to my own Christmas gifts!

I'm using lots of yarn and pompoms (perfect for making use of the leftover yarn from the scarves I've been knitting) but I'm also trying out a few other ideas including one I'd like to share with you today... decorating your gifts with lovely buttons.

 

If you've got any crafty friends I think using craft supplies like buttons (or beads) and ribbon is a fab way to personalise their gifts. And because they'll be able to add the trimmings to their supplies stash and use them to make new things it's eco friendly too.

Start with a simple wrapped parcel (regular readers will know I'm a big fan of brown paper!) and tie ric rac, ribbon, yarn, lace or any other trims you fancy round it.

You can keep it simple with one striking trim like this ric rac...

... or use lots of co-ordinating trims together:

 

Then you need to add the buttons - this is a bit fiddly but well worth it. Thread an assortment of buttons onto a length of embroidery thread or yarn, and then weave the string around the ribbon so the button string becomes intertwined and the buttons are evenly spaced.

You don't need buttons for the underside of the parcel so I'd recommend tying one button string top to bottom around the parcel and a second string left to right (instead of using one long piece as you would with a normal bit of ribbon) leaving the ends of each string empty and tying the ends together on the underside of the parcel.

 

Another way to use buttons in your wrapping (and fewer of them!) is to make a button tag.

You can make a homemade tag easily with some cardstock, a holepunch and some embroidery thread or yarn as a string, or raid your stationery supplies if you've got some! Use a needle to pole the holes you'll need and then sew your buttons onto the tag using a double thickness of thread or some embroidery thread.

 

Use some sticky tape to secure the end of the thread and cover your sewing with a large address label or use craft glue to stick down a piece of paper or card.

 

Then write your tag and tie it to your parcel. Lovely.

 

PS if you'd like to add a vintage crafty feel to your gift wrapping without any of this messing around with buttons check out these lovely downloadable tags from doe-c-doe - button cards and vintage trims.

Please feel free to borrow one or two photos if you want to blog about this project, but remember to credit me and link back to the original source, and do not reproduce my entire post on your site. Thanks!

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