Vintage Fairs and buying overload

Today I accidentally fell into the vintage textile fair held at the Mackarness Hall, Honiton.  It was very careless of me, and shouldn't have been there at all! As some of you may know, I have been on a buying ban this week..... it isn't exactly going very well at the moment!  I wasn't going to go to this fair, but I started having cold sweats at the thought of it happening, and me not being there.  To make it worse, I actually went TWICE!  Yes, that is pure vintage addiction for you!  I dashed there for a quick peruse in the morning, as my littlest son was rather unwell, but as my mother lives with us, it means that I have a rather convenient babysitter!  Then, at the end of the day I rushed back there again, this time with my mother and camera in tow, and my son at home in the capable hands of his Daddy.  Lots of you who follow me over on Facebook, always ask where I go to these fairs, and what they are like, so I took some snaps for you to see.  Unfortunately, my camera breathed its last breathe whilst I was there, and the focus wasn't working very well just before that, so I am sorry if any of them are a bit blurry.  Sheila Hyson runs this fair, and you can find details of her upcoming fairs here https://www.facebook.com/pages/Hyson-Fairs-Ltd/411124035628256?fref=ts
Liz van Hasselt also had her usual marvellous wares at the fair - I buy a lot of my vintage bits from her. She also runs her own vintage fairs.  Liz's Facebook page can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/LaCamionnettebleue , or you can follow her blog here: http://thewasherwoman.blogspot.co.uk.   At these vintage fairs or shops, you will mostly find me on my knees, racking through their baskets, drawers, and piles.  I intend to invest in a very good pair of kneepads in order for me to do this in a little more comfort!!!

Beautiful vintage aprons! I wish I had
purchased these too! 

 It is quite a hard job sourcing vintage items for my work.  It is not like modern fabrics, where you can just keep ordering.  You can only work with that item so long as you possess enough of it, then, once it is gone, it is gone.  I always say that if you like one of my pieces, don't think about purchasing it for too long, as for some of them, there will only ever be that one specimen, and once it is gone it is gone.  I trawl all these fairs for more the 3mm vintage 1920's rayon ribbon I bought earlier this year, but I have yet to find any again, which is such a shame, as I love it so much!

I ended up purchasing this lush grey-blue
blanket - I have lots of plans for it! 

How can you not love a Welsh waffle blanket!

Vintage Disney

Vintage undies - just lovely!

I fell rather in love with these shoes! 

Drawer and drawers of buttons! 

Some of Lizzie's lush objects!

Gorgeous box!

the silk rainbow!

Today, my vintage silk threads arrived.  Oh my goodness, what a colour feast for the eyes!  I spend a lot of time looking for vintage threads, but some of these colours I have never seen..... all together, to me, they just look so beautiful.  These are such an integral part of my work.  The modern threads just do not work alongside the vintage fabrics I use.  Finding just the right colours, can be extremely difficult.  These are also bigger than they look in the photos, being about 6cm long on the tubes, and 2cm diameter with the thread on.  These are a lovely find!

a little bit of this and a little bit of that

So, I am on a buying ban at the moment - did you know that?  No, probably not, because, by the looks of things, I don't know that either.  I don't seem to have told myself!  So, in this week of my buying ban, these are the lovely things I have bought:

Vintage silk threads - I can never have enough of this, and it is surprising how quickly I get through these in my work!

I purchased 5 lots of these, all in delicious colours. They haven't turned up yet, but once they do, I will take some nice arty photos of them!

The next item I purchased is for an artisan fair I am part of on 25th May at Blackborough in Devon - see here https://www.facebook.com/BlackboroughArtisanMarket?fref=ts.  I needed something to display my tiny makes on - like the buttons and tiny brooches.  So, I thought that a  vintage print tray would be ideal! This is the one I purchased, that I am waiting to arrive as we speak! 

I am planning to line all the compartments with parts of pages from vintage books.  I can't hardly wait for it to turn up so I can have a play.  

Last but not least, I simply fell in love with these beautiful 1950's French matchboxes!!  *sigh* ..... how could I not purchase these?

......and this is one of the little pieces of mixd media art I made with one of them:

Spiders, Stars, flowers and Lambs!

This week has been rather hectic, as our sheep have been lambing (more about that later!), but I have managed to produce a few new pieces this week.

The lovely Jen from My Paper Cut Heart https://www.facebook.com/MyPaperCutHeart?fref=ts commissioned me to make a cosmic glittering star design, with the words "we are all stardust".  I am always sooooooo nervous about commissions, and anxious that I won't interpret correctly what the customer wants, but thankfully, this went down a storm!!

we are all stardust - pendant 

incy wincy spider large pendant

summertime elongated pendant

summertime small brooch

ladies summertime Cufflinks

lily of the valley large pendant

Daisy in the wind, small brooch

For the rest of this week, we have been fostering some ewe's whilst lambing.  Its been a terrible year for lambing this year, and from what I have been hearing, we are not the only ones to have had a bad time of it.  The sheep are not ours, but a local smallholder whose land has been far too waterlogged to keep them there. We have them housed in one of our barns, and are caring for the lambs who need bottle feeding. We are adopting one of the bottle fed lambs as our pet, to go with our other pet sheep.  His name is Floppy - isn't he sweet.  He is here examining a pair of shoes, as they are very interesting when you are a 5 day old lamb!

Here he is, below, playing in the garden on his first day out!

Fabric and buttons and trims, oh my!

I often wonder whether my friends understand just how excited I become at the thought of a vintage textile fair to look around?  The night before I am all a quiver in anticipation of a what treasures the morning may bring.  To be honest, I struggle to get up most mornings, due to my 3 year old who likes to deprive us of sleep, but, on a vintage textile morning, I am all ready to go! Last week it was the turn of "A Talent for Textiles", this time in Ilminster, which is run by my fabulous friend Caroline Bushell, who's wonderful antique British textiles can be found the rest of the time based at Fountain Antiques, Honiton. 

Tiniest of vintage 1930's velvet millinery flowers

Good quailty vintage and antique fabrics and trims are very hard for me to find.  The main problem is that as my work is normally in such small scale, I don't need (nor want to pay for) reams of fabric, so I look for small and interesting instead!  It sounds easier than it actually is to find, and small doesn't necessarily mean cheap!  

The most amazing antique Japanese little piece of fabric!

So I told my other half that I would only be an hour, and in fact, I was four hours...... well, I think he probably expected that!  I "do" fabric fairs rather like other women do a day trip to Harvey Nicholls! 

Beautiful antique lace ovals, with a wedgwood blue
backing - see below for what they became!

After my 4 hour rummage, here is a selection of my haul!! (... yes, I am a little bit pleased with myself this week! 

Chick, chick, chick, chick, chicken, lay a little egg for me!

Lovely pink upholstery edging!

Millinery roses - and very small ones at that.

Vintage lace 

group of vintage embellishments.

Antique 1890's linen

Antique 1890's linen

Antique 1890's linen

Antique 1890's linen

Antique 1890's linen

..... and this is what the lace ovals and little millinery
flowers became - little forget me not brooches