A week in London

So Gertie, Patsy and I are back from our expedition to London to exhibit at the Country Living Spring Fair - but oh how nice it is to be back home! I wish the Fair was only three days long instead of five; it is so exhausting! As the winners of the Editor's Choice Award last year we were given a great spot right at the front of the mezzanine, with three metres of frontage, an absolute luxury!

Here's how the finished stand looked:

And yes, Mum and I took everything up on the train with us in suitcases!

On the wall I hung this old child's quilted silk coat, which provided the perfect backdrop for my little vintage fabric brooches

The base for each brooch was a piece from an old padded patchwork quilt

The one below has a beautiful hand-stitched Dorset button (top right), and eleven of the tiniest mother-of-pearl buttons still on their original card

 I just love working with little bits!

One of Gertie's linen cushions, with the front panel made from original Suffolk puffs from the 1920's

Patsy had this wonderful idea of making bunting out of 1940's and 50's fashion magazines, showing knitting and embroidery patterns!

I covered the side wall with old sea charts, and the seaside theme was echoed in the stripy ticking bags made by Patsy,

and her strings of bunting and hand-stitched books made from old maps and sea charts.

I managed to make a few small shell collages too

On one of the shelves, a little drawer with my latest stitched piece displayed inside

It says, 'you are sew lovely'

Hair grips embellished with vintage buttons, and cards of buttons made simply to show off the beauty of each individual button

And one of my natural box-framed collages

'Hours fly, flowers die;

New days, new ways

pass by;  Love stays'

It was so nice to meet everyone who visited The Sea Garden stand at the fair, and to say hello to some fellow bloggers. One of my lovely customers, Jan Pearson, sneakily took this photo of me arranging the cards. Thanks Jan! x