Creativ Festival!

Erica and I headed to Creativ Festival here in Toronto on Saturday. We had a great time! Basically Creativ Festival is a big gathering with venders selling supplies (sewing, knitting, scrapbooking, etc), product displays, classes, how-to’s, and seminars. It was pretty fun; I got a lot of sewing (and some knitting) supplies and Erica bought some yarn and knitting patterns. We also saw Kaffe Fassett in the food court area! I got a picture of him, but it was only from behind so I’m not going to share it here.

Unfortunately taking pictures was prohibited at the Festival (I probably shouldn’t have taken that picture of Kaffe even from behind), but I did take pictures of my haul to share with you. I got some great stuff, and all for really great prices!



I’m not very good at knitting and I only do scarves (hah!) but I picked up some bigger needles and wool. I didn’t realize until after I bought them, but those needles actually grow in the dark, isn’t that funny? I also picked up 4 skeins of wool-cotton soy blend to make myself a winter scarf. The progress on Alex’s scarf (navy and grey stripes) is coming along well, and hoping to be able to start mine soon so that it will be done in time for winter.



I picked up some great fabric including two metres of Heather Bailey Painted Mum in cream (so super-cheap, if I had had more cash on me I would have bought more), a 1920s reproduction fat quarter that I thought was pretty, and a “Have a Sheri Berry Holiday” charm pack of 42 squares (2 of each print in the collection).



I also got 7 fat quarters from Denyse Schmidt’s Katie Jump Rope collection. I just love Denyse, she’s so talented and I love every fabric collection she’s ever had. There are many people out there who are in love with Denyse and especially her line Flea Market Fancy (we call ourselves Flea Market Fancy Freaks) and boy, do I have a surprise with the next couple of pictures.



I picked up three scrap bags because I’ve been thinking about making a string quilt. But wait, what’s that you say? It couldn’t be, surely not in a (super-cheap) scrap bag?!



Oh yes my friends, that is exactly what you thought it was. A piece of Flea Market Fancy (specifically green daisy dot)! I think it’s about ¼ metre (plus there’s another small scrap) but I haven’t ironed or measured it. I was very excited to spot it although I have no idea what I’ll do with it right now. But that doesn’t matter, because with this fabric, whatever it is will turn out great!

I also found some more Free Spirit scraps, some April Cornell, a large piece from Robyn Pandolph’s Captured in Time collection, and about three large cuts of fabric from the Look and Learn collection from American Jane for Moda in my bags. There are probably some other great designer scraps in my bags, but I haven’t had a chance to figure out what all of them are yet although I definitely recognize some.

So that is my haul from the Festival, and is, I think, the last bit of fabric buying I’ll be doing for awhile because of school. I’m glad that Erica and I were able take a little break from schoolwork to go because it really was a fun experience.

I’m hoping to have the giveaway I mentioned before up by the beginning of next week, but right now I need to get back to working on a paper. I hope everyone’s weekend was wonderful, oh and if anybody has some ideas, I’d like to know what people might be interested in seeing in my Etsy shop once it’s open.

"Take your needle, my child, and work at your pattern; it will come out a rose by and by. Life is like that - one stitch at a time taken patiently and the pattern will come out all right like the embroidery." -Oliver Wendell Holmes

Swappy Swap Swapage!

Happy Canada Day! Wow, it has been quite awhile since I last posted! My computer is broken and so I’m using Alex’s computer to do this post. I’m not going to share everything I have ready today but I really wanted to at least share what I received from Dionne in the swap.

Dionne is so sweet and I really love everything that she sent to me! I received the package last Monday (as luck would have it the same day that Dionne received mine) and this is the first chance I’ve had to post about it.

Everything was wrapped up in the piece of fabric that you can see underneath and was tied with pink ribbon. Dionne actually designed the fabric herself (oh Spoonflower, how I love you); isn’t she just so talented? I haven’t decided what I’m going to use it for yet but I have a couple of ideas. The little bag of buttons will definitely come in handy and I love the colours. The cookie cutters are super-cute; if you can’t tell from the cover off the box the cutters have a little lip in them so that when the cookies are baked they can be hooked on the edge of a mug. I almost bought a set of mini alphabet stamps a little while ago when I ordered some Heather Bailey and Amy Butler papers from Etsy, and now I’m really glad that I didn’t since the ones that Dionne sent are absolutely darling! I actually used them last week to stamp the greeting on a card that I made for my Grandparents for their 60th wedding anniversary.

This bookmark and bookplate set is absolutely my most favourite thing that Dionne sent (so sorry for the blurriness, I really need a new camera). Again the ever-talented Dionne designed and made these for me too! Each bookmark has a different picture on the front and a different quote from either Lucy Maud Montgomery or Jane Austen. This set was made especially for me, but you can check out Dionne’s Etsy shop for more of her beautiful goodies. Thanks Dionne, you are awesome!

I completely forgot to take pictures of the goodies that I sent to Dionne until after I had taped up her package, so of course I don’t have any. When Dionne posts her pictures of my swap package I’ll post a link here for everyone to follow. I’m very proud of some of the things I made especially since I couldn’t use my sewing machine and had to sew everything by hand.

I didn’t get a chance to share the last of the fabrics that I bought, so here ya go! First up is a set of five inch Heather Bailey squares from her Pop Garden collection; I absolutely adore them. I’ve never been much of a pink girl, but I absolutely love it in fabric.



This next set is another grouping from Amy Butler’s Daisy Chain collection. I showed a set a few posts ago that are larger and are only in the grey colourway. These ones are all four inches and are to go with the aforementioned larger set.



That’s it for now, but I will try to post again as soon as I can to share some other things I’ve been up to.