Shop swap

This is about the second swap I mentioned last time.

This second one was to be organised by Keri from Two Little flowers. Unfortunately, I was the only one who was free to take her up on it, so we swapped with each other. The idea was to swap something that we made and sold in our shops, hence 'Shop Swap'.

When Keri had looked at my website she'd said that she liked my knitted things as she doesn't knit herself, so this made my swap easy, I could send her a washcloth and a set of cleansing cloths, in a little bag. I included a a bookmark and one of my little cards as well.

Keri makes some beautiful children's clothes, but as I don't have any children I wondered what I would receive in return. This is what came:

Keri sent one of her tea towels (she sells these, along with some toys, for children to colour in, a great idea), one of her lovely tags, a bird appliqué and some of her own printed robot fabric.

I'm thinking about what I can make with both the tea towel (it's too good to dry dishes) as well as the fabric. I'll post some pictures once I have made something.

TTFN

Louise

Polka dot swap

As I enjoyed the pincushion swap so much I entered a couple more. This post is about the first one, with the theme of polka dots.

This one was run by the Popular Crafts magazine. The magazine is published every two months and they host a swap for each edition. The rules are that you make something for your swap partner with the theme, polka dots in this case, and you enclose a little present, not more than £3 in value. Though the rules say just one little present, I have found that most swappers add a little more to their swap packages. Swapping gives you delights twice, you have the fun of making something and putting a package together and then you receive one for yourself that's full of loveliness!

Anyway back to the polka dots. My partner was named George, she works at Waterstones, which, as it turned out, was of great benefit to me, but that's later. 

Ideally, you're supposed to use items in your stash to make your items, but, although I have some polka dot material, they're quite dull colours. So I cheated a bit and popped to Calico Laine and bought some light blue polycotton with white dots.

I made George a brooch cushion (with a china brooch attached) and a lavender sachet in the polka dot fabrics. Her little present was a set of crossgrain ribbons, plus one of my brooches and a little card.

George made me a tote bag (her first bag, exceedingly well made) with the polka dot element being the bag lining. The bag has my name embroidered onto it and is also decorated with buttons, sequins and felt butterflies. My little extras were some felt birds, mini luggage labels, a tin full of map postcards and (this is where George working for a book shop helped, she gets free books!) a copy of 'All Sewn Up' by Chloe Owens. I'd seen items out of this book in Mollie Makes and it was on my, 'I must have one of those' book list so I was thrilled when I saw it. The whole parcel was wrapped in lining paper decorated with various stamped motifs, so it was a joy from start to finish.

Wasn't I a luck girl? 

I'll tell you about my other swap next time.

TTFN
Louise.

Fabric cuff giveaway

To celebrate the redecoration that has been going on over on the Elsie May and Bertha website, I thought it was time I had a giveaway.

I decided that the prize should be this cuff because I couldn't really sell it. Once I'd started the embroidery on the lace I couldn't stop, so it became a labour of love.

The cuff is made from a damask fabric that has had a piece of vintage lace appliquéd onto it. The lace has been decorated with tiny chain stitch and bronze beads. The edges of the cuff are decorated with fine, vintage lace and it is fastened via press studs.

Now, the science bit - to be in with a chance of winning you can:

• become a follower of this blog (current followers will automatically be entered).
• 'like' the Elsie May and Bertha page on Facebook.
• share the Elsie May and Bertha Facebook page on your page.
• sign-up for the Elsie May and Bertha newsletter over on the Elsie May and Bertha website ( subscribe by going to www.elsiemayandbertha.co.uk click on the contact us link, fill in the details requested, adding ‘newsletter sign-up’ into the message box).
• follow Elsie May and Bertha on Twitter.

Let me know what you have done via the comments section of this post. The winner will be chosen via a raffle and the more of the above you do the more entries you will have.

Anyone can enter, I don't mind posting abroad.

The closing date is next sunday (12th Aug), I'll do the draw about 6pm.

Enter this giveaway for this lovely (even though I say so myself) fabric cuff, and a couple of other goodies.

 

The winner is..................

 

Hannah Lou 

 

TTFN

Louise.

Can you tell what it is yet? A visit to the Rolf Harris exhibition and cake.

As it had been a while since me and my other half had had a treat and we wanted to see the Rolf Harris exhibition on a the Walker Art Gallery, which finishes soon, we decided to pop over to Liverpool on Monday.

Our first treat was a visit to Paolo &  Donato's Italian Deli in Williamson Square. This was our first visit, though we had already had one of their cakes and some of their ice-cream via my Mum and Dad.


Coffee and cake was consumed, I had a cappuccino and a mille foglie con crema pasticcera e cioccolato (layers of puff pastry with chocolate pastry cream), both gorgeous.

 The other half had a slice of torta nutella (chocolate cake with nutella and cream), but he'd nearly eaten it before I could get my camera out. Hence the small mouthful left.

After all of the cake loveliness we sauntered over to the Walker Art Gallery.


The Rolf Harris exhibition, called 'Can you tell what it is yet?', was fabulous. It was really interesting to see some of his pictures close up, especially the really big ones that were like the ones I used to see him painting on TV.


There aren't many pictures of his work here as you weren't supposed to take any of the exhibition (I hadn't known about this till we went into the second room of the exhibition, which is why I have a couple).

Detail from a panoramic photograph taken of Rolf performing at Glastonbury.

 

Rolf's painting boots

Painted piano

Painted piano detail

Family photographs.

Cartoons drawn by Rolf for his song "Tie me kangaroo down sport" (from exhibition book).

Wobble boards - Rolf's musical creation.

The exhibition runs until the 12th August 2012, if your are in Liverpool between now and then I would recommend you pop to the Walker Art Gallery for a look.

TTFN

Louise