Nantes, Pour l'amour du fil 2014

The craft fair in Nantes was GREAT this year, the theme was 'vintage', so many dots, petticoats, an old caravan with fireplace and lots of crochet plaids .
An impression....

I don't remember the name of this artist. She makes garments and bags from ld embroideries that she find on fleemarkets. 

Lots of color and sweet mice in the stand of Odile Bailloeul, i bought the kit for the mouse.

Beautiful applique and embroidery work from Martine Apaolaza.

Embroidery from Ise.

The Japanese miss Ike was there with her fascinating work, called Chiku Chiku.

Next post will show you the workshops I did. 

Some small things for the market and i am off to Nantes

The mai market is rather soon, so i made some small things. I saw on her blog these lovely hearbands, i made four of them in different lenght.

I found the picture here, isn't she cute with that hear band and flower?

I made these ones.

Some needle felted mice....

Wet felted brooches.

And some keyholders.

Tomorrow I am off to Nantes to visit the craft fair. I have two workshops, one wet felting and another making a folk art doll. 

I will visit Nantes and of corse will eat crepes Bretonne... Bretagne is famous for their  buckwheat crepes. 

Do you know Postcrossing

Do you know Postcrossing? The main idea is : send a postcard and receive a postcard back from a random person in the world.
Maybe you say why should i do that....
Because , there are lots of people who like to receive real mail.The element of surprise of receiving postcards from different places in the world (many of which you probably have never heard of) can turn your mailbox into a box of surprises and who wouldn't like that?

I am member since 4 months and I received already 45 postcards from all over the world (Indonesia, Belarus, Japon, Ireland, Taiwan, Russia, Germany , Finland and more).
I have sent 48 postcards. In my profile I asked for a pice of fabric to make a quilt with fabric from all over the world. I asked for fabric special for their country or some used fabric or just a piece. I received old handkerchieves; a pice from a wardrobe from someone's mother, a piece from a scarf of someone's father, a large piece from the curtains which someone's mother made years ago.....

This week i started to make some log-cabin blocks with the fabric.

The center birds are from New Zealand

The center insects are from Germany.

The center panel is from Russia, it was an old handkerchief....

You can read more about Postcrosssing here.

Wet felting

First I want to thank you all for your advices about my tulip problem.
And Jeanneke, Sylvia, Lupineke and Anna, thanks a lot for going to Zeeman for me.

I did some felting and I loved it. So wonderful that you can make fabric from wool fibers.
I made some pouches and bracelets.

If you want to try it, buy some good quality merino wool and find some You Tube videos, easy peasy......

What I made with the tapestry yarn and a garden problem

With the tapestry yarn I started to crochet a bag. After some rounds I realized that i did not have enough of my favorite colors to finish it.

So it became a crochet armcover for the couch. 

I love the colors.....

In my garden i planted a lot of tulips from Holland but over the years there are only some that survived. I have no idea why, are they eaten by the mice? 

Here are some of them, as lonely as they are......

Years and years ago I gave my neighbour some Dutch tulips. She planted them near the well in a kind of through , they stay there summer and winter. In summer there are some flowers around the bulbs and that's it. And look how gorgeous they are, year after year. 

Is it the stone that keep them warm ? Do you have an idea? 

Finished crochet cushion and crochet work in progress

When I saw the gipsy style cushions made by her , I bought the book with the pattern. The book is: Crochet Bohème by Cécile Balladino, it is written in French and is translated in German.

I made a red/purple/turquiose one and a more softer one in off white and teal.

My auntie Tineke gave me a lot of small hanks of tapestry yarn in different colors .....

 I am going to use ElfieJO's backpack pattern to make something with this yarn.  Do you know her blog? She is very creative with her hook, look at her version of the Tilda doll.... Isn't this cute?

There is a giveaway on her blog, you can sign up till the 7th of april.