November in Pictures: Autumn Walks and Cosy Quilting

November was a busy (and quite stressful) month for me behind the scenes, but I still found time for some fun and crafty stuff...

I spent lots of time on the sofa hanging out with this fluffy fella...

... and braved the cold for some very nice days out - including a trip to East London to visit one of my favourite museums, meet up with an old friend (amazingly we hadn't seen each other for 16 years!) and do some shopping at this year's Renegade Craft Fair.

Look at all the lovely cards I bought at the fair! You'll find links to all the designers here.

 

A couple of my projects ended up in print in November: my sky pompoms were featured in Glamour magazine and two of my childhood collections were included in a fab little kids book about the joys of collecting. It makes me very happy to think that my collections might inspire kids to start collections of their own.

Meanwhile, here on the internet, I turned my Felt Autumn Wreath into a tutorial for the Village Haberdashery blog, shared a fun gift wrapping tip, and posted the last few tutorials in my free felt Christmas ornament series.

One morning in the middle of the month, the weather was just so gorgeous that it seemed wrong to waste it so I took a few hours off work to go for a walk with my dad (flexible schedules are definitely one of the perks of being self-employed!

We went for a walk along the Jubilee River, which is actually a man-made flood relief channel connecting to the Thames. It was so peaceful and so beautiful, and the day was so mild we didn't even need our gloves. Truly wonderful.

 

I haven't had a chance to blog about our walk yet, but I did blog about a recent visit to Kensington Gardens. After my autumnal walk through Kensington Gardens, I spent the rest of the day at the V&A and met up with a friend to see their excellent and fascinating Opus Anglicanum exhibition. If you're at all interested in textiles or in history, I highly recommend seeing this exhibition if you can! We said "wow!" a lot while looking round it.

I also blogged about a not-so-recent trip to Oxford, and shared a photo from a flying visit to Clevedon. My dad was baffled that I wanted to take a photo of the peeling paint on this door in Clevedon, but just look at it! The colours and all those interesting textured layers!

I shared a wider shot on my Instagram Stories as well because it was frankly too fabulous not to share:

Back at home, I was busy putting in lots of hours of stitching on the Christmas quilt I'm making for my Christmas-loving sister.

As I finished each line of hand quilting, I marked it off on a paper chart so I could easily track my progress.

It was hugely satisfying to finally get the last row stitched! My stitching is nowhere near perfect, of course, but I'm very pleased with how the quilting has turned out.

The quilt "just" needs trimming and binding now. I wasn't sure whether to go for red or blue binding, so I asked everyone for their opinion (via my Instagram and Facebook pages) and pretty much everyone voted for red... so red it is!

I want to choose the binding in person to make sure it matches the reds in the quilt, but I haven't had the time to schedule a binding-shopping trip yet. Christmas is approaching fast, though, so I'd better get my skates on.

Talking of Christmas... if you're looking for fun felt things to make this winter, I highly recommend Fa La La La Felt and 'Tis the Season to Be Felt-y. I am a teeny bit biased because they both feature some of my designs, but honestly these books are filled with festive felt-y joy.

You'll also find a few Christmas projects in my first book, Super-Cute Felt, including this snow globe ornament. If you make something I designed this Christmas, do let me know! It's such a thrill seeing what people make from my patterns :)

My final November adventure was a trip to Kew Gardens with my mama. She hadn't visited Kew since she lived in London (about 35 years ago) so I was delighted to be able to give her a tour of some of my favourite parts of the Gardens. She especially enjoyed the rock garden and the Palm House.

Then in the evening we followed the magical Christmas at Kew light trail through the Gardens. Christmas at Kew was one of my highlights from last winter - I raved about it so much that my mum was determined to go with me this year, and it didn't disappoint!

I hope you've enjoyed this little look at my November. I'll share another Instagram round-up next month, which I predict will be full of frosty mornings and festive fun.

I'm lauralupinhoward on Instagram - click here to visit my page and follow me. You'll also find me on Facebook and Twitter.

Renegade Craft Fair London 2016

A couple of weekends ago I visited the always awesome Renegade Craft Fair. I've been to this fair for a few years running now - it's amazing.

With so many designers, makers, crafters and artists selling their wares in one place it's very hard to get out of the building without having accidentally spent all of your money on wonderful things.

It's also an excellent excuse to visit Brick Lane and explore the area. 

Here are just a handful of the lovely things that caught my eye at this year's fair...

Colourful textiles from Miesje Chafer:

 

 
Fun and happy goodies by Ladybird Likes:
 

Super sparkles from Pup Tart:

Kitty and dino cuteness by Emma Carlisle:

Charming prints by Rosemary Milner:

 

 
Gorgeous mugs and pots by Duck Ceramics:

 Laser cut awesomeness by Finest Imaginary:

And (last but by no means least) fabulous patterns from The Pattern Guild:

Aaaaand here's what I bought!*  As you can see, I've been stocking up on nice cards (you can never have too many nice cards to send).

Clockwise from top left: Chá com Letras, Sparrow + Wolf, Cactus Club, The Pattern Guild, & Cactus Club again.


*(Minus a couple of secret purchases I can't blog about because they're gonna be gifts, ssshhhhh).

Want even more shopping inspo? Check out my highlights from previous fairs! 

A Visit to Aunt Elsie's, Jelly, & Reading's Museums

Last week I popped to Reading to do a bit of shopping, and to visit Aunt Elsie's Christmas Do. 

Aunt Elsie's is a fair organised by the nice folks at Jelly (who are celebrating 20 years of doing creative stuff in Reading) - I am forever marking myself as "maybe attending" on their Facebook events pages and then ending up being busy and not able to make it, so I was really pleased to have the time to attend this one and to be able to (finally) check out the work of some local makers and artists.

Here are a few snaps of some of my favourites from the fair...

Vintage yumminess from Alexandra Vintage:

Quirky jewellery & gorgeous artworks (inc lovely pictures printed onto felt, then embroidered - so much delicious texture!) from Half & Half:

Books and charming, romantic postcards from independent poetry publisher The Emma Press ... plus colourful cards, artwork and gifts from illustrator Anne Wilson.

Pretty handmade textiles from The Token House (love those fabric gift tags, and the knitting happening behind the stall!).

Colourful handknits and knitting patterns from Alabama Whirly:

Plus lovely, chic ceramics by Lauren Denney:

I chatted to some of the stallholders, had a cuppa and a completely delicious brownie from the folks who run the Shed cafe...

...  and bought a sweet mixtape postcard from The Emma Press:

The card with the fab knitted mistletoe (which comes with a link to download the knitting pattern so you can knit your own mistletoe - isn't that great?) is by Suzanne... a.k.a. Knithappens, a.k.a. Alabama Whirly a.k.a. the superstar founder of Jelly and an all round lovely lady whom I met via Etsy many years ago.

As well as enjoying the delights of Aunt Elsie's, I was given a tour of Jelly by one of the "resident" artists, Mark Andrew Webber. Such a fab space, with lots of treasures inside (like a knitting robot and a giant pompom!).

 

It was great to meet Mark and chat about his work, and his creative process. Earlier this year he completed a huge linocut map of Berlin which is even more impressive "in person" as it is in the photos I'd seen of it.

After Aunt Elsie's I walked around the corner to Reading Museum to visit a few of my favourites from their collection and to check out their current exhibition: Making Faces: Tudor to Modern (more portraits!)

I really enjoyed this exhibition - the chronological grouping of portraits from the different eras worked really well, especially as it's all in one large room so you can easily compare them and get an overview of the changes just by looking around the space. I also liked the little cabinets with everyday objects from each period (the mobile phone from 1998! OMG) and reading a bit more about some names I recognised from Reading's history.

Then I took a walk (which felt very autumnal though it is, of course, December)...

... to the river... 

... to visit the Riverside Museum at Blake's Lock.

Despite having gone to school in Reading for 7 or 8 years, I'd not been to this little museum before. It's very sweet - one building with a gypsy caravan and some displays about life on the river, plus the Turbine Hall where you can see the old machinery and look out over the lock.

Those windows, man! *Swoon*.

The Renegade Craft Fair

The weekend before last, I had a nice day out in East London... at the Renegade Craft Fair.

I really enjoyed visiting Renegade last year and was really looking forward to it, especially when I saw how many of my favourite designer/makers were going to be selling their wares.

So I caught the train into London and got the Tube to Liverpool Street...

 

... then walked through Spitalfields to Brick Lane, where the fair was being held.

Last year the fair was held earlier in the year (in September) and we were having a crazy Indian Summer and wandering round in t-shirts... and this year it was very cold and rather miserable - I took all those photos from under my umbrella!

Inside the venue, the fair was huge and super busy! There were so many talented makers and artists selling so many seriously awesome things, I felt slightly in awe of how much creative talent there is in the UK. I also feared for the state of my bank balance because oh my goodness there was so much great stuff.

I wandered round looking at all the stalls, picked up lots of business cards for future online shopping and then treated myself to a few cards - I am trying not to buy too much "stuff" at the moment as I'm trying to declutter, but you always need nice stationery, right? :)

I discovered a whole bunch of new-to-me sellers, including Scout Editions (I am kicking myself for not buying a set of these bird postcards or a box of these charming What To Pack cards)...

... Telegramme Studio (whose set of retro Christmas cards were too delicious to resist - those baubles! and that snowglobe! Swoon! I am not sure I am going to be able to part with all of these this Christmas) ...

... and Mister Peebles whose David Meowie print is just too adorable.

 

It was lovely to meet Jenny McCabe, who sells gorgeous hand printed textiles and whose book Handprint and Make Your Own Bags is in my "to review" pile at the moment.

 

It was also great to see stalls from makers I've bought from on Etsy in the past, including Mrs Eliot Books...

 

... and Paper Moon whose stall I totally missed on my way back round the fair to do some shopping (I am super annoyed at myself for this as her Christmas cards were so completely delighful!)

And I got to say hi to lots of lovely crafty ladies I know through blogging/ Twitter / Etsy / etc...

Genevieve from Floss & Mischief - who sells awesome cross stitch kits and patterns. I met up with Genevieve for a cuppa after last year's Renegade Fair so it was especially nice to see her back this year, but with a stall this time round!

Bex, who is one half of Stuffed Nonsense who kindly invited me to their craft night in Cheltenham years ago to which I never went because I am the worst (sorry guys!). Stuffed Nonsense currently make fab textile jewellery and recently opened a shop in Cheltenham called By The Yard where they sell work by lots of designers and makers and run crafty workshops. 
 

Claire from The Bellwether, who sells brilliant (and sometimes quite spicy) cross stitch samplers and kits as well as cool stitching supplies (one of these cross stitch pendant blanks has been on my wish list for aaages).

Marceline from Asking For Trouble, whose work is always completely adorable whether it's wrapping paper or badges or postcards or brooches....

Sarah from Magasin, who sells ace cross stitch jewellery and whose awesome cross stitch book X-Stitch is on my "to review" pile at the moment.

 

Kim from Finest Imaginary who sells awesome laser cut jewellery including this completely brilliant polar collection.

And Debbie from Ladysnail whose illustration-based work always makes me smile so much!

As well as stalls for shopping, there was also a photo booth and lots of crafty workshops... including a felt-y workshop to promote Jane Bull's book Crafty Creatures (another title in my "to review" pile - I have so many books I need to share with you guys!)...

 

... and workshops run by the team behind the Mollie Makes books. I have to admit that it was a little surreal rounding a corner and seeing the parrots I made for Mollie Makes: Feathered Friends hanging on the wall!

 

It was also nice to chat to Camilla from Folksy (I am pressing "pause" on my Folksy shop for a while as I'm taking a break from selling handmade things, but it's great to see this fab UK venue thriving - the new store fronts that are being rolled out at the moment look great!)...

... and to meet Perri who is yet another lovely lady whose great craft book (Material World) I need to review (note to self: get on and review a bunch of craft books!). Perri is currently working for The Amazings, who create online craft classes.

 

And as if that wasn't enough crafty goodness for the day, I bumped into super-crafter Momtaz and we had a lovely long chat about making, blogging, etc, over some very yummy cake in a local cafe.

Wanna see the cards I bought? Modernist Postcards from Mrs Eliot Books, sunshine & cat cards from Ladysnail, Where There's Tea There's Hope card from Lovely Sweet William, mittens card from Finest Imaginary and Christmas cards from Telegramme. So much loveliness!

If there's another Renegade Fair in London next year, I will be there with bells on. I really recommend it if you're in the area and if not, it'd make a great excuse to go to London for the day!  :)