Lucky me! I actually won a giveaway a couple weeks ago from Fieldguided. I was so excited to win these Make Good craft books, as I’ve been eying them all around the internet wondering how I could get my hands on them.

The Make Good series translates Japanese craft books into English. What a brilliant idea!

The books are full of lovely ideas and I’ve marked many for future projects. I really really want to make some fruit & vegetable bags and I also like the wastebasket cover. Thanks, Anabela for such a great giveaway!

I can’t believe the Hunt & Gather Trunk Show is this coming Sunday! Even though we always plan it months in advance, it feels like it has totally snuck up me. As always, we’ve managed to round up a stellar group of vendors who will delight you with their handmade and vintage goodies. I really hope to see you there.

This week, I’ll be continuing my trunk show tradition of introducing you to a few of our lovely vendors. Today it’s one of the sweetest couples in town, Anabela and Geoff, also known as Fieldguided. Anabela sews and embroiders while Geoff creates drawings and together they go thrifting. It is well known how much I am inspired (shameless copycat?) by Anabela – her books, the patterns she makes, even the sandwiches she eats! It’s going to be so much fun going through their trunk at the show!

Geoff, if you had to describe Anabela using 3 nouns what would they be? Anabela, same question.

Geoff for Anabela : Kittens / bows / lace.

Anabela for Geoff : Cardigans / countryside / home.

You seem to be well seasoned thrifters. Do you set rules or limitations for yourselves when you’re out? Do you often have a ‘mission’ or do you go merely for the thrill and surprises? Geoff – What sorts of things do you pick up when you’re thrifting together? (Anabela’s finds are very well documented!)

Anabela : The funny thing is that I never used to like thrifting. I had many unsuccessful trips in high school to the Buy the Pound that used to be on Jarvis. Now I follow two rules: one is that if I have the urge to go, I go. I find it so enjoyable that I try to go when I’m in a bad mood. The other rule is that I have to purge often: one box of stuff in, one box of stuff out (roughly). I remember seeing the home of one of the designers from Libertine in Domino magazine; he had a dedicated Goodwill area in the hallway. I think that is a great idea! I don’t mind giving away something I once considered a great find, because someone else might feel the same joy of discovery later on. I love that thought. I also have a fantasy of doing a thrifting roadtrip — I bet the American south is filled with treasure.

Geoff : I don’t often make as many purchases as Anabela when we go thrifting but I enjoy myself just the same. I’m always looking out for nice clothes and never give up despite the fact that the ‘small’ section of mens’ dress shirts usually means 5 shirts. I also love looking at old books. Some of my favourites are the 1950s school text books that I seem to find with great frequency. I have an unexplainable interest in vintage tableware, and once I nearly bought a complete set of dishes, including cups and saucers, that were in a line owned by my late grandparents.

Is there something that either of you have been hunting for but have yet to find?

Anabela : I’m constantly on the hunt for older pieces of clothing, which is diffcult. Even if I can’t wear them, I love the structure of dresses from the 1950s and earlier, and want to collect them. Now that the weather is warmer I would love to get my greedy mitts on some cotton day dresses and delicate cotton blouses, beautiful cocktail hats, floral headpieces, old saddle shoes, etc. All these things remind me of books I have loved. It would be nice to be able to find genuinely vintage items, rather than the usual polyester — not that I don’t love disco dresses! Other things I’d love to find (or find more of): floral barkcloth, antique vanity sets, pretty tins, old photographs and slides, and children’s porcelain tea sets. I am also hunting for a good way to find out about estate sales in the Toronto area.

Geoff : The search has settled down, but for a period last year I was on a hunt for vintage analogue cameras, including Polaroids, Twin Lens Reflex cameras, or old rangefinder cameras. I found about six different Polaroid cameras including a 360, a peel-apart film style camera that I still haven’t used, and two SX-70s. I bought a TLR off someone through Craigslist, but did manage to find a nice rangefinder at Value Village, a Yashica Electro.

What is your favourite meal to have together?

FG : We love cooking together at home, but we also have a variety of inexpensive restaurants that we like to visit on occasion (the old standbys). Brunch is always a favourite, especially if it includes sweet potato fries.

What sorts of treasures will you have at the trunk show?

FG : We will have a selection of things from thrift shops and antiques malls: picture frames, tableware, skirts, dresses (including a pretty shirtdress from the 1960s with a Built By Wendy-ish axe print on it), shoes, caridgans, blouses, as well as some sewing supplies: lucite purse handles, appliqués, doilies, patterns & books, and more. We’ll also have some of our handmade items, including headbands, sashes, handpainted mugs, embroidered drawings, and tote bags.

Wow, I had the best time on Friday reading all your comments and ‘meeting’ many of you for the first time. Hello! Each of you shared really meaningful lessons and I’m so grateful for the time you took to participate.

The lucky winner of the snap coin purse is commenter #62 – Tammy!

I’m really excited about this coming year, contrary to the ‘doom & gloom’ tone that seems to be everywhere. I’m feeling buoyed by the amazing community I feel around the workroom and the blogosphere. When I look around, I’m so inspired by you and each of your individual talents. I’m determined to find a good balance between working hard and relaxing and staying in good health. I’m excited to learn as much as I can and to share it with you. Even the hard challenges we will be presented with this year will be opportunities for us to get closer to the life we want, I’m so sure of this.

Not to mention, there seems to be an abundance of good news these days, including some wonderful engagements. Congratulations to sweet Anabela & Geoff! And also to Jen & Kyle, who got engaged on their way to the Nine Patch quilting class before the holidays!

Something very exciting seems to be happening out there, I can feel it in the air … people are wanting to quilt. As a ‘quilt shop’ owner, this is especially exciting. Mostly because from my vantage point I can witness the birth of these creations from the first selections of fabric. Then weeks, months later I get to see the amazing finished results.

I am far from being a quilter myself. I have yet to complete one quilt. Perhaps this seems a bit crazy to you, but when I was planning the workroom, I was planning a place where I could teach you the things that I know and where you would teach me the things that you know. I have known for a long time that quilting was something that I wanted to learn and I hoped it was something that you wanted to learn too.

Claire has been talking about starting her next quilt. Her blue and white quilt was a joy to watch come together. Anabela is planning her first quilt as a wedding gift and picking out fabrics and a pattern. Quilt Sunday is coming up this weekend and I’m looking forward to seeing everyone’s work in progress and new projects.

With all this, I suddenly realized that I actually finished my queen-sized quilt top during the summer, but forgot about it! I pulled it out this morning, ironed it and took some photographs. I love the way it turned out. It’s so fun to see how all the blocks that I spent so long agonizing over came together. Now that quilting season seems to be starting up, I’m going to get going on doing a simple pieced back. I’d like to spend the winter hand quilting this while I watch Gossip Girl. (and I’d like to start working on another quilt, of course.)

Fabric for Shirred Top, originally uploaded by the workroom.

This morning started off with a quick stop off at Kinkos (at Bloor & Spadina) to do some copying. Since it was such a sunny morning, Maisy & I walked down Palmerston to Queen Street and then across to the shop. I couldn’t resist stopping in at Kensington Market Organic Ice Cream even though it was before 11am. Ice cream for breakfast is perfectly acceptable in my world. I got a cone of their cinnamon ice cream, which was super yummy. I think it’s time for me to get out my ice cream maker.

Often times when someone buys the last bit of fabric off the bolt, there is an odd-sized piece left over. People worry they are leaving me with something I won’t be able to sell. What?! Not one bit of fabric goes to waste at the workroom. These odd bits actually go right into my growing collection of fabric. This particular fabric is called Connecting Flowers by Art Gallery Quilts. I’ve been plotting to make something out of this fabric since it arrived, but it keeps selling out. When i was left with .7 metres of this silver grey and yellow treasure last week, I knew just what I was going to do with it.

A while ago, I had read Field Guided’s post on shirring and saw the darling dress she made from some Henry Glass bicycle print fabric. Cute! Then a couple weeks ago Toast ‘n’ Eggs asked me if I could teach her how to do shirring. Now that I’ve done it, I think everyone should! It’s very easy, totally satisfying and the results are impressive.

I thought I would make a wider strap and I like the way they turned out. The straps are 1.5″ wide. I ran the remainder of the fabric through the serger with some silvery embroidery thread to finish the top and bottom edge with a rolled hem. The rolled hem is definitely my favourite finishing technique right now. For the shirring lines, I spaced them 1″ apart and did five of them. All you need to do is hand wind some elastic thread onto your bobbin and use a regular thread up top. I’m addicted. You’ll be seeing more shirring experiments from me for sure. Please try this, it will make you so happy.

A full tutorial for shirring can be found here.