Getting distracted

First of all, my sincerest apologies for the quality of the following pictures. Time seems to be hopelessly running away from me and I just seem to be gaining new timeconsuming hobbies that I really don't need!
Having safely shipped off the embroidery yarns to Belgium (where they seem to have been a roaring success) , I set about ironing and preparing all the vintage fabrics for the Vintage Bazaar in Frome...and boy did I not realise quite how many there were in the house!

In the end, this was our rather well-filled stall:

 

It was a lovely day out, and the hall at the Cheese and Grain looked fab and colourful. I kept sneaking off to have a look at the other stalls a couple of times over, finding some really useful french linen sheets to make clothes out of - I've done this before as antique linen wears like nothing on earth, but I've had to bring the sheets back on the plane and they are incredibly heavy and eat in to my luggage allowance usually reserved for cheese!

This was my favourite buy of the day - I'd spotted it on the stall behind us first thing in the morning but thought I would pace myself a little and see how the day went....that was until someone else looked like they were about to buy it and my heart leapt....I realised how much really I wanted it and pounced on it as soon as the customer had left!

 (really, these photos are shocking...)











I've also finally started tackling one of my Ercol armchairs.....and if I ever make a move to buy a dark stained piece of furniture with lots of spindles on that require sanding back, please talk me out of it!

Here it is before I started on it - I've now done most of it with a tiny little powersander.

And this is what I am trying to achieve, except in cherry red - I really like the smaller spindles being left natural wood:

picture from Fireflyhouse.co.uk

             

My other great distraction? A weaving loom. Specifically, a 4shaft table loom that someone generously gave me. Well, when I say "gave", I really mean " dumped on me because she got bored of it", but a great gift it is nonetheless. I've always pondered weaving - when I was little, we had a full size floorloom in our textile classroom that we were allowed a go on if we'd finished our tasks and I loved the weaving itself- but setting the loom up in the first place always seemed incredibly daunting to me and I don't think I would ever have invested the money in the equipment just to have a go.
So far I've only produced this really pathetic little effort ( it is that small because I can't count properly) but I've nearly got it set up for a rag-rug runner now, so hopefully I will have something slightly more impressive to show after the weekend :)