My Plunder from Eridge ....

I have a obsession of all things antique and vintage, I love

the hunt and explore of it .  Treasure hunting is my

passion along with going home and making it into

something unique and beautiful this way it is
preserved for ever  .* . * .

So what did I buy at Eridge, at the The Decorative Living fair?  Well it was quite a lot really. so be prepared to make a warm drink and settle down to a little bit of vintage reading with some delicious photos to look at ...

Where to begin really!!  I can not remember the order in which I bought my latest treasures but I will start with something that really is very beautiful and it is my book from Emma of Forget Me Knot Originals.  Emma has taken a 1926 copy of Alice and Wonderland and Alice through the looking glass and covered it in a piece of
vintage Liberty fabric.  It looks divine and it helps keep the spine in place.  It is now kept by my bed and I have been reading snippets of it.  I like that I am enjoying reading it and I like that it looks beautiful on my bedside table as well.... Window dressing and styling I know but this way it is not just on a book shelf and forgotten.  The illustrations in there are wonderful and I am really over the moon with this special purchase.  A heirloom for my grandchildren one day.

Now for a bit of fabric and ribbon that I bought from Velvet Ribbon .. look at these beautiful fabric
inspiration packs and the stunning ribbons that I thought would look lovely with some of the fabrics. I am indeed over the moon with these beautiful vintage finds...  Elaine of Ted and Bunny put a picture up on Instagram of two beautiful name plates that have ribbon for hanging, I think on a drawer or a box and they are about letters ( the written type not the alphabet)  I said to her that it had given me great inspiration and she said she was waiting to see what I had stitched ... well I have designed them and now I have the fabrics from here to actually stitch them too.  Not long now Elaine and I will get on with them.






Then of course I bought some bundles from Emma of Little Wren Vintage and these are beautiful bits of vintage quilts for my ever growing collection, but I love to get different types, colours and sizes.
 They are fabulous to be the back bone of a wall hanging or indeed be stitched when cut out into picture samplers too.  Also as a gift she gave me two other pieces pictured here and said that she knew I would use them in something .. I certainly will and THANK YOU again Emma for your kindness and generosity x x   .....
Also I spied two packs of vintage papers so they came home as well.

So from Donna Flower I bought some little bits of fabric and later when I went back to have a chat with her and we were catching up as it had calmed down a little I spotted an beautiful vintage sampler!  Oh it is lovely and I did pick that up as well as you can see.  There is a funny story to that because Donna had directed me to Weathered and Worn and I was there truffling about as I do and my phone went with a message.  I had not seen my husband for some time now and he was off somewhere catching up with Donna's other half.  When they had returned to her stall she said she had sold the sampler to a lovely lady and grinned at my husband.  The text message I received was "So tell me about the sampler"  I nearly jumped out of my skin! It was like Voodoo!!!!  I turned around to see them all laughing and looking at me .... sooooo funny!



Weathered and Worn was beautiful and I picked up several, still on the card buttons  .. just take a look at these and the tiny ones!! really they are too cute for words.  I have never seen pink ones on the cards like this.  All mother of pearl and beautiful.  Then there are the pink bigger ones which again are still attached to the original card and of course the button rosettes made from beautiful red vintage fabric to attach to something ( not sure what yet but I just loved them). Also pictured at the bottom is a dear little leather bound book and that was bought for my Stieff bear sat on his rocking chair (pictured bottom far right) .... Then I got a vintage beaded motif as well, still on its orginal paper.  Its perfect.

From Will & Bea and The Vintage Blanket Company I bought some lovely vintage bottles to put flowers in ( these were from the vintage blanket Co.) and the book which is gorgeous.  It has some scribbled pencil on it from a child ... I think I might take a putty rubber to it and remove it or do I leave it for prosperity?  I am not sure yet.  Then there was the roll of antique ribbon in a light grey colour and that is a colour that just do not have and have been looking for so that was a huge tick for me!









Rosie's Armoir was as you know a treasure trove for me both for fabrics and for vintage papers and I
was able to pick up some really beautiful things.  The way they were presented too was eye catching. Look at the colours and can you spy some antique patchwork pieces too. There are hexagons as well as two triangle pieces (top middle photo)  There is some really beautiful pieces of fabric here and I am loving the reds as you can see.

Christine at The Sea Garden well there are always goodies to be had here in the form of fabrics for me.  Her shell pictures had gone but I was so pleased there were some inspiration packs there.

 I first met Christine some years ago at the Country Living fair in London and she won the Editors Choice (being new to the show) and I thought her stall there was outstanding.  It was practically the first vintage stall at this London Magazine show.








Jo at Hesta Nesta makes some really beautiful cushions and then you can get some great fabrics in packets and this was my lucky day!  There was some gorgeous eiderdown fabric in a pack, still with some frill attached to it and the odd tiny brown feather!!  and it has such a delicate pattern on it.  The I realised that I have two small cushions on our bed made by Jo and ... yes you guessed it same fabric!  no wonder I was drawn to it.

The Old Haberdashery had some great packs as well and with a bunny holding a candle and a child in a bunny suite.  These are made from vintage blanket fabrics and look to be late 1940 early 1950's style to me and they will be perfect to attach to nursery samplers ... There are threads and buttons in each pack as well.  Plus there was a little bit of unusual patchwork made out of feed sack fabrics and I thought that could be added to something at some point.
Also in each pack was a whole (not cut up in any way) vintage embroidered tray clothes so it was a great find







The next find was really my husbands but I love it too and as I say we have a pear tree but are hoping
for lots of fruit trees when we move.  This is an antique apple picker/catcher for up high fruit so that you can get it in the cotton sock so that it does not fall and bruise.  It has a gorgeous wooden handle and the frame work that the cotton sock is attached to is designed to take hold of the fruit and it drops neatly into the cotton sock, which is detachable for washing.

We are both extremely pleased with this little piece of vintage garden tool history.  It will be very useful.  Gone are the days of my husband climbing a tree and shouting 'catch' for me to preform like a seal !!

I bought this rather fine fruit knives.  There were six as I told you but I found I already had one at home.  The mother of pearl handles and the silver with a pattern is just wonderful.  I know they will have to be hand washed when used and not go in the dishwasher but some things are worth it, and these are in that category for me!

The detail on them is stunning and I am a great believer in using things not just for show.  What would be the point in that.  We eat lots of fruit and also with cheese as well so these will be greatly used.






Then lastly for me Heavy Petal with the succulents planted in all sorts of objects as well as wreaths.  I

bought some shoes for my friends and I got this for us for our summer wreath on our door.  It pleases me that it will keep growing.  It is a heart shape as you can see and likes not to be over watered.  I am going to spray water on it every day if it is really hot or every two days if not.  I think it looks rather
fine and very different.

Well that is my treasure from The Decorative Living Fair and I think I did extremely well indeed.  I am very happy with it all and now after all the photo taking it can all be put away neatly.  So that is what I am off to do and then get on with some much needed stitching.

Have a great day your selves and as always Happy Stitching!