Flea Market Shopping in Brussels

Morelles Market at La Place du Feu de Balle is open everyday 5am-2pm and well worth a visit.
It’s a good old fashioned flea market selling bits and bobs from house clearances.
It takes a keen rummager to find the treasure so allow yourself a good few hours to browse.
As for prices, I love a good haggle – I managed to haggle down to around half of the original price, only paying what I felt it was worth.  
There’s everything from furniture, ceramics, jewellery, paper ephemera and of course textiles.
Two stalls had boxes of chandelier crystals.
 
 
Morelles Market at La Place du Feu de Balle is open everyday 5am-2pm and well worth a visit.
It’s a good old fashioned flea market selling bits and bobs from house clearances.
It takes a keen rummager to find the treasure so allow yourself a good few hours to browse.
As for prices, I love a good haggle – I managed to haggle down to around half of the original price, only paying what I felt it was worth.  
There’s everything from furniture, ceramics, jewellery, paper ephemera and of course textiles.
Two stalls had boxes of chandelier crystals.
 
 
A receipt for macaroons dated 1938
   
 
These goodies came home with me.
 
This book is full of vintage wooden matchbox covers.
  
The tiny piece of film – the kiss.
 
I ran out of small bank notes early on and had to buy a coffee at Pin Pon (fabulous bar decor!) to break into another large bank note – note to self: take plenty of change and small notes next time. 
I arrived at 8.30am and by 11am some of the stall holders were offering ‘anything for a Euro’.
It’s a brilliant place with plenty of cafes dotted all around the square. Good food at good prices so you can rest your feet if it all gets too much.  
It’s a traditional Belgian Flea Market with an absolutely, fabulous atmosphere. 
I’ll be returning on my next visit to Brussels with a much larger suitcase. 

A receipt for macaroons dated 1938

   
 
These goodies came home with me.
 
This book is full of vintage wooden matchbox covers.
  
The tiny piece of film – the kiss.
 
I ran out of small bank notes early on and had to buy a coffee at Pin Pon (fabulous bar decor!) to break into another large bank note – note to self: take plenty of change and small notes next time. 
I arrived at 8.30am and by 11am some of the stall holders were offering ‘anything for a Euro’.
It’s a brilliant place with plenty of cafes dotted all around the square. Good food at good prices so you can rest your feet if it all gets too much.  
It’s a traditional Belgian Flea Market with an absolutely, fabulous atmosphere. 
I’ll be returning on my next visit to Brussels with a much larger suitcase. 

Natural dyeing with Jenny Dean

Jenny Dean‘s fabulous workshop was a Christmas present from my Dear Husband.

hanks of coloured wool

 The Ditchling Art and Craft Museum, is a beautiful venue for workshops.

 

ditchling museam sign
The brilliant Jenny Dean is an amazing tutor and so generous in sharing her experience of natural dyeing – so many colour variations are possible using plants from our very own gardens.

 

Jenny Dean with hanks of wool
We started with pots of water, added lots of plant materials – Weld, Cochineal (beetles!), Prussian Blue and Madder – then some wool yarn, stirred and waited.
pots of water on heater
simmering wool in pot
yellow hanks of wool in pot red hanks of wool being taken out of pot
Lots of rinsing later and we had some lovely yarns drying in the sunshine – look at this stunning rainbow of colour!
hanks of wool drying in the sun
hanks of wool drying in the sun
A colourful end to a wonderful day.  My head was buzzing all the way home.

The Making of a Quilt Charity, a Group Project

What makes a perfect evening – Fabrics, sewing and good company. This was me at my quilt group.
 
We’d had a wonderful talk on scrap quilts then we were set a task – to make a quilt block by hand in an hour – making blocks for the quilt pattern above. 
 
If you’d like to make one, this is how to do it.
Start with Cream fabric and Pink fabric cut as follows – 4 x two and a half inch squares and 4 x two and a half inch by four and a half rectangles. 
Draw a pencil line diagonally on the wrong side of the square blocks, pin onto the rectangles (right sides together) as shown above, then stitch using running stitch, as shown below.
 
 
Trim,  finger press the seam open and stitch the blocks together as shown below using a quarter of an inch seam allowance.

Then stitch the pieces together to complete the block.
 
My own eight and a half inch square block is for a charity group quilt for MacMillian
Have a go yourself x.