Sew Far, Sew Good...

Absolutely shattered after a brilliant [but rather exhausting] day out at the NEC, Birmingham with my friend Janet. It was the Hobbycrafts/Sewing for Pleasure Show.

 

 

 

 

It was very enjoyable.

 

We loved seeing the Great British Picknit, starring Shaun the Sheep

 

 

 

 

 

An amazing array of knitted sandwiches, cakes, drinks etc - all set out as a wonderful picnic - very skilfully done.

Between us we purchased a few bits and pieces, and picked up even more good ideas [for free!]. Some stands were overpriced- and some demonstrators just a little too keen! But other stallholders were happy to chat.

Full marks to Web of Wool, from Leamington Spa- I asked to buy a new 2-needle sock pattern because I had lost mine, and the lady gave me one for nothing. Also Diane Dorward - a very friendly lady who has produced a disc of images for "paper crafting for Christians" - formatted for bookmarks, decoupage, pyramid cards etc - and she is happy for you to use her designs to make up products to sell. I may try and make some bookmarks for next week's Macmillan Coffee Morning if I have a moment.

Janet is currently helping a friend with a Scrapbooking project and so we spent a lot of time looking at fancy papers and embellishments. Main snag is that much scrapbooking stuff is American and we bridled at the spellings [e.g. Mom, and Favorite and Colors]

There was a good atmosphere - everybody smiling and friendly [some in their Red Noses] and people swapping ideas and helping others to find the things they were hunting for.

The Fashion Show put on by local design students was excellent and both of us were impressed by the designs and colours and their modelling skills [although we both felt they could have done with a session at our Sewing Club to learn how to put in a zip properly]

When I get round to creating things with the stuff I have made, I shall post a few pictures. Perhaps!!

I would recommend taking a packed lunch though- we were glad we did, as the queues were long and the prices high, but wished that the NEC provided a few more seats. The floor was quite cold and hard where we sat to eat [with what felt like 5000 others] The other thing was that most of the stands only took cash [probably a good thing- it made us question every purchase more carefully]

It was kind of Janet to invite me, and lovely to go with a friend who shares my passion for crafting. When we got back, around 4.30pm, I found Bob had fixed one of the machines from Sewing Club [it was smoking alarmingly on Wednesday night] He is a brilliant bloke.

Now I am going to crash out in front of the TV with my knitting!