the knitting and sewing show 2011

knitting and sewing show 2011

Bizarrely, since I live so near it, I always seem to miss the knitting and sewing show but THIS year, I made  it!!

I took a morning out from my ‘proper job’ and headed to Ally Pally .

lots of lovely colours

I bought sunflower gardening shoes (very unexpected) from www.backdoorshoes.co.uk but they are so light and comfortable and FUN that I love them.

woman's weekly knitted bunting

I was swept away by the beautiful knitting yarns and needles available and couldn’t believe how many flags Woman’s Weekly have got towards their record breaking ‘longest knitted bunting in the world’ in celebration of their first 100 years.

I got a new compact folding working light from naturalight which works an absolute treat. Not only does it take the strain out of working without daylight, I can now select thread colours on these dark evenings and know that they are right.

cute coot

I was inspired by the makes in the central area exhibition which made going back to work very hard and then I was inspired all over again by machine appliqué on one of the stands where I fell in love with this lovely picture of a coot.

I got the dinkiest iron for appliqué that you have ever seen and it is just the perfect solution. It heats up incredibly quickly, has a nice heaviness that means is slides across the fabrics but is small enough for the accuracy that I need. On top of all that it is so small (about 100mm/4″ long) that it is incredibly transportable.

I was tempted by and array of glorious fabrics, the suppliers of which are now firmly in my favourite web sites for on line buying (beyond fabrics, lili fabrics and Doughty’s to name but a few).

lovely threads

The threads and silks were like jewels in an aladin’s cave and almost too irresistible but not what I needed on the day.

I got rolls of heatabond which is so much better than fighting with the creases that you get from the folded packs.

I subscribed to the fabulous new Mollie Makes (how did I miss the first 6?) and bought some wonderful australian Handmade magazines; not as beautifully styled as Mollie Made but the content is so much fun.

I listened to lots of lovely ladies chirruping away about their finds, their makes and their passions for all things knitted and sewn. The most heartening part of that was the realisation that the age range of makers is vast. It might be a school girl or a granny, and everything in between.  Making is not only for Nanas.

Isn’t that wonderful?

October 12, 2011. Tags: applique, bondaweb, fabric, haberdashery, hand made, inspiration, knitting, micro iron, Mollie Makes, sewing, the knitting and sewing show, thread, Woman's Weekly, wool. applique, craft, inspirations, knitting, sewing, we love.