What fun!

I had a brilliant time at Textiles In Focus over the weekend with a busy stand and some great workshops! We had a brilliant space for our stand which really allowed us to spread out - which was great at there were 3 of us on a couple of the days and it would have been a bit of a squeeze otherwise!

We met loads of creative and friendly people and I came home inspired and keen to get to my sewing room! It has taken me a few days to get over it as 3 days is exhausting but after a bit of sleep I am good to go!

I taught a workshop on both days and here are some of the results!

 

Textiles in Focus is an intimate show - with about 20 carefully selected traders invited each year. What this means for the visitor is that there is plenty of lovely space to move around in. None of that 'shin bashing' or 'elbow knocking' that has become the norm for many of the larger shows at the NEC and the like. Here you have wide isles to stroll down as you admire all of the textile loveliness on show! It really is a tribute to the hard work of Pauline Verrinder who, with the help of her family, work so hard to make this show a success.

As well as a lovely selection of stalls (of which we were but one) there were 29 2-hour workshops on offer thoughout the weekend. There were a fascinating selection of skills to try - and I'm not just saying that because 2 of those workshops were put on by yours truly! There was a whole raft of things I would have happily signed up to if I hadn't have been working.

There were also some fabulous exhibitions put on by Anglia Textile Works, Fen Edge Textiles, Fibre Fusion and the Cambridgeshire Embroiderers Guild. These left me somewhere between 'hugely inspired' and 'terrified out of my mind' because I would never be as good as these ladies obviously are. A thrill for me was to see the work of Pam Tasker who teachs in our shop, but who's work I never usually get to see. This was tailoring taken to a whole new level and would make any woman look fabulous! They asked us not to take pictures so there is notheing to see here... but take a trip over to their websites for a bit of a look around!

You will be pleased to know that I wasn't too terrified in the end. I bought some stunning space dyed fabrics from 21st Century Threads, coupled them with some delica beads from Spangles and some hand dyed threads from own own stall and got back to a bit of hand stitching with a passion! I promise to share some more when I have something to share!