Olympia Stitch & Craft Show 2011
It's a week ago today, but life is keeping me busy so I didnt have time to blog about this earlier. Plus the three posts about my birthday didnt help ;) Beware of this post, you are bound to be inspired after reading this!
Last week, the Stitch & Craft Show was on again. This one was the March one which I normally miss as it is always on or around my birthday. However, since this year was a quiet one I actually went and checked it out. Plus I missed the one in February as they relocated it to somewhere far far away.
I arrived at about 10.30am, just at the same time as multiple busloads so it was immediately crowded. I was supposed to meet people from my sewing group at 11am, so I sprinted through the venue checking everything I really wanted to see just in case I wouldnt get around to it afterwards. You'd be surprised how quickly one can shop when needed ;) I did find a few things in those 30 minutes, yet funnily enough I didnt find anyone of the group throughout the day which was rather amusing. At least I had lots of time to walk around and see the stalls (over and over and over again).
The view from the escalator. Yes, this thing had THREE FLOORS filled with crafty goodness :)
The ground floor was all about sewing and stitching, the basement was the knitting section (they were even selling those giant knitting needles I want but they were like £40 which was nearly my entire budget for the day, so maybe another time), and the top floor had papercrafts and workshops. I spent most of my time in the sewing section of course and really had to limit myself to not buy everything ;)
One of the ribbon shops on the ground floor, Crafty Ribbon. They were AMAZING! They were selling 6 items of ribbon for £5 which was great. And believe it or not, I didnt buy a single ribbon with cupcakes on them as they were all super pink... :(
On the top floor, where all the papercrafts were, there were also some stalls for charity.
This was one of them. I will blog about this later as I think this is a really intriguing idea :)
There was also a stall where you could buy a raffle ticket for £1 and you would get a random FQ of quilting fabric with the same number as your ticket. As I am extremely picky with my fabrics, I asked them if I could swap if I didnt like it, and luckily they had a seperate box where I could choose from should that be the case. They did have a cakey fabric which was nice but I wanted the lottery thrill so I bought my ticket. My number matched a blue cotton with spider webs and spiders on them! How cool is that! The lady of the stall assumed I wanted to swap but I was like 'no way, this is perfect!'. She was a little surprised but happy to have another happy customer. And I have some more spidery fabric :)
Also on the top floor was this cupcake card workshop. I dont even know if you had to pay for this as the next run was an hour away, but it did look cute!!
Check out those cupcakes! Makes me hungry really ;)
In the basement was the knitting section and they had the funniest thing!!
This stall was promoting the book Knit Your Own Royal Wedding! As most of you probably know, England is only weeks away from the big Royal Wedding, and they made a book so you can actually knit every person in it! Knit your own Prince William! Hahaha, hilarious!
This is what the finished result would be. Check out the Queen on the left, so funny :) You know, I might actually do this if I was a good enough knitter, it is just so funny :)
Also in the basement was Loani Prior who wrote Really Wild Tea Cosies. She was signing her book:
Sadly I didnt get to meet her, but some of her creations were on display. I took some pics of my favourite ones:
Dont you just love these!!! The Mini Me is just so funny! This I would probably not make, or at least not for a tea pot. Maybe a wine bottle? ;)
OMG I was just so inspired after seeing all of these creations (and more as there were 3 floors after all...), that I didnt even know where to start once I got home. Plus I had bought a few things which I was dying to use. Curious what I came home with? Check it out:
Buttons! One can NEVER have enough buttons... And these craft buttons were only £1 a pack, so I got more pumpkin buttons (yes again) and this time they also had to witch hat buttons (which I found out later were flat-backed but I guess I can use them on other things). Those three sewing buttons came from Crafty Ribbon and will be used in some sort of special sewing item that I have yet to decide upon. The two glass beads will become necklaces :) Purple ones of course :D
More buttons from Crafty Ribbon, and another glass bead, a really big one this time :) The one I have right now is white and I hardly ever use it because of that. This one will suit much better :)
Here you can also see the blue spider web fabric that I won in the raffle.
Halloween ribbon from a different stall. There were the last two! I sure was lucky there :)
And also one of those snippy scissors that I now just cant stop using. I normally just use tiny scissors but these ones are so handy!
More ribbon from Crafty Ribbon (I really loved their stall). Lots of polka dots and some Halloween. As I forgot to choose a 6th ribbon, I quickly picked the cherries. Not sure how I will use them yet but they're cute nonetheless. The fleece is for my jacket as I have just cut up my green fleece jacket and am in the process of recreating it (having been inspired by the ease of the bathrobe). It's nearly done now but one side is not cooperating and I cant start over since I'm out of fleece and it has a quilted section so it's this is nothing... I'll keep you posted on that one. The little baggy in the front contains roving wool as I also bought some felting needles and three colours of roving wool (black, purple, and dark purple).
Some more buttons, all purple this time :) I realised I only have a few in purple so this baggy will surely come in handy with my current obsession for all things purple (much worse than usual, trust me!)
Some handmade card from the Cancer Research stall. They were selling these for only £1 each and they were gorgeous!! There was also a 'make you own card' bit but I didnt have time. Shame really. I need to improve my card making skills.
So this is my entire haul for the day:
And I didnt spend a penny over my budget :)
I left at about 2.30pm as I had seen everything a million times and the ribbons were starting to get to my head hihi. I just wanted more!!! So time to leave... but I had such a great time :) And I was sooo inspired that I have started a ton of crafts since then!! Finishing them is another thing but it will happen sooner or later. Have I inspired you too?
Last week, the Stitch & Craft Show was on again. This one was the March one which I normally miss as it is always on or around my birthday. However, since this year was a quiet one I actually went and checked it out. Plus I missed the one in February as they relocated it to somewhere far far away.
I arrived at about 10.30am, just at the same time as multiple busloads so it was immediately crowded. I was supposed to meet people from my sewing group at 11am, so I sprinted through the venue checking everything I really wanted to see just in case I wouldnt get around to it afterwards. You'd be surprised how quickly one can shop when needed ;) I did find a few things in those 30 minutes, yet funnily enough I didnt find anyone of the group throughout the day which was rather amusing. At least I had lots of time to walk around and see the stalls (over and over and over again).
The view from the escalator. Yes, this thing had THREE FLOORS filled with crafty goodness :)The ground floor was all about sewing and stitching, the basement was the knitting section (they were even selling those giant knitting needles I want but they were like £40 which was nearly my entire budget for the day, so maybe another time), and the top floor had papercrafts and workshops. I spent most of my time in the sewing section of course and really had to limit myself to not buy everything ;)
One of the ribbon shops on the ground floor, Crafty Ribbon. They were AMAZING! They were selling 6 items of ribbon for £5 which was great. And believe it or not, I didnt buy a single ribbon with cupcakes on them as they were all super pink... :(On the top floor, where all the papercrafts were, there were also some stalls for charity.
This was one of them. I will blog about this later as I think this is a really intriguing idea :)There was also a stall where you could buy a raffle ticket for £1 and you would get a random FQ of quilting fabric with the same number as your ticket. As I am extremely picky with my fabrics, I asked them if I could swap if I didnt like it, and luckily they had a seperate box where I could choose from should that be the case. They did have a cakey fabric which was nice but I wanted the lottery thrill so I bought my ticket. My number matched a blue cotton with spider webs and spiders on them! How cool is that! The lady of the stall assumed I wanted to swap but I was like 'no way, this is perfect!'. She was a little surprised but happy to have another happy customer. And I have some more spidery fabric :)
Also on the top floor was this cupcake card workshop. I dont even know if you had to pay for this as the next run was an hour away, but it did look cute!!
Check out those cupcakes! Makes me hungry really ;)In the basement was the knitting section and they had the funniest thing!!
This stall was promoting the book Knit Your Own Royal Wedding! As most of you probably know, England is only weeks away from the big Royal Wedding, and they made a book so you can actually knit every person in it! Knit your own Prince William! Hahaha, hilarious!
This is what the finished result would be. Check out the Queen on the left, so funny :) You know, I might actually do this if I was a good enough knitter, it is just so funny :)Also in the basement was Loani Prior who wrote Really Wild Tea Cosies. She was signing her book:
Sadly I didnt get to meet her, but some of her creations were on display. I took some pics of my favourite ones:
Dont you just love these!!! The Mini Me is just so funny! This I would probably not make, or at least not for a tea pot. Maybe a wine bottle? ;)OMG I was just so inspired after seeing all of these creations (and more as there were 3 floors after all...), that I didnt even know where to start once I got home. Plus I had bought a few things which I was dying to use. Curious what I came home with? Check it out:
Buttons! One can NEVER have enough buttons... And these craft buttons were only £1 a pack, so I got more pumpkin buttons (yes again) and this time they also had to witch hat buttons (which I found out later were flat-backed but I guess I can use them on other things). Those three sewing buttons came from Crafty Ribbon and will be used in some sort of special sewing item that I have yet to decide upon. The two glass beads will become necklaces :) Purple ones of course :D
More buttons from Crafty Ribbon, and another glass bead, a really big one this time :) The one I have right now is white and I hardly ever use it because of that. This one will suit much better :)Here you can also see the blue spider web fabric that I won in the raffle.
Halloween ribbon from a different stall. There were the last two! I sure was lucky there :)And also one of those snippy scissors that I now just cant stop using. I normally just use tiny scissors but these ones are so handy!
More ribbon from Crafty Ribbon (I really loved their stall). Lots of polka dots and some Halloween. As I forgot to choose a 6th ribbon, I quickly picked the cherries. Not sure how I will use them yet but they're cute nonetheless. The fleece is for my jacket as I have just cut up my green fleece jacket and am in the process of recreating it (having been inspired by the ease of the bathrobe). It's nearly done now but one side is not cooperating and I cant start over since I'm out of fleece and it has a quilted section so it's this is nothing... I'll keep you posted on that one. The little baggy in the front contains roving wool as I also bought some felting needles and three colours of roving wool (black, purple, and dark purple).
Some more buttons, all purple this time :) I realised I only have a few in purple so this baggy will surely come in handy with my current obsession for all things purple (much worse than usual, trust me!)
Some handmade card from the Cancer Research stall. They were selling these for only £1 each and they were gorgeous!! There was also a 'make you own card' bit but I didnt have time. Shame really. I need to improve my card making skills.So this is my entire haul for the day:
And I didnt spend a penny over my budget :) I left at about 2.30pm as I had seen everything a million times and the ribbons were starting to get to my head hihi. I just wanted more!!! So time to leave... but I had such a great time :) And I was sooo inspired that I have started a ton of crafts since then!! Finishing them is another thing but it will happen sooner or later. Have I inspired you too?
Wow! This was a wonderful post ... I sure wish I could have come. It is right up my alley! Love the buttons (and the Queen and court)! I'm sure I would have spent more than my budget, though!
ReplyDeleteNow I have to go rest from my shopping trip lol!
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