Stitch & Stitch Show...

...as Olivia persisted in calling the Knit and Stitch show, which we went to at the Alexandra Palace today. This may be because, as a non-knitter, I tend to look less at stall-holders who sell solely knitting related items. I do look at the actual knitting type art on display, though I tend to drift more towards the stitch side of things, I think, but in terms of shopping, even when I'm not buying anything, I tend to browse stitch stuff more - and mixed media art stalls.

Anyway. I didn't take many photos - in fact, any - because so many of the things I would have photographed had "please no photography" signs, and anyway, I couldn't really blog them due to copyright, etc. Suffice it to say, I saw some things I really liked, included a display of Janice Gunner's work (went back to that several times;, some fabulous vessels by someone whose name I've forgotten now, but who was located just as you went into the small, largely guild-stall room on the right hand side of the entrance hall (if you know who I mean, please let me know); some pieces combining photography, found objects and stitch; some very thin porcelain pitchers by a woman called Katie someone (I think - and I think this was in one of the degree shows) - she made paper models to start with and had some of these displayed with the pitchers and a cake stand. Also in the same area there were some pieces of wrapped wood which I really liked. And there was lots more I liked. Too bad I'm not only crap at remember the artists' names, but too cheap to buy a catalogue! You'll just have to use your imagination.

I think I like this show better than most quilt shows I go to, these days. While I like traditional quilts, there's a limit to the number I want to look at at any one time, and a lot of quilt shows seem to be quite heavy on the traditional quilt end. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying they shouldn't be or that it's not appropriate to be, but in terms of what I personally want to look at, I'm less interested in a show that's more than half traditional quilts than in one that has lots of stuff that's mixed media or quite arty...




We did do some shopping as well, though not a huge amount. I didn't buy any yarn* as I am not a knitter and I avoided the art type stalls completely as I find it hard not to be tempted. I did buy a few cross-stitch patterns, which is what I had planned to do, so you will be seeing some of them in the near future. In fact, here are a few seasonal ones, now... No, I don't plan to have all of them done by the holiday in question, though I have started the sampler on the left tonight and think I can probably finish it well within the three weeks. The ones on the right, I adore, and was rather impressed with myself for only buying three of them (with 6 words - two each) - there were 6, I think, and a bookmark showing them all done as a single piece, which I decided was foolish as I'd never finish it, whereas individual words probably stood a good chance. Olivia helped me pick which were the best ones, and these are what we came up with. My kids love having Hallowe'en decorations, and I feel that the least I can do is try to accumulate a number of them that are tasteful...

I also came to a decision about some of my cross-stitch - but more about that in a separate post.

Tomorrow I have very little on my agenda, and all three of the round robin type things I need to work on (two blocks for the Around the World Quilt Bee, which I can blog about and the Bloggers Round Robin, which I can't) have finally arrived, so I may actually do some sewing tomorrow. That is, if I can move all the painting stuff out of my sewing room and actually plug my machine back in (it's still in the chair, which was the only free surface when I collected it from the shop on Thursday).

*Actually, I did buy one ball of sock yarn, but it's a gift for a knitter friend, so I'm not going to show a photograph of it. I'm not going to say who it's for or for what occasion or whether the friend in question is even a blogger/blog-reader, so if you are wondering, well, you'll just have to keep wondering!