Harrogate, Knitting and Stitching Show

As usual there was so much to see....but the crowds....we were packed in like sardines ....it was so hot.... I have never before heard so many complaints of  the over crowding from the other people trying to move through the halls and comments of What if there was a fire? was heard several times...I spent more time trying to get somewhere than I did actually seeing the exhibits and finding the stalls I wanted...
I managed to get pictures of one stand that I was interested in....Between the Lines by the East Anglian Stitch Textiles.... In response to it being 100yrs since the start of WW1. Check out www.easttextile.co.uk for more info on pieces....
I was interested in the use of metal within a piece of work  in particular but the whole exhibition was well put together with an array of techniques....my sort of thing ! I should have taken notes to attribute the work but I was later for meeting up for lunch...which also meant braving the crush of people.. You should be able to enlarge the pictures....

Santa on the buses

I was greeted by Santa on the Stagecoach bus this morning....the bus was all trimmed up with tinsel.....and the driver had a festive jumper on over his uniform....and I was given a bauble with a number on for a prize draw... Christmas carols were playing.... my number was called out and I won a Mega-rider voucher valid up to March....(free weeks worth of travel).....as I have my over 60s card I didn't need it....so I offered it to a young woman with a child in a buggy sat  across the bus to me......Next time they pulled a number out.....SHE had the bauble with the right number on it ! Christmas had come early for that young woman !! £25 shopping voucher !!
Santa was at the front window of the bus waving to all and sundry.....he got smiles and waves and mouthed "Merry Christmases"  He got off before the passengers and talked to the people at the bus stop.....cracking jokes....lots of good natured banter....

So "thank you" to the Stagecoach team on the bus doing the prize draw...the Driver and Santa....for an entertaining bus ride into town centre today..... It was lovely seeing the response to Santa waving to people....a simple little action....but spreading much joy .....

latest EYES talk...degree course at Hull School of Art

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Ok... computer is in a world of its own....doing what it wants to...gerr !
Annemarie the 2nd year tutor and I think the weave tutor and ? an ex student ? now teaching ?  came with a wonderful display of work of all levels from the textile degree course run at Hull School of Art. They delivered a power point presentation between them and gave a good description of the course now in its ?fourth year....with an amazing array of successes in competitions for a course so young. What was interesting was the links to industry...usually we have talks where we ooh and ahh over the stitches or the skills of patchwork or whatever their skill is in...etc..or someones life's story in textiles. This talk was different... I thourouly enjoyed it.
These are just a few pics...click on pics to enlarge....
I haven't seen Annemarie for about 10yrs since I stopped wandering around the campus looking at students work and chatting to staff....Security has changed a lot since then ! I did a HND there and topped it up to a Degree in Fine Art....using lots of textile based techniques.... lol.

Had the workmen in and out and nothing finished.....thats another story !!!

bit of stitching in Italy...

I raided Joanne's material box as I was getting withdrawal symptoms .....

and twiddled away with a simple running stitch---------

OK ....so I've forgotten how to rotate...

I used the threads from the base material to stitch the dots into squares...and finished off the nest at home with some brown yarn and chiffon blouse material...just want to find a "nest"dictionary definition to go one the blue square....

ok so I have photographed it upside down and it came out the right way....I think rotate is locked or something.....b....y technology.......... having no end of trouble with the new hassle free (huh) boiler as well.....

Italian holiday

Had a lovely time with eldest son Andy and his wife Joanne at their home in Italy..Lovely food and company...They were hand rearing a kitten which had been abandoned by its young mum...beautiful grey markings on its fur...it was re homed whilst we were there.

 Our holiday was not marred by the loss of baggage on day one....My younger son Mark continued on to Rome to deliver a training session.  The only change of clothes he had with him and his other things he left in the hotel room... as he was sleeping one more night ....was THROWN out by the maid....who thought he had left...On the way back he hired a car and was routinely pulled over by the police to check his driving license and hire papers !..... My bag didn't turn up for four days so had to try and get my prescription heart tablets in the meantime... Marks bag turned up ten days late... he had it day before we left to come home...and when we retrieved our baggage at the UK airport... the large suitcase I had borrowed had a wheel snapped off..... so... unusual holiday events...I had borrowed a large suitcase because ours had had its side bashed in somewhere between USA and UK ...I do hope there's not a pattern forming.....

Every morning we were greeted by this view ..the valleys and Andy's garden obscured by cloud.....and gradually it clears and reveals multiple valleys.....

We met up with Jo's relatives and enjoyed a coffee .....this place had unusual seating !! £200 each on Not On The Highstreet......They had straight corks as well and can you see the champagne wire with table top?

Alba had a truffle event on...and a medieval fayre in a square ...all the balconies were hung with blue and white banners...

the boys were taken by the bottle game

You get a big stick with a large wooden curtain ring on a length of string....like a fishing rod...and a sand timer is set going .... you have to try and stand full wine bottles upright to win..... so when we got back home I cut a ring from a plastic bottle and tied it to a stick..... the boys tried standing water bottles upright and then I cut some cardboard fishes for them.... 

they look like a pair of gnomes !!

Matteo has set me some homework.....so I can learn Italian.... I had to ask him to repeat things quite often....and eventually I said that I have a problem with my hearing...(I wear a hearing aid) he said he had a problem too...with his intelligence !!! he is a bright little boy ! Luca is more passionate...brilliant radiating sunshine smiles that light up the place...and loud angry storms of tears.....he only has one volume....happy or sad....LOUD ! lol

the problems with being thrifty

Have just been reading a thread on thriftiness......a useful idea for those who use a personal shopping trolley/cart to transport their shopping home..... was to use a child sized rucksack strapped to the trolley to hold the purse......other ladies chipped in with they put their purse in their bra like their mother did.....and my eyes were drawn.... to my big fat purse...and I glanced down at my ample bust.....and burst out laughing..... I don't think I could wedge anything in my bra unless it was a twenty pound note or two..... but just for fun in the privacy of my own home I tried to wedge my purse in my bra....helpless with giggling... I couldn't hide it so it wasn't obvious or comfortable.....and it tipped out when I had it behind the strap....so again I collapse in a heap giggling....and read further.....one lady used to keep her purse in her bra but lost weight and her purse and all the other things she kept in her bra kept falling out....by now my mind is in frivolous overdrive.....all the other things?....all the other things ...what were they? my mind flips to the comediennes French and Saunders...(Dawn and Jennifer) and in my minds eye I can see Dawn pulling things out of her bra.....each one getting bigger and bigger like in the Morecambe and Wise sketches..... and as my giggles subside my mind flips again.....there must be a doll waiting to be made.....what  useful items would be stuffed down a bra???? Ideas please and I might just make it !
My thanks to the ladies who posted on that thread....a serious topic but one that flipped my mind ... and gave me a much needed burst of frivolity...

more chair rugs...

These are for my kitchen chairs....pieces of yarn from about 6" long have been crochet in...using up all my bits and pieces....the ends disappear in the crocheting.....for padding I have cut up a new and unused shop bought quilted bed cover with a valance...... from the 1980s.... rescued from my late mother-in-laws airing cupboard. No longer in fashion but have yards of material in them,,, I thought I would stitch a decorative side straight on to the quilted bit (and pull the quilting out after)  then turn them into pads. If I crochet in black around the yarn bum rugs like the top left and blanket stitch around the pads....I should be able to crochet the two together with black yarn....
My first thoughts for the decorative side of the pads were to crazy patchwork all my left over denim pieces .....but I am fancying using up some of my floral small pieces and applique the flowers and leaves on...but then I do have rather a lot of old shirting.....felted wool jumpers and blankets......etc etc
If some one else was doing it and asked my opinion....I would say  "go with your first thought" so why am I dithering......
The big question is.....drum roll....will I crack on and finish them....or pack them away until I decide?