the NEC Embroidery, Fashion and stitching show

The EYES (East Yorkshire Embroidery Club) had its annual coach trip to the NEC Birmingham. The North been gripped by heavy snow showers which seemed to have affected the numbers attending as we could get around easily and access the stands and goods easily without having to wait. The ticket  accesses three shows.... HobbyCraft, Sewing for Pleasure and The Fashion, Embroidery and Stitch Show........I usually leave it to Lyn to take photos (she is better at it) but Lyn had to miss out on this trip.....I ran around last minute before I left, to get a few. So many this year had NO photography on them....not surprising when I was told that people have passed off the work as their own on the strength of a photo....one even featured on the front of a magazine.....I didn't get photos of the Women's Institute smocking exhibition...which I found interesting....but I did get these.....

These were A4 size and made by the Contemporary Quilt group (www.contemporaryquilt.org.uk) This is a special interest group within The Quilters' Guild of the British Isles. These people have pledged to make one A4 quilt a month, and they are not constrained by traditional quilting....guess I'd be able to manage this then ! BUT not to the standard of some of them, just because they were small there was no let up in quality or variety of techniques The flyer I had picked up advertises a collection of 47 A3 quilts on Childhood Memories for hire at an unbelievable cost of £75 which includes delivery and collection !

Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice costumes from a recent production...Couldn't get the others as people were spending quite some time looking at them and I had a coach to catch.

these stuck me as being a bit map like.....and they were to do with Lisa's University journey ....These are especially for Hexy Lyn.........

this is the piece I like..... "mucky" hand prints holding up the pinny. In the apron is a piece of coal..so evocative.

This is much more my type of thing, it has a story to tell...like the human hair coat I made at Uni....Look up Lisa Marie Evans at www.maggoo.co.uk to see her work.

This needed to be seen, so many techniques, so much to be seen. Very friendly young woman who seemed genuinely delighted to asked if I could photograph her work.........Doing her MA..........Karen Casper...
tulleandcandyfloss.blogspot.co.uk

Pat Archibalds work....Textile Artist, Teacher, Writer www.patarchibald.com to see more of her work
I think this one is HongKong and the suns path during 24 hours catching the windows of the skyscrapers.

This is from the India collection....They have a sense of a moment of peace and tranquillity
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I spoke to a number of stands about my "thingy" of the last post...A lady on the National Needlework Archive (www.nationalneedleworkarchive.org.uk) thought the pins were to do with holding hairpin crochet together to line it up for joining together. But did not know what the handheld thing was.  I could envisage wrapping yarn around the metal prongs and crocheting up the yarn inbeween the prongs like hairpin crochet The lady on the Forge mill Needle Museum (Redditch) photographed it and sent it to someone who might know and took my phone number.....Both of these places look like a good place to visit when I read the leaflets and I would certainly like to go. I also asked on the knitting stands, needlework equipment and tools stands..... I have to tell people next year should I find out what it is.....
I was so tired at the show....I didn't go to the Hobbycraft one......it's usually mostly card making anyway and I didn't venture up to Miniatura (dolls house and miniatures) either. I did sit down at a free workshop to get people trying a bit of embroidery.....and made an embroidered button......We had a laugh as I didn't notice I'd picked up two pieces of material...managed to embroider through them and only noticed when it came to trimming it to fit the button blank........ I WAS wearing my reading glasses.............................
Specsavers for me next week then !!!

eBay thing-y 2

I'm just guessing......having trawled the internet I finally found pictures of a nostepinne.......loosely translated...nest stick........they are for sale on eBay......But I don't know how to lift a picture of one to put on here.
They look a bit like a dibber...but there's a thumb ring turned at the top of the handle to stop the wool coming down....and a bit like a thurtle.

at the top......a Scots thurtle.......(porridge stirrer), next my gadget thing-y and then a dibber measured in inches for planting at correct height. Both have a taper on them which helps to slide the ball of wool/yarn off.

Hold a tail of wool/yarn on the handle and wind the wool/yarn around the wood while turning the stick slowly and you get a compact ball of wool that can be drawn from the centre of the ball. An even tension is kept on the wool while winding whereas hand winding on the fingers tension can alter and ball is not as compact. The pins threw me.....but could they be stitch holders ?

I could be completely wrong and have just found a plausible use for the tool..........can any one tell if I am right or wrong or seen something similar ? I had noticed balls of gardening twine are wound one way only, but when I hand wind wool/yarn I have to wind it left to right and swop to right to left to even out the ball. By winding wool onto something cylindrical it can be wound one way as the stick is rotated and get a tighter wound ball that doesn't unravel easily and the yarn can be pulled from the middle. So a bit of dowel, tube, plastic bottle, rolled up paper anything stick like works.

thing-y off ebay

             

Spotted this on eBay...advertised as a "very rare' french knitting... sewing...craft...rug making.. thing......Put opening offer on and forgot about it. I intended to research it and be outbid by those in the know.... but forgot about it until I "won" it. Four interconnecting metal bits fixed into the turned wooden piece. The end unscrews and holds 6 of the pins. The pins are quite spring-y and the ends clip together and hold extremely well........Million dollar question...WHAT IS IT? Do the pins relate to it, if not what is the hollow end for ? Anyone know ?
It's the pins that throw me....I cannot imagine their use. Don't think it is rug making or sewing , definitely not french knitting but crafty.....yes....lol
Thursday.........Think I have worked out what it is.....a spurtle or a dibber would work just as well.....infact a tube out of the centre of baking aluminium foil or rolled up paper.......suggestions so far are whisk and hair curler....

white rabbit costume

The schools here celebrate World Book Day.....and Ellen next door wanted a costume on an Alice in Wonderland / Through the looking glass theme. So teatime Wednesday we were looking at a well played with Cinderella dress with a view of taking bits off and making an apron.......plus an Alice band and she could go as Alice........when we looked through the Alice book for apron ideas........ we spotted the white rabbit dressed as the herald.........THAT's what she wanted.........so off I go back home....armed with the Cinderella dress as a guide to size....... raided my stash and found some quilted white fabric and a red fleece I'd already chopped a bit off........... I decided as the fleece was a bit stretchy I'd be better off stitching the white to the fleece, drawing on the back of the white the lines I wanted to stitch.....rather like reverse applique.....garden wire found, headband found.... So plan formed....I could go to bed.... Thursday...I forgot I had someone coming down......worked like crazy.....and was ready for collection  after 6pm as arranged.....Tunic, lacy collar, trumpet and over large rabbit ears.....

trumpet was made of a rolled up (diagonally) newspaper, a funnel and tinfoil......It was enthusiastically collected Thursday evening to wear the next day at school.............. I earned lots of hugs and whispered thank you-s for the best costume ever.....When I get a picture of her wearing it I will post it.