Today I went to the ICHF Creative Stitches and HobbyCrafts Show at Bluewater. I did wonder if I was actually going to get there when things started going wrong this morning. I realised I needed petrol and my car tyres were soft. By the time I had filled up with petrol there was a long queue for air. Muttering unbloggables under my breath, I drove home and pumped up my tyres. By the time I’d finished, my hands were black.
When I finally got to Bluewater my day improved immensely. I’ve never been to an ICHF show before so I wasn’t sure what to expect. The Hobby Crafts Show on the lower level was very much about paper crafts and card making. I spent most of my time browsing the Creative Stitches Show upstairs.
One highlight of the Creative Stitches Show was a display of costumes worn in the BBC drama series Downton Abbey. They had a lovely burgundy dress worn by Lady Mary Crawley and a stately gown which Maggie Smith wore as the Dowager Countess of Grantham:
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| The Downton Abbey costumes |
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| Detail from Lady Mary Crawley's dress |
There were a variety of stands catering for crafts such as quilting, embroidery, sewing, beading, painting and knitting. Ruth and Belinda of The Big Knit Show were there flying the flag for wool. I made a beeline for The Black Sheep. They were selling knitting yarns and drawing quite a crowd. I’m afraid I gave in to temptation and came away with a ball of Noro Silk Garden Sock Yarn and a skein of Noro Yuzen. I have no idea what I will make with them.
One of my favourite stands was that of The Guild of Silk Painters. They had some amazing work on display including this robe:
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| Hand painted silk robe |
In the afternoon I went to a talk by Helen Deighan on dyeing. I thought the talk was very interesting as Helen focussed mainly on dyeing cotton fabric, something I have never tried. She has a fuss free approach and makes dyeing sound easy. I was fascinated to learn how to rainbow dye a strip of fabric. Maybe, just maybe, I will try it.
I’m linking up with Mimi and Tilly’s Favourite Thing on a Friday so do go and see what other people have been up to!
