I have never attended a craft related trade fair before, and only went to The Festival of Quilts to check out the Storage4Crafts Storage units, with the veiw of helping me organise my *new* sewing room…. (That in itself is a good story….)
My mother and I arrived promptly at 10am …. WOW! So many stands! So many Quilts! So many people! It was amazing!
Here are a few highlights from our time…. (NB we only had 4 hours, and it was ALL very beautiful!)
There were many fabric stands, boasting a rainbow of colours, designs and materials….
The owners (Janet and Samina) are seasoned weavers and are introducing weaving to the masses by producing simple weaving kits, which are suitable for all – young/old, beginner/experienced.
They have an online shop where you can see all their kits and the variety of small, quick, projects available! Soooo much fun to be had with this! 😀
Pappu Mama – Tops, wraps and blousesPappu Mama Skirts
Kantha is a type of embroidery in eastern South Asia, especially Bangladesh and parts of West Bengal and Odisha (Wikipedia).
My mother was particularly taken by the designs and fabrics on this stand – so beautiful! I fell in love with the beautiful skirts! I might have a go making these in tiedyed material….. but long 🙂
Beautiful Patchwork Quilt kits – fell in love with all of them!
I particularly like the idea of their “Block of the Month” quilt kits:
A Block of the month is a subscription to a quilt.
Totally Patched
You pay a certain amount for a certain number of months (this varies for each quilt). For each payment you make, you will receive through the post, a parcel containing fabric and full instructions to complete a section of the quilt. It is a great way of spreading the cost and sewing time too. By the end of the subscription you will have all the fabric and instructions you need to complete the quilt top.
Sewandso is the UK’s largest online needlecraft shop – and although they were presenting quilting kits and materials at the festival, they sell the full range of needlecraft supplies for all manner of crafts!
We saw many, many more stores, and some amazing examples of quilting!
