Friday, March 25, 2005

Stitching Blogger's Question of the Week: Needlework Shows

What are your thoughts on craft and/or needlework shows? Have you been to one or are you planning on going to one this year?

When I was back in Kent, they used to hold craft shows quite a few times a year. There was a good one at Penshurst Place outside of Tonbridge. They were always interesting to attend, but there was rarely any dedicated cross stitch stalls there, mainly woodcrafts and other kinds of needlework. I think the main reason I liked going to these was to raid all the free samples in the food tent. lol

I've only been to one dedicated cross stitch show, and that was Stitch 2003 at Olympia. I was a bit disappointed with the show really. It was kits, kits and more kits - and I'm not really a kit person. While the prices were discounted, they still couldn't match the prices being offered on the internet even then. Especially the American Kit Suppliers. I think I went there hoping to pick up "Too Pooped" for a reasonable price, and while the kit was certainly cheaper than it's RRP, I still knew I could get get it much cheaper (nearly half price) if I ordered it from the US via the internet. I was expecting more stalls selling Stash. Here's a link to an archived page of my first stitching diary of what happened on the day and what I bought.

The best thing about going to the show though was finally meeting Piwi in the flesh. Apart from my family, she was the first real life stitcher I'd met in the flesh. Piwi had been at the show the day previously too, so she had already recognoitered all the interesting things. She opened my eyes to a few things, I remember her showing me one of the stalls had small cuts of Silkweaver's Reflections fabric, and whilst I didn't buy any that day, the gleam of that beautiful fabric (which you can't see properly in any web photos) finally tempted me to join their Stash club. I still get Reflections sent to me regularly in Silkweaver's Fabric of the Month club, although I probably have most of the colours now already. lol

I don't have any plans to attend any cross stitch shows for the remainder of this year, for two reasons:
  • Living in Cornwall is like being at the ass-end of nowhere. There are plenty of local "craft fayres" but they are shake and bake events organised at a local church hall and are usually just for the artist types who are drawn to this area. There aren't any locally organised stitching events to attend, and you know how long it takes to get to and from Cornwall after my stitching retreat weekend journey - so I really can't be bothered with another 5 and a half hour train journey to get to Stitch 2005, although I would really love to meet Margaret Sherry in the flesh. I hope San meets her.
  • I've got too much stash now and want to stitch some of it before I buy any more...... I'm on the "Stash Wagon". Attending these events without spending any money is showing true forces of restraint.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I tried commenting with haloscan in IE and Firefox, and the pop up window doesn't even appear !!!

I agree with you about the kits at the shows. But I sometimes like kits. They are easier to travel ;)

I really hope to see Margaret Sherry, I'll have mom, Isabelle and Alison to help me in case I get suddenly mute. That's typical me ;)