Creative Stitches & Hobbycrafts Fair

I must bring you up to date on my lovely day out with my SIL and neice at the

                                                             Fair, last Saturday. (Sorry, lots of photos today).

As you may remember my SIL bought me my ticket as my Birthday pressie and, (as this was just before I came down with my dreadful cold), the three of us had a really super time. We started by booking ourselves onto a couple of the workshops we wanted to do and then we went back to the beginning, started at stand A01 and worked our way methodically up and down aisles A, B, C, D, etc, etc.

As we all had a budget each, we decided early on not to buy what we wanted as we saw it along the way, but make a note of what we liked or wanted, then decide at the end what we could afford and do a quick trip back to those stands at the end.

Along the way, I took part in a workshop to make a Macrame bracelet, using a knotting technique and beads. This was just a 15 minute workshop, so I only got time to learn the basic method and finished this one at home.

I also did a workshop to make a felt flower brooch. We got given a little kit with the felt pieces in and were shown how to stitich it together, but I did think the green leaf I was given in my pack was a bit too bright for my flower. If I was to make this again, I'm not even sure I would sew on the leaf. What do you think?

Just the petals sewn on and gathered in -->

<-- The completed brooch. Now I need to take it apart again so I can copy the pieces for templates so I can make more. I still don't like the leaf!!










All three of us also took part in a workshop to make a Peobo bracelet. You add drops of various colours and they had different reactions to each other as they dried. I don't particularly like my finished piece, but it was just an experiment to see how it was done and was interesting. Not sure I will take this one up as the components / materials seemed quite expensive to buy individually.

My SIL also added some flowers to the World's longest embroidery.

and my niece made a beaded and padded heart ornament.

As well as all the selling stands, there were also stands by the various Guilds and I watched some ladies Lace-Making for ages with absolute fascination. There was also various displays/exhibition type stands and I just loved the one with the actual costumes from Jane Austen films/dramas.

 On the left, the dress worn by Gwyneth Paltrow as Emma Woodhouse in "Emma".
On the right, Billie Piper's dress as Fanny Price in "Mansfield Park"

 Jennifer Ehle's dress as Elizabeth Bennett and Colin Firth's infamous white shirt as Mr Darcy. Both in "Pride and Prejudice".

 Left - Kate Winslett's dress as Marianne Dashwood, Centre - Alan Rickman's costume as Colonel Brandon, right - Emma Thompson's dress as Eleanor Dashwood. All in "Sense and Sensibility".

 I think this Kate Winslett one was my favourite with the velvet cape and bodice. Beautiful !!















You may or may not be interested in my actual purchases on the day, but here they are

The Rotary Cutter and Quliting Ruler are to help me make my charm squares ready for Frugal Queen's next workshop, (if I'm lucky enough to get a place again!).

The www.hair-gem.co.uk, hair accessory is not as nice as my African Butterfly one but was a lot cheaper at £7.00 rather than £20. I will try and take a photo of it in my hair so you can see the full effect.

The brown felt and gingham ribbon is for some Christmas makes which I will hopefully share nearer the time and the red gingham fabric is also for a Christmas make.

The very pretty white snowflake ribbon is just for adding to some Christmas cards as they get made because I loved it so much and it was only 50p a metre.

The sparkle glitter medium pots is for using with the stencils. I will try and show you what this turns out like when I give it a go.

I also loved these little mini stamps which you use on the clear plastic peg/stick you see in the middle of the photo and you can use these with the Christmas tree stamps and build them to make beautiful designs. That should have all of my Christmas cards just about sewn up.


I think that just about covers the whole day, (except for lunch, the coated nuts we bought, blah, blah........), but I've proably bored you with it enough anyway, by now.

Lots of Love Arwedd xx