Last month I had a wonderful day at the Knitting & Stitching show in Harrogate (I’m a bit behind with writing my posts again!) It’s the biggest show we have round here, four large halls of quilting, embroidery, sewing…heaven! Though it’s probably a good job it only comes once a year!
I went with a friend and as she wanted to book a couple of workshops, I decided to treat my self as well. I came to the conclusion at the Festival of Quilts that doing a workshop is actually quite a good move as the hour plus sitdown means I can manage to walk round for longer!!
We had a good mooch round the stalls and exhibitions too, there were some particularly good exhibitions this time. One particularly moving one was called Dementia Darnings, it’s by Jenni Dutton. She stitched portraits of her mother in the various stages of dementia, maybe a dozen or more, sometimes with threads hanging down or faded as if to show the unravelling of memories. It was quite poignant to work out where abouts my mum was in the exhibition.
Another beautiful exhibition was by Cas Holmes, her work was stunning, I bought her book Textile Landscapes for inspiration!
The Embroiderers Guild had an exhibition there with some beautiful work on display. There was also a big display of their 100 hearts project, members stitched a heart to commemorate the 100 years since the end of WW1, some of them were very personal, it was a wonderful display, this is just a very small example…
The first workshop I did was by Sarah from the Golden Hinde, a goldwork specialist. She was a great tutor, enthusiastic and patient! We made a lovely flower brooch from purl thread and some little snips I can’t remember the name of but they made the lovely glittery centre. We could choose the colours of the silk background and the purl thread. I went for a purple background and teal purl with silver. I’ve not used purl thread before, it was interesting to use, last time I tried goldwork (many many years ago!) I didn’t really enjoy it as I found it hard work trying to pull the threads through, not relaxing at all. As this was all surface work it was lovely to stitch, so long as you didn’t drop your invisible thread! I just about managed to finish the embroidery in the hour and a half of the workshop and then made it into the brooch when I got home. I’m really pleased with it.
My second workshop was Lucet cord making, an ancient way of making cord over a two pronged tool. It reminds me in a way of those knitting dollies we had as kids, it made a very strong cord but it did take me a long while to get the hang of it, especially the ‘quick way’. On his stand he had some very pretty cord but I didn’t feel it would work for the kind of things I use a decorative cord for. It was interesting to try though.
I bought a few bits of course (no surprise there then!) I was looking for some inspiration for a colour scheme for my next Sarah Fielke quilt, ‘Coming Home’. Quite late in the afternoon I fell for a small fat quarter bundle of teals and greys, it quickly developed from there across several stalls, I added a few from my stash at home and I now think I’ve got a reasonable palette. I’m thinking of two shades of ivory for the backgrounds.Â
All in all, a grand day out!
thecraftycreek 
Hmmm, looks as if you may have some nice teal leftovers when you finish that quilt! Pretty colour palette too. The embroidered portrait is amazing!
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There’ll definitely be some teal scraps at the end! The embroideries were A2 size and there was probably at least a dozen of them!
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The brooch looks lovely. Presume your lucet workshop was with Ziggy? He’s a character! — used to come up to Glasgow to our annual show, too. Lucet cord is very practical in many ways, and I’ve used everything from Caron thread to plastic strings to make tight, 4-sided cording. One day, I’ll work out how to add beads! Looking forward to seeing what happens to all that lovely fabric…
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Hi Serinde, it was with Ziggy, he was very patient as it did take ages for me to get it! I can see it would make very practical cord and it looks lovely with the beads attached, I just couldn’t see when I would use the cord, I make decorative cord from DMC thread at the moment with a Clover cord maker to go round mini pillows but it only takes about 2 minutes 🙂
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I think you had a much better experience than I did there. Maybe going on the Sunday pays off.
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Hi, I’ve not been on a Sunday before but it’s pretty quiet, apparently Friday and Sunday are the quieter days. The workshops only had 2-6 people in instead of the 12 it could hold.
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Love those fabrics and I noticed the potential teal scraps too 😉
I don’t think I’d be good in a workshop at a show – too many distractions.
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Ahh, they have the workshops tucked away from the stalls in large ‘booths’ so little distractions 🙂
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Sounds like fun. What a great stitched picture of the elderly lady. One day I might get to Harrogate to the show – have been to the London one several times but fancy a change of venue.
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I went with the local EG but spent the day on my own looking at he exhibitions etc. Did spend some money but not too much – a metre of Christmas fabric for backing cross stitch pictures; some wool for a scarf, and the goldwork book as I had spent a couple of years at Sarah’s classes in Warrington a few years ago.
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I was very touched by the embroidered elderly woman. So beautiful!
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Thank you for sharing this outstanding craft event, I am always so happy when you take me along on these adventures. I really loved the landscape strips by Cas Holmes. ~ Sharon
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Love the little brooch – I really enjoy goldwork which I always find surprising as I do not wear jewellery or sparkles myself! Great material stash!
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That project showing the development of dementia is really amazing–seeing it all must be very moving. Looks like great show!
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The photo is so poignant, I could see my mom in it. A successful trip all around with a new quilt to come! Thanks for taking us along on your adventures!
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Wow those pieces in the show were amazing, especially the Dementia Darnings.
The fabrics your purchased at the show look delicious!
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What a lovely day out! I never did a workshop at the event, but it looks like you made the most of yours. Your goldwork brooch is beautiful.
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That is a fabulous portrait! I didn’t get to the show this year because of my fracture but I usually go on a Friday. I do enjoy workshops – though some have been (much) better than others! That is a great collectione of fat quarters for your quilts – love the colour scheme.
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