You may wish to jump this first paragraph as I'm about to whinge on a bit........ I had a great day out yesterday at the Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate (more of that in a minute) But, boy, am I tired today! I cannot believe how awful I feel. I thought my energy levels were picking up with the improved levels in my blood but I am crawling around almost on my knees today. Aaaargh! I hate feeling like this! I've done a little bit of sorting out this morning to a chest of drawers in my bedroom and that's it! Pooped! Knackered! Stuffed! Phew! OK I feel a bit better for getting that off my chest.
Ok. No more moans (today anyway) I promise. Yesterday was a "Grand Day Out"! I met up with my friend June in good time to be picked up by the coach and we had a really good trip up to Harrogate with very little delay. On the way I was thrilled to get a good view of a Red Kite which flew down quite close to the coach just as we were approaching Wetherby. I love Red Kites, they are such majestic birds and have such a distinctive shape with their forked tails. They have been brought back from the edge of extinction in this country and their range is increasing after introductions from the continent.
The Show was great and much larger than I expected. It was pretty busy too, being the first day, and there were a lot of young students looking around. In terms of the exhibition the students work was very varied and exciting. The Embroiderers Guild Graduate Showcase had some interesting work, which I wish I had photographed! Doh!
These two pics are of the FLEWS Group stand. Apart from all the lovely colours I was attracted by these driftwood mobiles.
These knitted tyres were on the Knitted Textile Student Awards stand.
The first stand you were greeted with on entering the Exhibition, just inside the doors, was Maggie Grey and Jane Lemon's Celebration of the work of Valerie Campbell-Harding. I'm not sure if the custodians of the stand were suffering from the cold as I didn't get to speak to them but hopefully they were not too uncomfortable. The displays were very impressive and I managed to get a few pics:
The other display I really loved was an exhibition by Studio21 which is a group of textile artists which includes the published quilt artist Sandra Meech.
The two central images in this pic are by Linda Gleave and were beautiful. The surface had watercolour qualities about it and it was stitched with irridescent or metallic threads which you should be able to see if you enlarge the photo.
These ethereal dress forms were by Marion Glover and the hanging birds were "fairy wrens" (if my memory serves me right).
This photo does not do justice to this wonderfully textured work which reminded me of ageing buildings and rusty wrought iron - gorgeous!
This is just a section of a piece by Sandra Meech and is rich in texture. You may be able to see metallics if you enlarge.
I particularly liked this piece on the back wall which looked deceptively simple in its construction. It is mounted on hessian and the large circle in the centre is knitted. It is a collage of knitting, felt and other materials enriched with stitch.
Well, I suppose I had better own up to some shopping...... You may see a clue to something which will be arriving next week!
This beautiful carded wool from Shetland was the first thing I bought, hotly followed by sumptuous merino and alpaca tops. Hmmmm! Now what could I be needing those for??
25 squares of Japanese print, mulberry bark, embroidery hoops and thread.
This lovely lace only cost £1.50 for 1.5 metres from St Michael's Hospice stall.
Did you spot the clues????:o)) If you recognise the book cover the lace is resting on you may already know!
8 comments:
You've succumbed haven't you, it's an embellisher isn't it????
What!! whats that? new machine?
haha, I really did know tho.
mmmm-thinks tick tick tick ah yes Xmas pressy , good idea I hear you say folks.
What a wonderful Xmas present it will be too. Can you wait that long?
Some great pictures you managed to take. I wonder how Harrogate compares with Ally Pally size wise?
Don't worry too much about feeling pooped. I'm generally pretty healthy and yet am absolutely shattered after a show like this, usually takes me a couple of days to get back to normal and am sure lots of others feel the same :)
I'm lucky insomuch that I live close enough to Ally Pally to spread it over a couple of days at least.
Sounds like you had a wonderful day out Julie even if it was exhausting. Make sure you get plenty of rest and recuperate... you'll need your energy all your neww things!
what a great chrissy prezzi :), I'm happy to trade with you as mine will be new thermals to wear under my bike leathers!!
No wonder you're exhausted! Hope you recover soon. Thanks so much for sharing the photos, I didn't realise there was an exhibition at this show. I am definitely going to go next year.
I've just bought an embellisher too, you can see the results of my first experiments with it on my blog.
I'm with you on Red Kites! We are lucky enough to see them cruising overhead nearly every day. One of my bird quilts (shown in the early entries of my blog)features two of them. Magnificent creatures, unfortunately they haven't the power to take some of the wretched pigeons growing fat in our garden.
Good grief, that's the sort of day that would tire anyone out. Sounds like you had fun too.
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