Last week I had a two day mini sewing and shopping retreat
to Festival of Quilts. It didn’t get off to the best of starts as I arrived at
the station to find all trains to Birmingham were cancelled, but somehow I
ended up at the NEC on time despite getting a slightly later train and having an extra
connection at Stafford.
Rather than have one very long post about my trip, I’ll split this
into three – shopping, sewing and quilts.
I’ve been on a fabric fast lite since the start of the year
and have been trying to sew from stash before it threatens to take over the
whole house. My shopping list wasn’t very long, but I knew from past experience
how easy it can be to stray from the list. To try to limit temptation, I took a
separate show purse with me and transferred my spending money to it, leaving
some spare cash and the cards safely packed away in my main purse. The plan was
that the shopping stopped when the money ran out.
I stuck fairly well to my list in terms of items, but maybe
not in quantity and even got a free little gift (the pins) from Love Patchwork
and Quilting magazine. Thursday’s purchases were some Liberty scraps from AliceCaroline, some Liberty FQs from the Little World of Fabric, half a metre of Liberty
from Fabrics Galore, paper pieces from Hannah’s Room, Superior Bottom Line
thread from The Crafty Quilter and a Millefiori Quilt book from QuiltMania.
Friday’s shopping opportunities were curtailed by the lack
of space in my bag and the lack of funds in my purse. A small emergency
transfer (I deemed it to be an emergency) of funds rectified one of the problems
and allowed a few more Liberty scraps to find their way into my bag, along with
some half metres of Oakshott and some half metres of shot and striped cottons
from K&K Machines.
As I’m trying not to add to my stash, I didn’t really browse
the stalls which actually made for a more relaxing trip. I didn’t feel the need
to hunt out the latest fabric releases or to try to find all the special offers. I
even had time to sit outside in the sunshine and have a quiet lunch away from
all the crowds before heading off to my first workshop.
I did look for you! It was my first time and I loved looking round all the stalls (but it did get a bit overwhelming after a bit), and the Quilts on exhibit were gorgeous. I shall certainly be going again :o)
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