2007 Craft and Quilt Fair!

A couple of weekends ago the Perth Convention Centre hosted the fabulous Craft and Quilt Fair for 2007 - and it was BRILLIANT!

Last year I missed the Fair by a number of weeks and was SO bummed, so I've been hanging out for this year's Craft'n'Quilt with a strong thirst and eager anticipation! But not this huge build-up, not even the little catalogue brochure they sent out a few weeks beforehand prevented my FORGETTING completely about the fair the week beforehand! hehe! Luckily Mum had her eye on the Fair too so she phoned and we tee-ed up our trip to the Fair together! Hoorah!!

I am SO glad we went on Sunday instead of the Saturday. So many stalls with multiple crafty, needlework and quilting (LOADS of quilting) supplies for trial, demo and sale - an absolute FEAST for the eyes! But the amount of people there was only JUST tolerable - so the Saturday would have been too much for me I think. I'm not tooo bad with crowds, but I get frustrated when I can't see anything and people get rude - so very glad we opted for the more relaxed Sunday Fair day!

My scrummy Mum and I cruised around the stalls and stores, admiring all the different creations people had made, and imagining what we could create with all the crafterly goodies. There wasn't too much there on the knitting front - a few stalls and bits'n'bobs - but I still managed to come away with quite a little loot bag!

I had so SO much fun on this crafty day with my Mumma - it's one of our favourite Things-In-Common - we love sharing crafty tips, admiring art and homemade goods together and (when we can) sitting together to CRAFT together!

We examined several unusual yarny items - some sari silk from one stall - which seemed to be at a very good price...

but I was extremely restrained and well behaved, deciding that although it was lovely, such vibrant colours and jazzy appearance, I do NOT. NEED. IT. And happily left it on the rack =)

We also some some of these HUMUNGOUS skeins of yarn about the place! Just look at the size of it!!?

It's practically bigger than my head!! Again a good price, but it was a novelty more than any thing else, and again I declined.

A siesta was needed after some time browsing about so we took a break, had a snack, and gazed about at the crafty melee!

After our refreshment, now full of energy and vigour we hit the workshops for a demo on dyeing by Cecile Whatman of Unique Stitching (sadly no website). It was FANTASTIC and I felt so inspired!! We had stumbled upon her stall pre-siesta, just as I was whining about "well.. doesn't look like there will be any spinning thi..." *GASP* I had seen her stall with fibre dye, containers of Angelica (light, fluffy sparkly fibre) and some examples of hand dyed roving!

And after purchasing some lovely shiny Angelica to add to my spinning creations we spoke with the lady at the stall who told us that Cecile would be doing her workshop shortly - I was very excited!! After the workshop I was super keen to head back to her stall and talk with her about using the acid dyes on wool and yarn directly - as her workshop focussed more on dyeing fabrics, such as for quilting and so on. But on our way we did some more browsing and looking, looking and browsing - how could we not! So many things to see and touch, fondle and admire!

At the yarnsgalore.com booth I made my first (and only!!) yarn purchase! This cooshy delicious LangWoll sock yarn was at a devilishly irresistible price, so I picked up two balls (enough for one pair of socks).

How ingenious are the folks at LangWoll! See the second picture with the little spool sticking out the side - that little spool of thread is inside each ball of sock yarn in a matching shade to the colourway so you can reinforce the heel and toes!! How awesome is that!! I love LOVE this yarn and already have a secret plan for it *wicked glint in eye*

We hit some beading stores and button stalls where I found this wonderful wooden leaf shaped button for necklacing, and a green cord to seal the deal. (I made up the necklace that night - photos to follow eventually!)

My lovely Mum gifted me some stunning purple natural pearls, and green shell beads we had been admiring in a stall draped in beads of every imaginable colour, shape and material. I've had a bit of a play with them, but need a little more playing time to figure out a construction I like =)

A lovely little charms store provided a lovely selection of ribbons which I was able to rifle through for a very pleasing handful of colourful ribbons for my hair! Being a fairly low maintenance type of person, sometimes a ribbon is the only bauble and nicety I will adorn my hair with, and these little beauties will do just the trick!

When we made it back to the dye stall - exhausted and with our loot sacks heavy with goodies - Cecile recommended me on various dyes and which colours to start with. I came away with the primaries - (fire)red, blue(turquoise) and (bright)yellow for their ability to blend into most any colour imaginable (and a few more!) a pot of (jet)black, to enable my varying the shade of the colour. I also got a pot of Kelly Green as it is my most favourite-ist colour and I expect I will use it a lot! And a pot of pink - As I think that will be difficult to mix on it's own from the red. I have been flicking through Cecile's booklet "I can Dye A Rainbow" and will take her up on her kind offer of emailing her for more tips on dyeing the yarn and fibre!

I can't WAIT to get cracking with some dye-tastic adventures - both in preparing some food-colouring dyed samples for the up'n'coming Knitting Group demo I'll be doing, but also trying out my neewww and exciting acid dyes!!

All in all the Craft and Quilt Fair was a FABULOUS day out and we're counting down the days til next year's fair!!