A Day at the Races

Well not quite, but I was at Sandown Racecourse for the Stitch and Craft Show.

My Friend and I went with anticipation as the September show had been disappointing with alot of our favourite retailers not attending. It wasn't as bad but still smaller than when we first began going some years ago. There used to be a time when all three floors were packed with stalls. Today it was the ground floor and the Guilds and workshops on the first floor. I blame the credit crunch and now it is official that we are in recession I suppose I shouldn't be surprised.

Don't tell DH, but I tried my best to get the country out of recession by buying:

These two Jan Beaney & Jean Littlejohn books for coursework reference...

and got this book FREE!

I had a lovely chat with a Lady from the Needlelace Guild, who got my idea juices flowing on the thought of needlelace grids and I bought this kit to teach me the rudiments to help in making bigger grids.

After a run on jewellry making over Christmas I replenished my stock of pins and jump rings

De Haveland Threads - I haven't used any of the previous purchases but I had to have these colours, I like to get them out of their box and stroke them - cheaper than owning a cat. The colours are a feast to the eyes. The three skeins on the right are cotton and these will be used. The blue and yellow skeins will be off to the coursework thread box and the purple one will be used later when I practise this week's stitches for my Journal.

AND finally a lovely surprise, Oliver Twist goodies. I had checked on the website last night to see who was exhibiting and I thought the crafting outnumbered the stitching. So it was nice to find Oliver Twists with all their beautiful threads, silks and felts, they had missed the exhibitor deadline for the catalogue. When I discovered on Sunday that the week's colour was purple I was amazed to find I don't have alot of purple threads - I do now!

The beige stringy stuff is silk paper string which I am planning to use with my grid idea.

Now off to play with my new toys