Knitting and Stitching Show 2016

Yesterday we were up early and headed to London.  My husband and daughter went off to do their own thing and I went to the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace.

This year I hadn't gotten around to buying my ticket online, which was fortuitous because as I headed towards the box office a very kind lady gifted her spare ticket to me!  I entered the show through the West Hall where there were some vendors and works of art exhibited.  These ones caught my eye:-

Guardians 1 to 5 by Hilary Beattie

An exhibition of work by Jan Beany and Jean Littlejohn to celebrate 25 years of collaborative writing.

Where the Apple Reddens by Jean Littlejohn.

Lazy Daisy by Jean Littlejohn.

Autumn Seed Heads by Jean Littlejohn

Winter Magic by Jan Beanie

Contrasts by Jan Beanie

Stitched Sketch - Sweden by Jan Beanie

The displays of sketches that inspired stitched works were very interesting.

I loved the detail in these two Anne Kelly quilts entitled
Waistcoats



and Natural History Bags.

She also had an exhibition of her work Textile Nature that included a stitched garden shed.

Purple Pigeon by Karen Suzuki

Mass Hysteria by Leisa Rich

Nature Study 1 - 4 (There were only 3?) by Meredith Woolnough





Meadow Wall Panels by Emily Nottman

Language of Leaves by Alice Fox

The brown leaves are actually real.

I looked around the stalls admiring the colours of the threads and the pretty displays.





The beautiful ribbon embroidery on this stall were by Lorna Bateman who very kindly answered my questions and demonstrated some stitches to me.





Then I headed into the Great Hall which was full of stalls and where the shopping began! :)  There were so many tempting displays and lots of inspiration.















My favourite stall was La Maison Tricotée from Canada.

So many gorgeous yarns!

I restricted myself to these three skeins.

Other purchases included this bag from Cats Protection, some Liberty fabric and a couple of cross-stitch cottage kits.

Also I bought some Halloween themed material for a project bag or two

and as I had bought the scissor keeper kit, I treated myself to some pretty embroidery scissors.

After the shopping I walked into the Panorama Corridor to look at the Quilt Guild's and Embroiderers' Guild exhibitions.

52° 32'N, 04° 03W by Laura Kemshall.

New Beginning by Elfrieden Grooten.



The Night King by the Embroiderers' Guild was fantastic!  It was huge and there was so much detail!









By now it was time to meet up with my husband and we collected our daughter to head home.

It had been a lovely day full of inspiration with the added pleasure of meeting up with my friend Dani, aka Little Bobbins and her mum.