Handmade Fair 2015

Now I rarely win anything except the occasional scratch card on the lottery (biggest win a whopping £5!!) so was delighted to receive an email to say I'd won a ticket for Kirstie Allsopp's Handmade Fair. I'd been debating whether to go or not before I got the email so it helped make my mind up.

So the start wasn't great - having queued up waiting for 10 minutes for the event to start with my printed out ticket the barcode didn't work and was told to go to the 'queries' desk. Another 10 minute wait resulted in being told that instead of scanning the ticket that they would just collect the ticket at the gate. I've been ill with a virus for the past week and a half so this was the first day out I'd had for ages and this didn't put me in the best frame of mind. But enough of this moaning - I went straight to the shopping village to hunt out this lovely lady who I knew would cheer up my day:

 Yes the lovely Floss & Mischief - a lovely lady who always put a smile on my face and set me up for the day. 

And a fellow cross stitch addict. Having had a really good chat I set off to see what else I could see: 

 The weather wasn't great and I could see it could get a whole lot worse before the day was out....

 The weather was a crazy mixture of sunshine, blue skies, grey skies and rain... 

 Yes I know it's only September but it's never to early to mention the 'C' word... 

 And yes the heaven's opened though thankfully it didn't last long, and I was safely under cover

 Was nice to see Lisa Comfort from Sew Over It who I've met before through Crafty Fox

 And here is 'Joan' launched at the Fair. I purchased a copy for a colleague at work

 Also lovely to see another familiar face, Hannah Bass who I met at a Stitch in Time Event at the British Library a couple of months ago. 

  

Also good to see fellow Brixtonite Tilly and the Buttons who helped inspire me to start making my own clothes. 

And here is the lady herself. She was posing for lots of photographs with punters so I took a cheeky shot and I'm rather pleased with it! 

 I fell in love with the work by Katie Essam 

So much so that I purchased a 'workshop in a bag' which is a fabulous idea as well as some Aida seconds from Floss and Mischief, a copy of 'Joan' by Sew Over It for a colleague from work, some lino for a Christmas card idea and some fabric scraps and fat quarters to play with! All in all a great haul and nice to catch up with some familiar faces. Only downside is that I now have a cold so, for the second weekend in a row, feel rotten! Ah well....