It began with the alarm going off at 4.30am...
...nice and early so we can grab some breakfast, then get on the road to Birmingham.
No problems on the journey at all...and no waiting to get into the unloading area at the NEC.
Luckily my stand was fairly near the doorway, so not too far to lug all the boxes, shelving units, tables etc, and, after a few hours of fiddling with bits and bobs....
...the stand appeared as if by magic!
I hadn't realised JUST how long it was going to take to put it all together, and was certainly very tired by the end of Wednesday.
Luckily, the hotel was extremely comfortable, and I slept well for the duration :-)
So, opening day....biting nails.....
BEDLAM!!
The stand was full of women oooooohing and aaaaaaahing, and wanting to know how THAT had been done, and what was that material, and what thread was that....
...and everyone was LOVELY!!!
I had some wonderful remarks on the stand....
...and while I'd been cursing myself on Wednesday, for having such a "brilliant idea" of making a "Sweet Shop"....
(this had involved a few hours putting little frilly doily-caps on all my stuff in jars)
...it had attracted a lot of people, who had LOVED it all! :-)
The lovely Viviane from Brussels being just one of many....
..see her post here for piccies of my "Sweet Stitches" that she bought.
Next door to me was Mandy, from "Simply Solids", selling beautiful Kona fabrics.
Diagonally opposite was Pam Stallebrass with her gorgeous hand-printed African fabrics..
(had to have some of those of course!)
Opposite Pam were Audrey and Tommy the "Pin Peddlers" from North Carolina.
...and opposite my thread table were the CraftyNotions team (Sarah Lawrence and Family), with Kim Thittichai beavering away heating all sorts of bits and signing her new book "Layered Textiles"
Kim has put out a lovely blog post that features a piece that I was working on during Saturday and Sunday.
As always happens....I'd left home without needles, Bondaweb, glue, paints etc
...but having CraftyNotions and Kim opposite was a real boon!!
I wanted to work on some of my "Landscape Tissue", so bought some Bondaweb, and snaffled some painted stuff from Kim, who was doing some wonderful things with it.
It worked perfectly for the piece I had in mind....
I'm going to be playing more with this little series over the next few weeks...
...working on samples for Harrogate.
Another delightful happening was meeting up with other bloggers....
...a gaggle of girls by one of the emergency exits...(see Jacky's post here)
...and a few at the stand....including Kate....Anne.....
.... and Carolyn...
...who's done a recent post showing what she's been doing with my new Butterfly SoftSpun.
There were so many beautiful quilts on display too....
...here are just a few piccies (snaffled in the hour before opening because I had hardly any time to leave the stand during showtime :-)
...and I could carry on, but.......
....my shops have to be stocked and kits to be sorted....
...onwards and upwards :-)
