Blog Giveaway Winner - Me (thanks Sandy) and The Knitting and Stitching Show

This image relates to the poem called The Wandering Aenghus by William Butler Yeats. I have always liked this poem and the last few lines are very famous.

I like the graphic quality of this painting. I love stripes in any colours. Perhaps it is a bit too much but it is quite eye catching and I don't think you can ever go wrong with flowers.

I watched a DVD called An American Haunting the other night and the main character was a young lady in 1800's Minnesota called Betsy Bell. She had quite a sad tale to tell, and a scary one. I was particularly interested in her lovely blue coat and dress ensemble. This is a near approximation of it although it would look a lot better coloured.

I thought this one would make quite a nice Christmas card design. The leaf is supposed to be a holly leaf. I like the minimal colour of this one - quite unusual for me.

The following are all photos from the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace in London. Sorry about the lighting in some of the shots but there is very little natural light in the place and flash never looks as good as natural daylight. The pictures can be enlarged to see more detail if you click on them. If you go here you can read all about the exhibitors in the Show.

I love this subtly coloured quilt and could quite happily have taken it home with me.

This wool stand is always very popular. I think some people buy enough wool to last them until the next show.

I loved this gorgeous patchwork quilt

Brightly coloured embroidery

Detail of bird embroidery

Display of children's clothing

John Allen designs carpets for the wall and also produces etchings and other artwork. The designs he displayed at the show were all connected to Nepal and Nepalese culture and landscape. The colours are brilliant and the shapes beautifully graphic. He has a wonderful sense of colour. He actually works in collaboration with Tibetan weavers who interpret his designs. Go here for a look at his lovely website.

John Allen colourful carpet design

John Allen carpet

John Allen produces carpets for the wall and they are amazing designs like this one.

A wall display of some of Raymond Honeyman's work. His attention to detail is amazing.

Raymond Honeyman design of flowery fan for Ehrman tapestries. This is actually a painting made up of tiny dots of colour in the exact same places where you would do the stitch of the wool tapestry. He adores pattern and must take hundreds of hours to create these works of art.

This is a view of a wool stand selling cardi's and jumpers. There were lots of stands selling hand knitted woolies and they were all to die for.

Another view of the spectacular patchwork. Click on the photo to get a better look.

The Embroidery Guild stand had a wonderful patchwork quilt, only part of which is shown here. Apparently the various groups over the country were given their colours to work and when they were all completed the patchwork was assembled.

This is Sarah Boccaccini Meadows who is a young textiles graduate with a lovely smile. She had some beautiful and complex garments on her stand and was really thrilled to be at the Exhibition.

Last week I paid my yearly visit to the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace in London. It is a fabulous day out at a wonderful venue. Ally Pally as it is fondly known stands very high above London and a marvellous view of the capital can be had on a clear day. Inside great wonders were beheld. It is an extravaganza of all things textile, stitchy, and art and crafty and appeals to a huge audience, mostly women, as can be expected.

I travelled up to London by coach which is a service dedicated to the serious stitch enthusiast. It is so much easier and more comfortable than going by train. We had about 6 hours at the exhibition and in the time available I did not get to see all of it!

I have included quite a few shots of various stands in the exhibition and I explain each photo as I go along. There were a number of great book stands including the Embroidery Guild stand which is always worth an hour or two's perusal. All the books were art and craft and textile orientated and it is always a good place to get the newest books on the market. I must confess to buying a "couple" of books but I will tell you about those in another post. By the time I returned home I was exhausted but happy and very inspired by what I had seen. There is so much incredible talent in the world of textiles. I now have to go for a year before I can do the whole thing again.

Another lovely thing which has happened since my last post, is winning the giveaway on Sandy Mastroni's Blog. Sandy is a great artist who produces really intriguing and enchanting images of ladies and animals, particularly cats. Her giveaway was for a lovely kitty painting and if you have a look at blog post October 9th you will see my name being drawn by Jerry. I am really looking forward to receiving my kitty picture and would like to thank Sandy very much for giving me the opportunity. She also has a great Etsy shop at http://www.sandymastroni.etsy.com/ so I recommend you go and take a look.

This is the second giveaway I have won. The first was for a lovely woolly scarf from Phyllis which I have already put to good use as we have had some very chilly days this autumn.

Enough said for this post. I will let the photos speak for themselves.