Craft Fair Day 3

This is the display of entries in the Connections competition which the Thread Studio ran at the beginning of the year. Every entry had to use the embellisher, though additional stitching, beading etc was allowed. There were some wonderful pieces.

I spent the day in the Textile Artist's section with Alcira. She had some of her fabulous paper creations on display, and was folding papers in preparation for another piece.

I played with the embellisher and found that many people were very interested. One of the FAQ was how often needles broke. I have had my embellisher for 5 years and used it lots and have only broken 3 needles in that time. I was feeling quite smug about it until I realised that that meant I probably needed to replace all of them. A machine needle needs replacement after a major project - the same must surely apply to felting needles. I had the feeling that the pieces I was working on were taking a long time to come together so I suspect that the barbs may now be worn. I will replace all of them this week and see if it makes a difference.

I was sure that I had taken photos of the Embroidery Guild's 40th Anniversary display, but I obviously didn't. Nor did I take any photos of the magnificent TACTile quilt exhibition: Collections. I did buy some postcards though.

Textile Friday

Had a very enjoyable day at Contemporary Quilt Group. Jocelynne spoke about some of the items of mixed media she uses in her work. I was reminded of some techniques that I had forgotten and made some memory jogger notes.

We also had a visit from Beth and Trevor Reid from Canberra. They have been in Perth looking after the TACTile group's exhibition - Eyeline - which was on display at the Craft Fair. Beth and Trevor brought along some of their own quilts and spoke about how they were made. It was extremely interesting to listen to them. Their work, especially the machine quilting, is amazing.

Sunday at the Craft Fair

I was rostered on to look after the Designing Women stall this morning so I spent the entire day there.

My friend Jennifer is visiting from the US and she decided to go to the Fair too. We met up a bit after 12.30 after she had had a look around and had coffee, a pie (of course) and a good chat. Then she had to go to visit her mother and meet up with her brother. I wandered about, went to a couple of workshops and took some photos. Forgot I needed to take one of the stall, though.

The photos I took were of the "Eyeline" exhibition by the TACTile group (Jenny Bowker, Dianne Firth, Helen Gray, Beth Miller and Beth and Tevor Reid) from Canberra. This is their third exhibition and again is absolutely stunning. My photos are not, though I have some detail shots that I hope will inspire me. I bought a book of postcards as well.

Then I took a few photos of the Art to Wear exhibition. This year the emphasis was on "The Next Generation" and more than half the garments on show were produced by secondary school students. There was some excellent work and it looks like this aspect of textile art is flourishing, but only in the private schools. There were no examples from any of the government schools, though perhaps this is understandable. The raw materials are expensive and the out of school time required, both of students and teachers, is considerable.

The theme for the Year 12 students from one school was "Bridal" and I particularly liked this one. I didn't note the name of the maker, though, which is remiss of me.


When the Show closed at 5pm I took down the display pieces from the stall, packed them up and dragged everything to the car. My feet were really hurting by then!