Bits and Bobs

Having begun to get back on track with all sorts around the house, I am treating myself tomorrow, to a visit to the  'Make It' exhibition at Farnborough.  This year it is really called 'Make It Craft and Make It Homemade' and claims...

This year Make it brings you not only the best in paper craft and card making but a whole array of new and traditional crafts that celebrate the increasingly popular “homemade” theme, including knitting, stitching, beading, patchwork, candle making, felting, ceramics, preserving and baking.

This makes it sound much more up my street than in previous years, for whilst I really love the amazing creations of so many talented card-makers, paper-crafters and scrap-bookers, and have even dabbled in this side of things myself, I do spend more of my time with things of a textile-y nature.

Looking at the list of exhibitors, it does still look to be dominated by paper-y suppliers, but I have found, I am sure, plenty to keep me happily browsing away the day, and hopefully not spending too much!

I will definitely be looking at the stands of


The Embroiderers' Guild
Fantastic Ribbons
Fin Taw Studio (felt and felt-making)
The Japanese Embroidery Guild
Juey ('Unique finger knitting' - wow!)

Lili Fabrics
Loving Hands Knitting Group (Knitting for charity projects)
Make, Thrift London (pop-up sewing and craft workshops with focus on make-do-and-mend)
Material Girls (Wool, fabrics and haberdashery)
The MDF Man (wooden blanks and templates
Mei Flower Crafts (embellishments and craft accesories)
Michaela Knits
Ribbon Box
Stitch in Time
Super Lovely (Washi Tape - Hold me back!)


I can't see myself coming home without a wooden blank of some sort...

The MDF Man

The MDF Man

The MDF Man

...some washi tape...

..to add to the little collection I have begun...

 ...with a project in mind that I found on this gorgeous blog - Torie Jayne.


And there's bound to be some ribbon too, as I have just sorted mine out.  I was needing bits of ribbon in different colours for the needlecases I was making earlier...

...and certain colours were in short supply, or absent altogether.


Mind you, at least I could easily locate the colours I required, due to my new storage system.
The hall cupboard was heaving with a rainbow of gift bags, which I always save and rarely get round to using (we like wrapping in this house!)  So I seized them, chopped some of them down and then used them to colour-code the previous mess of tangled ribbons in  a hamper...

Pinks, reds, blues, yellows...

Patterned ribbons in patterned bags...

Thrifty organisation!