Textile Fair Brisbane

I was fortunate enough to be invited to join some  of the  ladies from the Crows Nest WOTE (Women on the Edge) Group on a bus trip to the Brisbane Textile Fair on Saturday.

All week I had been fretting  about being able to wake at 5am, but fortunately I did, since we had to leave about 6.30 to pick up a couple of Toowoomba ladies and drive to a small town near Crows Nest to catch the bus.  The temperature had been predicted to go down to 3deg so that wasn't something to look forward to.  I travelled with my good friend Dianne and it turned out to not be quite as cold as expected.

Did not take my camera so sorry no  photos of the show itself, or the actual trip. I am sure  however, there will be lots of photos of all the wonderful work that was on display on other blogs.

When we arrived after the bus trip,  the first stop was a fortifying coffee and cake, and then it was "here we come"

There were lots of stalls and wonderful things to look at.  I was amazed at  the range of new products to play with that are on the market now. The Art Quilts were just amazing as were the various displays of challenge work - we have some very talented and creative people here in Queensland.

As we arrived we came across Jacinta from the Thread Studio who was giving a demonstration of felting.  Her technique was so different (and so easy) from when I learned quite a few years ago.  Using lovely coloured wool fibres, threads, lace, and ribbons, she produced a beautiful piece of felt. Her samples of her work were amazing, and she was very generous with sharing her knowledge.

This inspired us to "have a go" at felting once again, and we found some bags of lovely coloured pure wool.  The orange coloured piece is pure silk. Felting seems to be the current craze so there were a lot of stalls catering for this.

Di bought a bag of different colours and we are going to do some swapsies and "share" a couple of things which Di will show on her blog after the long weekend. So keep looking.

At lunchtime we caught up with Robin MacWhinney of Robins Ramblings. It was really nice to actually meet a cyber friend in person.

Because my first love is embroidery I was fascinated by the ranges of  threads on the  Thread Studio stall which had a good assortment to choose from and these are the colours that caught my eye.

I love variegated threads and the permanent marker pen is to write the name of the stitches on my Tast Book.

close up of the greens "fancies"

close up of the turquoise "fancies"

Card of felt strip felt

When I was going through a cupboard last week I found this piece I started "many" years ago, and have decided it is my next project to complete.  It is based on the Australian landscape from the reef to the outback.  I am going to alter a couple of things, but thought I could make great "rocks" from this felt.  Don't ask how I am going to do that, but I guess it will come to me as I go along.  The colours of the threads will also be just perfect for this piece of work.

The array of quilting fabrics, while not large, was interesting, with good colours and designs to choose from for quilters.  These are what I chose although the colours in the photo are not quite true. The pink is for  inside  the cover of my fabric book and is actually a deeper burgundy. It is a Japanese design fabric.  The blues are more in the turquoise range,  and   I am sure I will find a project they will be perfect for.

Arrived home extremely tired after such a long and enjoyable day, so it was just a quick snack, cup of tea and off to bed.  It was so good to be invited to attend such an interesting  exhibition.