The London Stitch Show 2005

Sorry for the delay in telling you about my week-end... So much housework and "usual" work to catch up with!
This weekend was so packed with fun things, I know I'll be forgetting half of it... Luckily San reviewed it too, so hopefully between the two of us we shall have it covered.

First, I need to show you the wonderful doily San gave me on my arrival.

Isn't is gorgeous? I feel so touched that she crocheted it just for me! And she chose my favourite colour too - pastel blue...
On Friday San, her mother and me chatted and stitched and crocheted (at least San did, I didn't start crocheting until the next day). A very nice and cosy afternoon. I was marvelling at San's lovely interior. Stunning cross-stitched pictures everywhere, lovely doilies, and everything is so fresh and feminine!
(The places where I lived used to be in the same style... until I moved in with Seb, who's of the sober type. Somehow we met halfway, me giving up on some of my cute things and he getting more sensitive to having some ).

On Saturday morning we got up early to go to the Stitch Show. I was soooo excited, this was my first show ever!! It was hard for me to imagine in advance all the stitched pieces I'd see. I mean, I've always been the only one to stitch among my friends/relatives and the first time I saw someone else's stitching, it was in December 2004 when I met San. This explains why I'm answering last week's Stitching Bloggers Question only now!

First we met Allison, a friend of San's. Oh she's so adorable! We all got along great, San, her mother, Allison and me.

Of course we had to start with Margaret Sherry! We were so lucky, her stand was empty when we entered the Olympia, so we had a good chat. Dear Margaret is just as sweet as her drawings! And it was so nice of her to show us all her drawings and sketchings. From now on I will backstich MS designs with grey thread, in order to imitate pencil: they will look so much more like the originals!

Admiring dear Margaret's work

She was so sweet that she signed autographs and even offered to have a picture taken of us both. See how delighted and honoured I looked!

Then I oohed and aahed at all the stunning stitched pieces exhibited everywhere. I was truly dazed. Had to take pictures of the Mirabilias, here's one sample:

To the right, you can see the Petal Fairy, my favourite... I almost bought her. Almost. But I felt so bad because DBF isn't keen on these designs at all and, hey, I can't decide for our decoration on my own. Plus it'd be such a big project to stitch for me, I feel it has to be enjoyable for Sébastien too, since he'll be looking at me stitching it for so long.
Of course when I came back on Sunday night and told him about it, he was upset that I didn't buy the material pack, since he knew I so wanted her! Ah well... My birthday's soon...

Don't worry, I bought other kits anyway! I bought a Forever Friend teddy hugging the letter "i", quite lucky as there were only 4 letters available! I also got the Lavender Fairy, and a beautiful bigger project which I can't talk about yet... *wink to San who knows why*. Plus a pack of aida pieces, of different sizes and colors, and another of evenweave pieces, each pack for one pound!
I also got a mini kit (a previous freebie from Quick and Easy), a little dog peering from behind a door. I started stitching it on the Eurostar back to Paris, as an extra gift for my brother's Bday, but... there aren't enough threads in it! I was quite annoyed as I put 2 hours' stitching into it...
But that didn't stop me from being absolutely delighted by these three days with San! . Just imagine: uniting my passions for English and for stitching (oh I was really missing England!) - and all this... with San!

I also planned a sewing part to this report... but dear, I've written so much already, I'll have to blog about that another time! And I'll need to blog a little about crochet too...