I Made the K&S This Year!

After last year's trauma of being really ill and then deciding to take myself off to Harrogate to catch up with the K&S in November, it was a relief to make it through to the day without cough, cold or anything else for that matter!  Maggie, Fiona and I picked up our press passes, which we were very grateful for as the bag checks and security meant the queues were right back to the coach park.  I know it was for the right reasons but you would have thought they would know that only 3 people on the door would struggle if you know how many hundreds of tickets you have sold. 

As always I took myself off, with instructions to scout for the WoW mag of course, and made all my purchases first.  I like getting that out of the way before settling back to enjoy the galleries and demos.  It seems a lot of the photos I thought I had taken didn't actually make it to my phone, probably my stupidity or iOS 11.  

I did find this lady, Yoko Hagen, and all her lovely Temari balls and as I have a basket of prepared balls waiting to stitch perhaps I should dig them out and get on with a few!! 

They looked smashing on her tree too. 

I caught up with Marian Hall of Textile Snippets.  Her three Xenotopia pieces were amazing to see for real.  Larger than I thought they would be and you certainly have a perspective in them that you don't quite see on the screen. 

I loved the EG Page 17 display.  I think it could have been in a much larger space to be honest! 

A nice piece from Jean Littlejohn.

And Jan Messent. (Love her work)

This Game of Thrones piece by Lise Leigh caught my eye, it was beautifully stitched. 

And these cute chickens by my near stitchy neighbour Rosemary Jarvis. 

There didn't seem to be as many galleries this year, or perhaps I just was in zombie land.  I did find the day tiring even though I'd taken extra iron and because of the match at Wembley the coach wasn't going to leave until 5pm.  A lot of us were ready to leave by 3.30 really.  It's still nice to spend the day with creative friends though. 

Even Maggie managed a demo stint on the Art Van Go stand.  

Back home now and nothing too exciting in the purchases, nothing to show really, and I can make a start on a few pieces that have been waiting until after the show. 

We have a huge, multi stemmed Hawthorn partway up the back garden.  Sadly two of the trunks decided to start to collapse recently.  With some careful planning and cuts with the chainsaw John managed to direct the falls to miss the topiary trains.  We now have a much smaller, safer Hawthorn and the trains are intact too.  I dont think they would have survived the big blow that is currently trying to strip the trees of leaves at the moment!

The much thinner tree is on the left and there has been an awful lot of branches to dispose of which John has been gradually dealing with.  Thankfully a lot will be seasoned for the log burners. 

Stay safe in the storm which is the end of hurricane Ophelia!