Melbourne Craft fair visit

Hey ho blog readers.  This week is my first week back at uni and already I feel stressed and slightly panicky.  Lots of big assignments, scary talk about job searching, the need to create teaching portfolios, and placements in only four weeks.

So what should I do on my Fridays off.  Get a start on my assignments?  Don't be silly!  I went to the big craft and quilt fair held in Melbourne this weekend.  For those who are not aware, this is a big annual event held at Jeff's Shed (aka Melbourne Exhibition Centre), in Southbank.  It's a massive area filled with stands selling stuff for lots of different crafts from knitting to quilting to beading to embroidery and a few other odd bits and bobs.

There are only a few problems with it.  First of all, it is always PACKED with people.  I got there just as they opened for the day and hoped that being a weekday would make a difference but to no avail.  The aisles fill very quickly and by the time I left, negotiating the crowd involved a great deal of shuffling and human pinball. Sidenote- why do people insist on bringing those wheeled bags along?  They, along with the odd poor child crying in a large stroller, do not help traffic flow!  There is a cloakroom (um, for stuff you buy and bags, not for the small children I mean).

Secondly, I always seem to spend far too much money!  I had to be quite good this year (poor uni student and all that), but even so it's amazing how easy it is to succumb to temptation!

Rather than show all the things I bought, I thought I'd show a few things that are on my wish list because I couldn't justify the expense today.  Partly because this means I can have more posts showing the stuff and my attempts at them in later blog posts but mainly because I put away some of the things and can't be bothered digging them out again right now to photograph them.  It's been a long day, after all.

First of all, I LOVED the Spring Garden beaded lariat necklace that was at the Room for Threads website but they didn't have any kits available at the stand and I couldn't have afforded it today if they did.  The colours in the photo on the site don't do justice to the real thing- not gaudy bright, but a cheerful bright that I could actually see me wearing.  What I did buy was the Cotton Reel tassel in the darker colours.  While I am not sure about the cotton reel part, I do love the little flowers and the technique for the strings of the tassel so I want to learn the technique.

Next on the wish list are a number of quilts from Ann Gadsby Designs, in particular the lovely fairy quilts.  Both the Fairy Garden and the Happy Valley quilts in particular.  The only thing that scares me in any quilt is the high cost of a full quilt means I'm terrified that I'll muck it up in assembly.  I've got to find some good practice projects so I can justify buying one of these lovely kits (I'd hate to buy a kit and then have it live in a box for years if I got it now).

There were lots of other things I loved (any number of other more traditional, standard quilts for instance) but since I didn't get brochures with handy web urls on them I'll leave it there for now.  The Melbourne Craft Fair is on for another couple of days until Sunday so if you are a Melbournian who likes their crafts then it could be a good weekend activity for you.  Plan on at least half a day, more if you want to watch any talks or do any craft workshops (I did quite a few last year, they are great for a quick lesson on a new craft).