The blue bird of pincushions

I had hoped to get to the Sewing and Crafts Show at the Tradex on Friday, however, crazy crap was happening at work that day and it wasn't a good time to go, so I went on Saturday.

Like a good little housewife, first I made a loaf of chocolate banana bread and made some whip cream so the boys had some snacks while I was gone. Then I went to the show. I had timed it so I could walk around for a while and then take a needle felting class. The title of this show should really be the "Sewing and Quilting" show as very few other crafts were represented. A couple of scrapbooking booths and 2 (maybe three) yarn booths. One ribbon embroidery booth. I was really hoping to see more crafty things as the title implied.

However, the class I took was quite interesting. It was needlefelting around a Styrofoam base. Apparently some people (wool purists) told the instructor that using Styrofoam was not true needle felting and one person even mentioned she had " issues with Styrofoam" (she didn't feel it was environmentally friendly). The class was only an hour, so we had to finish the projects at home. The instructor (Debra Quatermain) was so nice she gave supplies for two other projects - a bunny and a fairy tale cottage. I have not yet made the bunny.

I did learn about all the different fibres you can add to your needle felting, such as glittery pieces and learned about the felting templates you can buy.

Here is the completed bird pincushion. I will have to retake and re post these photos as my camera battery was dying and I had to rush (the colours are off and the photo is not clear):

And the fairy tale cottage:

And now you know where I was on Sunday - stabbing little bits of wool.

And now for my last thought of the day - I spent about 5 years working on trade show floors in the US, selling at Christmas and gift shows. I frequently visited other trade shows operating at the same time and the one thing I noticed is the number of show specials and freebies and information that would be handed out. In the last couple of trade shows I have attended in Vancouver, the last two at Tradex - I have not received any promotional material. I would even have to ask for a business card and prices in the booths were the same as the prices in the store, so there was no incentive to buy while on site. Perhaps I am not comparing apples to oranges, but I think Americans do a much better job at trade shows and Canadians could make our trade shows a whole lot better. Hmm, maybe I need to become a trade show consultant.....