3 days later

Thread Slumming with Maureen

Okay, that's slightly strong verbage...we went to very nice places so "slumming" isn't really appropriate but that's the word that came to mind. LOL!

I called Maureen fairly early in the week to see what the plans were. I knew Brenda Rewhorn was visiting from the UK and would be there the upcoming weekend. Things had changed a bit from the potential plan she emailed me right before I left. Actually that worked out well - otherwise I was going to have 2 events on Saturday and I didn't think it would work out.



Maureen is fairly new to tatting - at it for less than 2 years but she's as much an addict as any of us. She is an exceptionally pleasant woman who went out of her way to accommodate me. I hold great appreciation for her!









On Wednesday, the 19th, she picked me up and we went to the Queensland Craft and Quilt Fair at the Brisbane Exhibition Centre. The fair goes on for FIVE days! It is HUGE!

Maureen kept mentioning the workshops but the few I'd noticed required a fee. Dummy me - only a few required a fee. Most were absolutely free! Not that I really had time for that. LOL! I can't find my map with the floor plan but in the "what's new" section of the fair brochure, there are 42 different vendors named. On the down side of that, Maureen mentioned some of her favorites weren't there because the table fees have become exorbitant. Oh...did I mention quilts? Half of this fair was a quilt show. The exhibition center is over a mile long. Now there was an Enterology convention going on too, so the fair didn't take up the entire space, but I'm sure it had to be half the buidling. Most of it was other crafts, most notably quilting and sewing crafts, scrapbooking and knitting. There were no tatting booths, per se, but a couple did carry tatting books (where I picked up Judith Connors' book) and some had thread and tatting supplies. I bought several balls of Finca size 16 at one booth. The size 16 is very similar to most perle cotton size 12. I have some Regina thread size 16 but it's closer to size 20. So much for standard thread sizing.

I also bought some gifts already made and I can't say what they are because the recipients do read this thing from time to time, when they want to know what I'm up to. And I bought a bunch of buttons - hmmmmm...yep, I just forgot where I laid them down. I got several Nikki Tervo buttons which are quite expensive. Though not as expensive as some I saw in Lincraft. More about that on another day.



Then there was another booth where I bought some lovely wooden buttons, including one that was fish shaped with lines etched just like one of my shuttles. At that booth, I had to spend a little more money to use my credit card (minimum purchase thing) and so I got 2 bobbins. ooooh...just realized these take spangles. I get to decorate some bobbins! I can't show all the buttons because some are for a special project ...yeah...they might see it here and they would know IMMEDIATELY it was for them.

Gee...sure seems like I had a lot more buttons...but when some are $3-$4 a pop...it doesn't take long to add up.

The quilts were fabulous! There was one where you were supposed to look for the spider - there were all kinds of things to look for - fairies and dragonflies and flowers and such. It was a beautiful quilt and fun to look at too! There was one display of quilted postcards. The sign said "All the Way from Alaska". I never did figure out exactly what that meant as some of them were clearly local, but Maureen spotted one from Indiana. I asked if I could take a pic and the lady said yes...but it seems I really wasn't supposed to. shhhhhhhhhhh.............




So...that's it for the Fair. I'll have to cover the rest on another day.