ID Creatives Lille 2012

Yesterday I went to "ID Créatives", a craft expo that goes from town to town in France. I went to the event 4 years ago, but it was so small, with not much, that I didn't go every year.

But this year I felt like checking it out, if only to have a feel of the new trends. So I called my mom to make a day out of it. Hum, this I said day? It took us a little more than an hour to browse all the stands !!! can you say "small"????

First, I have to congratulate the organisation of the stands. There were different sections, textile, paper, customisation, cooking, decoration, each with a different colour on the floor. It helps a lot to know where you are.

Then, of course, what did we see? Lots of paper stuff, scrapbooking, little elements to decorate whatever you want, beads, fabric... It was mostly shops in there, of course. So there were loads of lovely tiny things to see, and so I was left with 2 options : buy a lot, too much, that will end up with the rest of the "must haves" from years past, that never got used, or just look. I went for option 2.

Mom got me a spritzer, to make great effects by turning markers into airbrush. I still have to master this, I'll talk more about it later !

Now, many will ask : "where are the expo pictures?" Well, I forgot to take my camera. It's been so long since I blogged on a regular basis, I lost the reflex to take the camera with me everywhere. Anyway, many stands had a "no photography" sign, and the pictures would have looked a lot like the ones 4 years ago, so just click on the link above to see them.

All in all, it was an enjoyable time out, but a short one.

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Hier j'ai été à ID Créatives avec ma maman. Ca faisait 4 ans que je n'avais plus été, car le salon était très petit. He bien il n'a pas vraiment grandi !!!! Au bout d'une heure, on avait fait le tour.

On y trouve pas mal de tissus, perles et autres éléments de custo, ainsi que beaucoup de trucs scrap et papier. Des boutiques, et peu de créateurs. 

On peut applaudir l'organisation des stands par thème, désignés par des couleurs différentes sur le sol. Du coup, on savait si on était dans la région papier ou déco instantanément en regardant ses pieds.

Sinon, pas d'achats, maman m'a juste offert un spritzer, une sorte de pompe qui transforme n'importe quel feutre en aérographe. C'est assez étonnant, mais je dois encore pratiquer pour arriver à faire quelque chose de convainquant. On en reparlera plus tard.

Vous allez me demander "où sont les photos?". En fait, j'ai oublié mon appareil (perte du réflexe de blogger). de toute façon cela aurait donné les mêmes photos qu'il y a 4 ans, et en plus certains stands interdisaient les photos !

En conclusion, c'était bien agréable de voir les nouvelles tendances, mais ce fut bien court.

A day in England...

6am: Mom picks me up from DBF's and off we go to Calais to take the shuttle to England, and... the Knitting and Stitching show in Alexandra Palace !





10am: We managed to be there at opening time. Long toilet queues, loads of people, loads of stuff to see and buy... The usual !





Less papercraft stands, and more beads. A good part of quilting, knitting and stitching... And beautiful things in the exposition part, wonderful quilts and such.





As shown on the picture, I got a lot of stuff. Threads for the Halloween fairy and Tinkerbell, Little House Needleworks, Lizzie Kate, Waxing moon patterns, fabrics, tatting books, Mill Hill snowmen kits...





2pm: We drive back to Folkestone. Shopping, tea, fish and chips and a tour at the beach ! The weather was wonderful, a true Indian Summer... A wonderful very long day from 6am to 22.30pm !!!

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6h du mat: maman me prend chez DBF, et en avant pour Calais, le shuttle et l'Angleterre !!!



10h du mat: Nous avons réussi à arriver à l'ouverture du Knitting and Stitching Show à Alexandra Palace.

Et là, comme d'habitude, plein de monde, de jolies choses à voir et à acheter, de longues files aux toilettes... Et voilà ce que j'en ai rapporté:

Les fils manquants pour Halloween fairy et Tinkerbell, des modèles Little House Needleworks, Lizzie Kate, Waxing moon, de la toile, des livres de frivolité, des kits Mill Hill...

14h: On se dirige vers Folkstone, pour achats, thé, "fish and chips" et... la mer !

Somme toute, une très longue journée (6h du mat à 22h30 !!!), superbe temps d'été indien, c'était super !!!

Salon ID-Créatives de Lille 2008

Today, English version afterwards (let's mix and match...)...

Hier matin, sous un soleil radieux (mais un fond de l'air un peu frisquet), moi et mon rhume avons pris le métro pour le Grand Palais de Lille.

Ambiance urbaine aérée et ecolo avec tous les arbres qui n'ont pas encore rougi (c'est pas encore l'Automne? )


Au dehors, à part un couple d'ancêtres, pas un chat. Par contre, en entrant il y avait foule pour prendre le ticket.

Premier choc. les gens ne font pas vraiment la queue, c'est un amas de gens qui se demande pourquoi on n'avance pas (des gens qui posent problème pour payer?).



Donc... ça prend du temps pour voir le ticket, mais après.... c'est plus cool. Après un couloir blanc avec les logos de couleur, on arrive dans l'aire d'expo.

Première zone: textile. Ca tombe bien, c'est ce qui m'intéresse ! Premier stand: Sew it all où j'ai pu acheter de la toile et du fil.



L'expo est super bien organisée: les disciplines par couleur (le textile est en rose), et regroupées ensemble, une zone nourriture, une zone atelier, le nom des exposants bien en évidence sur les tags sur le coté des stands...

L'ambience est très sympa, vu que les exposants sont principalement des petites boutiques venues se présenter, et des associations (clubs?).

Il y avait d'ailleurs des dentellières en pleine démonstration, des brodeuses aussi à l'oeuvre, et une dame très passionnée par la broderie suisse sur toile à carreaux (à qui j'ai pris les grilles Chouette alors et Tiens donc).

Par contre, il doit y avoir 30 exposants à tout casser, et donc en 1h j'ai fait le tour, et fait mes achats !

J'ai trouvé un cadeau d'anniversaire pour ma grand mère (machine à coudre et mannequin miniature) et un vieux Marianne Noel que je voulais mais que j'avais raté.

A 11h30 j'étais rentrée à la maison, mais j'avais trouvé des super choses !!!



Yesterday morning, I took the underground in the sunny but chilly weather, despite my big cold.

The expo is in the urban but green area of Lille, and there weren't that many people outside.

But the queue for the tickets was huge. Well, it wasn't a queue, it was a mass of people wondering how giving 6euros for a ticket could take so long.

So it took quite some time, and then the expo wasn't that crowded.

The expo was small (about 30 stands max), but well organised, as the stands were groupped by craft, in different colours, and with the names well in evidence.

The first at the entrance was Sew it all, where I bought some fabrics and metallic threads.

The atmosphere was nice, kind of intimate, as it was mostly little shops from around France, and associations, like the lace makers in action.


So were very passionate about their craft, like that lady about chicken stitch (where I bought the patterns).

I also found a discount back issue of Marianne Noel I missed 2 years ago...

It was all quite quick, I was home at 11h30 !!!

CrossStitcher 201 July 2008

Freebie: Margaret Sherry's holiday cat. This is the main reason why I bought the magazine. The threads in this kit look like that cheap Chinese brand again, but this time you have DMC and Anchor equivalents written on the chart. So you could use your own threads.

The mood of the magazine is... Fresh. And not only because it's written int he subtitle ofthe cover ;) Lots of pink and clear tones....

The only project that makes it to my to do list is Andree Langhorn's little fairies. I'm sure the occasion will rise that I will stitch those for someone. They have that cute baby/50ies look my grandma loves so much.

The rest of the magazine is made for summer, with realistic boats and cars, baby samplers and flowers.

There is a traditional sampler in there as well, and I got a huge shock when I saw it was from "Tournicoton", a French designer we French stitchers know only too well !!! It's great to see UK magazines taking an interest in a foreign designer... There's even a feature about Anne. Unfortunately I don't really like the sampler, I guess it's the pink/brown colour...

Oh, and for those of you who got taken in the Indiana Jones storm, there'a pattern of Harrison Ford.

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Cadeau: Chat Margaret Sherry en vacances. C'est la raison pour laquelle j'ai achete ce magazine. Les fils sont encore des fils bon marche de Chine, mais cette fois-ci l'equivalent DMC et Anchor sont sur la grille, donc on peut utiliser ses propres fils si on veut.

L'ambiance generale du magazine est.... "frais". Et pas seulement parce que c'est le sous-titre sur la couverture. Et "ete" aussi.

Le seul projet que j'ai envie de broder est les petites fees de Andree Langhorn. Elles sont dans un style bebe/annees 50 qui plait a ma grand mere. Un cadeau en perspective...

Le reste du magazine sent l'ete, avec des bateaux/voitures realistes, des trucs pour naissance, etc...

Il y a aussi un sampler traditionnel qui a capte mon attention. Et quelle ne fut pas ma surprise de decouvrir que c'est un projet "Tournicoton" !!! He oui, la creatrice francaise de Anne et Tournicoton a fait une percee en Angleterre, n'est-ce pas super? En plus il y a auusi une presentation apres la grille.

Et pour celles qui sont dans la deferlante "Indiana Jones", il y a une grille pour broder la tete de Harrison Ford.

World of CrossStitching 139

Free gift: All Our Yesterdays mini kit. Yet another one... I guess, if some are fans...
I mainly bought this magazine for Joan elliott's Stitching Angel. I will start it when I'm finished with reviews... The only thing is I don't like her mouth, it's too low, I will have to change it.
Also note an original finish: instead of sewing the design on the fabric of the cushion, it's fusible web.
Another pattern that will go in my to do pile, only a bit deeper, is Gail Bussi's fairy scene.
Other patterns include
- a lovely Solo cat cuddly scene (would stitch it if I was a cat fan)
- a japanese scene from Sue Page (colours too faint)
- a seaside sampler
- realistic falcon by Lesley Teare
- mini motifs for olympic games, kite and ballons, and cats cards.

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NB: ma premiere critique de magazine en francais....

Cadeau: un mini kit de All my Yesterdays. Encore un. Je suppose qu'il y a de nombreux fans...

J'ai achete ce magazine pour le "Stitching Angel" de Joan Elliott. Je vais le commencer des aujourd'hui d'ailleurs. Mais comme je trouve que la bouche est trop basse, je vais devoir la changer.

Notez aussi que au lieu de coudre le projet sur le coussin, il est colle avec du "fusible web" (si quelqu'un connait l'equivalent francais...)

L'autre projet qui me tente bien est la fee de Gail Bussi.

Sinon, il y a aussi:

- des chats calins de Solo Cat
- une scene japonaise de Sue Page (couleurs un peu trop passees a mon gout)
- une scene de plage
- un faucon
- des mini motifs pour les jeux olympiques, cerf volants et ballons, et des cartes avec des chats.

When magazines try to trick us....

This deserves a whole post for itself... Stay tuned for my Bee Harmony happy dance.

Yesterday, after I finished Bee Harmony, I decided to work on the owl.

Remember how I complained about the dark fabric being visible under my clear stitches?

I was thinking about all thatgreen and blue I would have to stitch after the owl, and looking at the model picture when I saw those stitches had clear spots underneath.

So I looked closely at the model and that's when I realised the stitched piece has been stitched on white, and then the thing has been cut and paste onto dark blue aida ! If you look at the close up, it becomes very clear indeed....

No wonder the owl looks all plump and white on the model...

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Ceci est tellement choquant que j'ai decide de faire un message special, ne manquez pas le suivant avec mon sampler termine !

Donc, hier soir, apres avoir fini mon sampler, je me suis remise au hibou. J'etais entrain de contempler tout le vert et bleu qu'il faudrait faire apres le hibou, quand j'ai realise que le fond de ces croix etait clair.

En observant bien, la broderie a ete faite sur toile claire, et apres manipulation graphique, elle a ete collee sur la toile foncee !!!! Regardez la photo de pres....

Je me plaignait que mon hibou avait la toile apparente sous les croix, alors que le modele etait tout beau tout blanc, ben c'est pas etonnant !!!!

The Stitch and Creative show - Excel London 2008

Yesterday I went to the Excel expo. It's the first time I've been there in 8 years, as it's always on a week end when I'm busy.

First, little stats: 1h45 to come and go.... 1h inside.

Yes, many of you are already "aie aie aie"....

There were like 4 stands for Crosstitch: The Black Sheep, Drk, Embroidery.com and similar. All kits. No linen, no threads. No charts.

A lot of card making and paper stuff, with a bit of quilting. And so I was able to get some lovely fabrics for cheap (2pounds for fat quarters, 3 pounds the metre !)

And I got Tilda books I was drooling over on the web on Friday...

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Pour une fois, j'ai pu aller a l'expo de Broderie et activites creatives de Excel a Londres. D'habitude, je ne peux pas y aller car c'est toujours un week end ou je suis occupee.

Niveau statistique, pour une heure et 45 minutes de trajet pour aller et revenir, on est restees 1h a l'interieur ! Vous pouvez ainsi imaginer la petitesse et le manque d'interet de la chose.

A peine quelques stands de point de croix, uniquement des kits, et surtout des trucs pour le papier et quelques trucs de quilt. Zero toiles, zero fils, zero grilles...

Je ne suis pas repartie les mains vides, vu que j'ai eu des livres Tilda dont j'avais envie, et des tissus vraiment pas chers (2 livres pour un fat quarter, 3 livres pour 1metre...)

Donc en fait, l'an prochain, je ferai l'impasse...

CrossStitcher issue 196

Yesterday I bought CrossStitcher magazine. I suppose that's why it's raining lately. But I couldn't resist the Margaret Sherry cats.

Because the magazine blog displays nice pictures, I won't bother with taking some more, and will just "review".

Let's face it, I only bought the magazine for the MS cats freebie. Nothing else of interest (in my tastes). It's mostly modern/deco type of designs. I like the blackwork bears as well, but I don't know what I would do with them.

Now, the freebie... It's quite a big design. Regular size design for a Margaret Sherry cat, like the ones published in the magazines as chart.

So loads of colours provided (and the threads seem to be of the regular kind again, not just the chinese ones), and the fabric is big. there are also laods of fractionals, so we can feel attention to details.

But beware, the threads on the sorter aren't exactly in the order of the key list, so check and plan in advance. I had the problem with a previous freebie...

Otherwise, they want to finish it as a bellpull, but of course they don't provide the top thing. Once again, you would have to buy from Debbie Cripps. Apparently they have a deal with her or something... Of course you can finish it as you want anayway ;)

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Hier j'ai achete le magazine CrossStitcher, ca doit etre pour ca qu'il pleut en ce moment. Mais je n'ai pas su resister les petits chats du kit offert.

Comme il y a deja les photos sur le blog du magazine, je ne vais pas en remettre ici... et donc je vais juste donner mon avis.

En fait, je n'ai achete ce magazine que pour le kit, car le reste est trop moderne et oriente deco a mon gout. J'aime bien les petits ours, mais je ne saurais pas quoi en faire apres, alors...
Le kit est un grand kit. Comme le projet est aussi grand qu'un margaret Sherry habituel, ca veut dire plus de couleurs (avec des fils qui ne semblent pas provenir de Chine comme d'hab), et un grand tissu...

Mais si vous vous attelez a ce projet, verifiez les fils, car ils ne sont pas dans l'ordre de la liste !

CrossStitcher December 2007

Not so long ago I decided to unsubscribe from magazines. And of course, stop the magazine reviews the way I used to make them. I was less and less interested in what was in UK magazines, and reviews were becoming more and more grumpy and not so nice to magazines and designers.

And I personally think it's unfair to make negative reviews when some people with different tastes than mine might enjoy the magazine designs. I think a bad review has more impact than me simply saying "I didn't like any of the designs in this magazines, so I don't buy it".

So from now on I will make the occasional reviews, on things I like. Remain on the positive side, and leave the negative on the personal taste level. And we will begin with the review of December CrossStitcher, because I think it's good ;)

Freebie: teddy Christmas kit from Andree Langhorn. This kit in itself justifies to buy this issue. Not only is the design lovely and delicate, but there is also metallic thread and a star charm. Not to mention the mount.

The only thing is that the threads provided are the crappy looking ones from China. Meaning you will have to be careful not to waste them, because you won't find a replacement in your DMC or Anchor collection. And there is also a weird orange "light mahogany" looking very different from the model pictures...

First we have a Sheila Hudson orchid. If I'm not found of those big flowers, I like the way it's mounted, like a painting canvas. It gives it a modern look. She also made purple cushion with flowers and butterflies. And a dragon.

Then we have a cake band sleigh from Joanne Sanderson. Each individual sleigh might make a nice ornament, or together as a banner, but... on a cake? But don't worry, there are other ideas... I like the mantel piece garland, where you can hang cards on.

Next we have the 4 seasons kitties from Margaret Sherry. I like the idea of sewing them on a bag, even if I won't do that. I feel like stitcher the Autumn one, with the fallen leaves.

Lesley Teare has made a flowers and butterflies bed linen and cushion set. It's very delicate, but it's not to my taste ;)

Jenny Barton made Christmas cards with words. Then we have an Hello Kitty pattern from DMC. This would be a great idea to start a little girl stitching...

"Walking in a winter wonderland" fron the Historical Sampler Company is a radical change from the rest of the designs, more traditional. I like it.

The ABC is things from the sea, and the Margaret Sherry "one letter a month" is "M for monkey". Come on. M for mice? where did that go? Things are really going nowhere...

Zoe Patching made pet bowl designs. Original idea for a gift for a dog or cat owner, but it won't come cheap, as the bowl for insert is 10 pounds !!!!

Helen Philipps made a family tree, very cute and rustic.

Diane Machin made "get well soon" cards.

There you have it. I might stitch the freebie and the MS cats.