Shopped until I dropped...

I paid a visit to the Birmingham NEC at the weekend and had a fabulous time - it was the Craft, Hobbies and Stitch International Trade Fair!

I was supposed to be checking out the ribbons, buttons and fabrics for Halfpenny Home but couldn't resist a look at the Cico Books and Rylands, Peters and Small stand...

and A Green Guide to Country Crafts was amongst the titles beautifully displayed there!

How exciting! Here it is accompanied by the skeins of yarn from The Gedgrave Flock, we dyed them with woad, purple feather reed heads and madder - all beautiful rich and vibrant colours!

But I had a lot of shopping to do! We love ric rac and are always looking out for new and exciting colours and sizes of it. This gorgeous green and sky blue had arrived at Halfpenny HQ during the week but I have found some others, they will be with us very soon...

I was pretty pleased with the recent additions to our range of ribbons but again I have found some others that (I think) are even nicer!

Embroidered ribbon with a vintage feel is always a big hit with us and I couldn't believe my luck when I found several designs and colours that we haven't seen before - I've been frantically taking pictures of them all to get them on the website - they are so lovely!

There was so much to see and there are a lot of treats on their way to us including bias binding in floral prints, polka dots and paisley designs...I was quite worn out with all the excitement!

Visitors to HH HQ have been amused by my attempts to keep the big table clear for cutting fat quarters - I'm trying! I keep getting distracted by the new buttons, these are some of the new cotton poplin prints!

Lovely roses and daises!

Polka dot PVC table covering - who says it's just for tables?! We made bunting with it and with the fabulous gingham bias binding it sets off the OPEN sign a treat!

It makes everyone smile, Nic x