Sewing for Pleasure

This is a bit of a misnomer for this show. There are lots of things to see but not necessarily all that I would categorise under sewing... Anyway, a few years ago I visited this show several times, but the last time I went, I found it all a bit the samey and hadn't been since then. However, I. is into crafts, she's slowly taking an interest in learning to knit/sew, so I thought it'd be a nice day out together. It helped that they had an exhibition of the costumes from Strictly Come Dancing and some knitting thing to do with Shaun the Sheep - both of which I knew she'd enjoy. When we were driving to Birmingham yesterday morning, I suddenly got a bit worried she'd be bored after half an hour, but I needn't have worried - she loved it all. We spent the first hour just looking at the different stalls, although we ended up at mostly the ones she wanted to look at rather than the ones I would have looked at had I been on my own. I didn't mind too much though, as I don't have much time for creativity anyway and can do without spending anything right now. I gave her a bit of spending money so she wouldn't have to wait for me to say 'yes you can buy that', which she thoroughly enjoyed and even spent fairly wisely. At lunchtime we stopped off at the fashion show. I'd not been to one before but it was really good - they used students from a fashion college as models and were modelling a range of clothes sewn from standard patterns, knitwear and the students' own creations. It lasted 45 minutes and I thought she'd get bored with it, but she didn't - it helped that the final scene was 'An explosion in pink'!
After lunch and a bit more of a walkaround we popped into Hobbycrafts next door which I thought beforehand she might enjoy more than Sewing for Pleasure, but she didn't at all - neither did I for that matter. After a brief visit there she really wanted to go back to Sewing for Pleasure, but we hadn't had our hands stamped, it was getting on for time and I couldn't be bothered to explain at the entrance that yes, we had tickets and no we hadn't been stamped... So we went home after that, especially as it was another 2 hour drive back home.

We both really enjoyed it though and are both keen on going again next year. Which is lovely, as it was great spending some time on my own with my girl, who's getting far more grown-up than I had realised...

Will leave you with some photos of the dancing costumes and the knitted gingerbread house!