The Stitches and Craft Show

March 18, 2007

The Stitches and Craft Show

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I do look forward to the Melbourne Stitches and Craft Show, held at the Caulfield Racecourse in Melbourne every March. I don’t know if it’s coincidental that it’s run at the same time as the Australian Grand Prix; maybe it’s a refuge for women escaping petrol-head mania. And I will be up front here and state categorically that I am not into stitching in any way shape or form. I only go for the paper crafting. Or to be more specific the papercrafting workshops.

This year Fiskars brought Heidi Grace out to co-run some workshops featuring their products. Heidi seemed like a lovely fun person. I caught her first workshop of the day and she conducted half of it with her new baby Reagan strapped in a harness to her front. Reagan, incidentally was beautifully behaved and looks like being indoctrinated into the scrapbooking and cardmaking world before teething. The workshop was designed to give us an opportunity to use lots of Fiskars products and we made three cards in 45 minutes. However, I have to say that whilst it was good to try the equipment, the pace of the workshop was very stressful and I would rather have walked away with one really speccy card than three fairly ordinary ones. But we also got a free Fiskars craft apron so I certainly am not complaining.

I then took myself off to the Hot off the Press workshops which are conducted by Sheila Cafferkey from Birch, who import the products. I always like to go to these workshops and for me they are the highlight of the Show. Sheila is an excellent trainer and her workshops don’t feel stressful as you strive to keep up with the pace. Also the items that you make are ones that use interesting techniques and are items that you are happy to use. I stayed for two cardmaking workshops, a scrapbook page workshop and one where we made a cute little notepad (but I’m hanging on to the technique to make quick and easy mini albums. The collage on the right isn’t exactly colour coordinated, but it features all of the four items I made in the workshops as well a little pic of Sheila.

By the time the workshops were over I only had enough time for a half an hour to whip around the stands and pick up some bits for the stash before the day was over.