Wealden Times Midwinter Fair

Well! What an exhausting and exhilarating week it was last week! The Wealden Times Midwinter Fair took an absolute age to get here, then rushed up too quickly and was over in a flash! There was so much to do leading up to this event and I almost lost the plot in the previous week when I was trying to build up my stock of kits and kept running out of everything important I needed to put the kits together. I was cutting threads on the bus, and fabrics in the evening- and I must say thank you to The Lovely Mother who stepped in a couple of times and cut up the fabrics for the kits for me, it was a real help!
Once I'd started getting a few completed I was feeling a bit better but there were a lot of stress headaches going on leading up to the set up day.
The event was held at The Hop Farm in Paddock Wood, about an hour away from us. Dad and I loaded up the car the night before, completely demolishing the studio which still looks like a hurricane has hit it, and then we travelled up bright and early to be there as soon as we could get in.

It's amazing how large the tented village was! Made up of nine different tents all linked together to become an enormous walkway, they were floorboarded and had a heating system so were very posh considering we were in the middle of a field! Only a handful of other exhibitors were there when we arrived so it was very easy to find our spot and the new framework and curtains went up really quickly. I am so chuffed with this framework!!! It makes a very cosy space to exhibit work and it's really easy to shut up for the night too. As the space had been marked out in tape on the floor all we had to do was set the legs up in the corners and extend the cross bars to fit! It was slightly squiffy as my space was not exactly square and I had a big post for the canvas wall running through the centre of the tent in one corner that meant I lost a few centimetres but it didn't really matter in the end.

This was the first time all of the curtains had been hung up on the frame and they all fitted perfectly (thank goodness). Once the shelves and the table was up as well it really looked amazing and Dad settled down into the chair in the corner whilst I decorated with holly garlands and lights, and started setting out the stock.

There were a few drips coming off of the marquee roof whilst we were setting up which I think was caused by the first day of heating the tent condensating on the inside. Luckily it didn't drip at all for the rest of the weekend but we covered the tent across the top and at the front on that first night just in case of drips.
It's quite hard to walk away and leave the Stitchscapes to fend for themselves against unknown entities although I felt slightly easier this time than at the Kent County Show where everything was just covered over on the table and left. At least this had more of a secure appearance to it.
We had to leave quite early as we had other things going on in the afternoon, so took away as much as we could to keep the space clear and free inside (2 metres square is not particularly large!) and drove away. Neither of my neighbours had arrived at this point so we had no idea what it would look like the following morning.

On our return the next day the space had been transformed with the arrival of all of the other stands and exhibitors. We arrived really early to avoid the traffic rush and also so I could carry on setting out my stock as I hadn't wanted to put everything out in case of knocks, and in case it carried on raining inside the tent. I am really pleased with how the space looked, although next time will need to come up with a way to better hold the banner to the front of the table, and also a better way of doing the tablecloths as I don't really like the gap that has been caused at the front but I don't think I could have done it a differently this time around.

I am in love with my shelves which were a great addition to the frame work as they allowed me to exhibit so much more and helped to catch customer's eyes as they wandered past. S-hooks are a fabulous invention and enabled me to hang a smaller mesh grid off of the frame which I could hang my bigger Stitchscapes from. I could probably do with two of these mesh grids, although I borrowed this one from a friend as we had a little car space trouble (my bigger grids won't fit in our car), so that then I can hang pictures all along that side.

The first day was a brilliant success!! I sold my In The Pink original piece as well as the Snowy Alps original which I hope will be thoroughly enjoyed by their new owners. Thank you to everyone who purchased something from me, however small it may have been.

As the light went the inside of the tent became quite cosy with the individual stand lights and some naked bulbs attached to the tent roof. Once the lights on the stands went out though it was quite dark! It was super easy to cover the front of my tent with the sheet and grippers (another reason to love the framework!) and I made my way outside to be collected by The Parents who did an amazing job, especially Dad, of chauffeuring me there and back each day and helping out with the stand on occasion so that I could go and have a wander around the rest of the show.

We had to rush to the studio that evening to restock as I hadn't taken very many original pieces, and having sold two in one day, was then struggling to fill the space. The following day I moved everything around again to fit the new pieces in, and I am so pleased to say that the Moon Flower Town original also found a new home, right at the end of the day! I shall have to try stitching some more greyscale pieces I think, this one has had a lot of interest for quite a while with the printed products being popular purchases.

The kits always go down really well, although they alternate in popularity which never ceases to amaze me. On Etsy, the Summer Sweet kit is by far and away the most popular purchase, but at the Kent show, everyone was after the Naked Stitchscape Kits which weren't of much interested at the WT event. At this show the Summer kit managed to hang on to its kit champion title, closely followed by the #inthehoop Spring and Stitchscape Pebble kits.
After all of my worrying about releasing the Button Mountain kit in time, there wasn't a great deal of interest during the show but I'm sure it will have its time. I had many conversations with punters at the show regarding the recent discussion in the news about surgeons being concerned about the lack of fine motor skills new students are presenting. Textiles, practical hands-on subjects and the arts are being undercut so much in schools, with such a huge emphasis on academic subjects, that it is affecting hand-eye coordination and the ability to work with your hands, so the students are brilliant at the academic side of the profession but not so good at the physical task of the surgery.
Embroidery doesn't just give you physical skills, it also increases concentration levels, the ability to sit still and follow something through, and mindfullness (another big word of the moment). If you are concentrating on nothing but one stitch after another it is a kind of meditation and brings such a huge sense of peace and achievement when you've finished the project. I am a big believer in this stuff and try to bring these projects to my Guides during our meetings, where it is already very obvious which girls work on similar projects at home because they can sit still without fidgeting throughout the task and will actually concentrate on it rather than getting easily distracted and giving up after the first five minutes rather than patiently working through. Obviously some of it comes down to personality and interests also but a big part of it is that they don't do these activities at home.

Stepping down off my soap box, I took a little project to work on during the quiet moments of the show. Customers really like to know what I am working on and often like to see what's happening in my hoop. I discovered a spare little frame at home so it was the perfect size to stash away and pick up when needed. I am still loving the autumn colours of the National trust properties visited a few weeks ago and mentioned in my last post, as well as the sunrises that we have seen recently so this is based on those colours, with a lovely scrap of orange Kaffe Fassett fabric popped in the middle. I wasn't overly sure on the blue floral fabric and was nearly ready to take it out and try something else but now I've finished the piece, which I'll get to in a moment, I'm really pleased I stayed with my gut instinct.

I am a real fidget with my stands if I have the space to be, and I spent quite a lot of time shuffling pieces around and trying different ways to present them. These mini hoops had been threaded onto the mesh wall at the side of the stand but I wanted them to have more of an impact so laid them out in a sea of turquoise organza bags right at the front of the stand which really made people notice them.
The second day wasn't as good in terms of takings as the first but there were a lot more conversations with customers about their experiences with embroidery- a topic I can quite happily natter on about for hours!

Day three (the final day) started bright and early with the most amazing sunrise as we drove along. We were all pretty tired by this time as these shows really do take it out of you- the act of standing for the most of the day hurts your feet, and you get cheek ache from the perpetual smile but it's well worth it.

I had my first chance to wander around the whole event in the morning just as it was opening up. With nine tents it was pretty large, three of those tents were dedicated to cafes and bars, there was a tent selling speciality foods and the others were all dedicated to crafts and home and gardenwares. There were a few stand alone tents outside as well! All of the tents were colour coded with giant balloons to help people find their way around, but I loved the colourful lanterns in the street food village tent!

With some more fidgeting happening just after lunch, separating out the kits into individual boxes with the sample pieces tucked in front, the third day was absolutely packed with punters hell bent on finding the best presents for their loved ones. In terms of sales this was the worst day as most people either had a list or a budget but there was lots of talking and laughing so it wasn't all bad.
Dad and The Brother (who'd been drafted in as hired muscle) came at the end to help take everything down and we were away within half an hour! Tired but happy. We met some lovely new people and some previous and returning customers which was fantastic- the world of Stitchscapes is spreading!

And my show project was finished at the weekend with the final orange flower centres added in. I really love the stem stitch flowers in the Kaffe Fassett fabric and I think the blue works really nicely actually, I'm glad I didn't pull it out!