Heathfield Show 2025

This was our third year at the Heathfield Agricultural Show in the Arts & Crafts marquee (you can see my posts about 2023 here and 2024 here - look how much Toddler F has grown!). We like it because it is only one day so it isn't spread out over a whole weekend, Toddler F can come and look at all of the tractors, stunt bikes and animals and, Holly, the organiser of the A&C marquee, is very lovely and organised. The attitude of organisers can make a big difference to an event! 

Our usual routine is to set up on the Friday morning as early as we can and, in previous years, we have been known to break into the marquee because it wasn't opened up for us - it was all fine, no one had a problem and we zipped everything back up when the actual entrances were opened. We take two car loads as our car isn't long enough to fit the framework of my stand in so our car gets loaded up to bursting with stock boxes, and then the frame, grid walls, tables, shelves, card and print stands etc get loaded into my parents' car.

I really love this frame. I worry sometimes that it can be isolating once we have the curtains up but I love the feeling of security it gives me considering everything is just left in a field overnight. It maximises the space as well as I can have shelves above tables, utilise the walls...it gives you more areas to display items rather than just a table would and makes me feel more like a little shop. 

Sometimes the neighbours don't like it as they've said before it restricts view of their shop when potential customers are walking around, or they don't have such a good view of other stands, but customers would still have to walk past them so I'm not that worried. I have, on the odd occasion, also come back on show day to discover neighbours have hung lots of their produce off my frame work as part of their own displays too so it sometimes benefits them if they embrace it. 

I faff around deciding how I would like my Stitchscapes and stock displayed, trying to put as much out as possible, photographing it as a reminder and then hiding away anything that would get damaged through moisture or the stand being accidentally knocked by other vendors when setting up. 

We trialled a new way of displaying the kits this year - putting out one of each kit in a stand, with the stitched example so that they were individually easier to see rather than rifling through a basket. We did still have a basket containing the Naked Stitchscape Kit, Stitchscape Pebbles and the Christmas Mini Hoop II kits but the big sellers were all set up in the tiered display. 

The big marquee can get quite damp depending on the heat and weather conditions so we put a tarpaulin down underneath to help with any moisture on the ground, we do also then have the option to create a tarpaulin roof if needed, but usually everything is ok if we layer bubble wrap or old sheets over the top of it. 

Show day! The Heathfield show opens at 8.30am so we have to be up and at 'em to get in before the punters and put everything out that was hidden away the day before. This time round the sheets we put out over the stock were damp on the top but the stock itself was bone dry which was perfect. 

We take a breakfast and lots of things to do for Toddler F so Reece set about getting the kiddo fed whilst I quickly made my shop look all pretty again, setting out prints and cards, tiering up the kits and presenting my hung and propped Stitchscapes. Most of my haberdashery items had already been set up so it wasn't too bad. 

Reece's second job is to go and source breakfast for us - he did excellently well with this absolutely giant hot dog!! Although it was quite tricky to eat without getting ketchup everywhere. They aren't delicate things to munch on are they?

I'm pretty chuffed with how it all looked. I don't want it to be so overwhelming that no one knows what they're looking at, but you also want lots out so that it covers everything I can offer. Thanks to the expansion of the Stitchscape Shop in a box, I could almost do with two tables here now but that might block us in somewhat. If we come back next year I might have to rethink our layout. The problem is that we never know where our position in the tent is until the day of setting up and it does make quite a bit of difference as to how the space is set out. The first year, for example, I had two sides open to the public and poor Dad was sent back to the studio to get more things to have on the second side. 

Our position this year was the same as last time, in the corner with an extra little unusable corner space where we can put down a picnic blanket and some chairs and share it as a relaxed zone with us and our neighbour on that side. The window being there is also great as it makes it nice and light, and we can sneak in and out of that bit as well as there are zips to turn it into an entrance. 

(Happy in his chair nest. Thank goodness for Wifi!)

We had a good day on the show day, it was nice to see the 'Heathfield Show regulars' and several other familiar faces popped by to say hello. Our only problem this year was the weather as it rained in the morning so was quite quiet in comparison to previous years. It did stop raining after a couple of hours but I think it had put people off coming so it was just generally a quieter day. 

The new way of displaying the kits was a success, it felt like more people knew what they were and were coming to have a look. I did get asked a lot whether they were kits so perhaps I need to invest in a better sign? I don't know where I would put it though, to me it's fairly obvious that they are kits, what do you think?

At the end of the day it is utterly amazing how quickly it all comes down again. Literally within half an hour this entire shop and stand was packed away and in the back of the two cars and we were on the road to offload it into my storage. The evening is traditionally spent with our feet up on the sofa, with a takeaway treat for dinner as an edible pat on the back for a job well done. 

Maybe see you there next year?

Fibre Fest - All Things Textile

(Toddler F set out some of his favourite cars on my stand before I could unpack the frames!! I wonder if he'll set up a little car shop one day?)

This year is a year of trying out new events to try and find some that work better for me and my products. Stitchscape kits are actually quite difficult things to sell - people who buy them (or who they are bought for) tend to be those who actually like embroidery, don't mind the slow pace and are willing to have a go. My most regularly heard excuses for not buying kits are; I don't have time, I'm not at all creative, I only do cross stitch, I wouldn't have the patience, I can't see that sort of things anymore, my hands aren't that good at holding needles, it's not fast enough - I'm more a machine person. 

It's a fairly niche area - I often wish that I was actually a painter, or a potter perhaps, where more people would appreciate it and buy it just because it was pretty, or they understood how to use it, or it was considered practical. 

I was invited several months ago to have a stand at Fibre Fest - All Things Textile in Eastbourne Enterprise Centre. The organiser had come across me online, and I think I'd been recommended by another textile artist who regularly attends their events (but I'm not sure) so I had an email ping into my inbox inviting me to go along. 

The idea of an 'all things textile' event really appealed to me, and Eastbourne isn't far away so I jumped at the chance although, never having been in the Enterprise Centre before I wasn't sure how big it was going to be. When festival is used in the title it makes it sound really big and grand but, actually, it was surprisingly small! And held in an upstairs balcony corridor type place which was a bit strange. It was marketed very well and I felt really chuffed that so many people had come along because I had also advertised it and put it in my newsletter. There were lots of friendly faces saying hello. 

It was the first event where I also had a proper basket of fabric fat quarters/samosas, and had deliberately taken some haberdashery items. I took my IKEA peg board and propped it up at the back to give myself a little haberdashery wall. This was a great idea, although not particular sturdy but I think another trip to IKEA is in order to get another one and some other bits to make more walls. 

The building is an old train garage and has the original ceiling and features with lots of windows so it's beautifully bright and airy, it was just a bit strange being in this suspended corridor where you could look down into little shop streets below on either side. There was a very popular tattoo studio up there as well and we had several heavily tattooed people marching through the textile customers to squeeze another tattoo somewhere on their bodies. 

Other stalls included a fashion designer with clothing, crochet, felt hats, eco-printing with wildflowers, hand dyeing with natural dyes, sashiko, machine stitch textile artists, knitted creations...it was a good range!

The morning was fairly busy but then the afternoon just kind of dropped off and went very quiet. Luckily I had a project to sit and stitch and, I happened to notice that one of the yarn twists from Folkestone Harbour Yarn perfectly matched my hoop in colour so I spent some of my earnings on a little hand dyed hank of wool to play with. 

It was a very nice day, in a nice atmosphere - just a little on the quiet side customer wise (which seems to be happening more and more really) - and we can teach workshops so I think if it's on next year I would arrange to offer workshops on the day to keep more of a flow going. 

I managed to get a fair way with my little hoop too, all made with fabrics available in my web shop! 

Everlasting Poppies

I had a little idea for a workshop theme to do with poppies for Autumn time and, once that idea had taken hold, I couldn't help myself and immediately got a hoop, fabrics, felt and threads to try and make my idea into an actual thing. In a big hoop, I drew around the centre pieces of my little craft hoops - which are presentation only, no good for stitching in - so I knew where my 'safe sew space' was for each flower. It's much less fiddly to work on several at once in a larger hoop. 

They are very similar to my brooches, with the woven wheel stitch being used for the poppy flowers - except this time I also stitched over the woven wheel in a contrast thread to create more obvious petal shapes. I went with black but I could have used the same red colours (there were two different reds mixed into the needle at the same time) just to pull the wheel in and create those petal shapes. 

Some of them are a little bit on the wonky side but that's ok for a first go! 

Before I got to the woven wheel bit I was having fun with leaves, experimenting with using felt and stitching into it for the leaf veins (being careful with my stitching towards the tips so that it would be pretty on the back as well where I knew it would go over the little hoop), I tried a couple with an organza but I think I should have cut that with a soldering iron, or fixed the edges in some way as it just frays when cut with scissors. 

Once I'd got the flowers and leaves on, I also added some long hairy black yarn that I found in a charity shop - either just couching it tucked underneath the flower, or twisting a little bit and stitching it inside the flower so it looks a bit like hairy stamens. The stamen ones were also given a haircut to make them shorter. Black beads were stitched into the flower centres as well which I really like. 

Green yarns or a crinkled green fabric from my stash were added to some for a little bit of extra interest, and french knots cover any gnarly or empty bits and that's it!

Once all of the designs are finished they get cut out of the big hoop and drawn up around the smaller craft hoop centres to make them nice and neat, then framed in the mini hoops and the back of the hoops glued on. You can buy the craft hoops online or in craft shops and they always come as a three piece set with central piece, frame and wooden backing but can be a variety of shapes and sizes. 

I had to be careful in this case to pull the leaves through so they didn't get trapped within the frame. 

I really like these, I think they're so sweet. I have since glued on butterfly brooch backs to them but you could also wear them as pendants or stick a magnet on the back to pop it on your fridge...or just pop it on a shelf!

Kynance Cove Stitchscape

 

This Stitchscape was purely inspired by the fabrics themselves. They were all picked up at the Ardingly Quilt Show in January and I think they must be my soul colours because they aren't all from the same stand but complement each other so well. I love blues and greens and turquoises, which then go beautifully with gold and yellow. It's a combination I often return to. 

It has ended up as a sort of seaside, abstract beachy Stitchscape with elements of deep rockpools and tangled seaweed and bubbles and pebbles... I don't really know. I've named it Kynance Cove after the National Trust protected beach in Cornwall which sort of has similar features - white sand, turquoise waters and dark rock stacks. 

I do love all of the different textures within it though. The bottom fabric is a pale ammonite print and I've filled in all of the different sections of the ammonite with either a satin stitch in various colours, or just a few straight stitches grouped together for a bit of a textural difference. 

Silk throwsters waste (loose fibres of silk thread) has been stitched down in areas as a kind of fluffy version of seaweed over the ammonites, and I've edge the fabric layer with long bugle beads which have been stitched upright thanks to gold seed beads anchoring the thread in place. I really love these, they are very touchy-feely. 

The sandy fabric underneath was edged with a hand dyed (not by me) cotton scrim and then seed stitch put over to give it texture. Where there are flat areas of scrim I have also continued the seed stitch up into it to help blend the two layers together. The fabric does also have areas of metallic gold print which I have ignored completely and left blank so that the metallic shines through and matches the metallic of the dark blue layer above, and the gold of the beads. 

I had a lot of fun with the bubbly layer, I've gone around some of the circles with stem stitch (using just a single strand as it appears doubled by the type of stitch), sort of matching the thread colours to that of the circle. And then added textured circles with cup stitch and a thicker thread. Some of the cup stitches are actually two colours blended together, can you tell? The cups are formed around a triangle of stitches and you basically slide your needle under one of the stitches, then slide through the loop of thread that's created as you pull so that it tightens around the triangle stitch. This will need several of these loops per original stitch, I think I was averaging about 7 loops per side but it does depend on how big your triangle shape is. 

The seaweed print layer just has a single strand back stitch worked around the areas that look like a coral seaweed structure, with french knots worked over a stippled texture in the print. It's been edged with a metallic crochet yarn that I have, that just so happens to be the exact same colour!

I didn't want to do too much to the navy and gold fabric as I wanted the gold in the print to show so I have blanket stitched the edge, and then worked rows of running stitch in blue areas between the gold splodges. They kind of start and finish in random places, then fizzle out completely further up into the layer so that they don't get tangled up with the blanket stitches but it's just enough to lend texture to the layer. 

The final layer (top layer) has single strand back stitch around a few of circles in the rows to match the shapes below, bullion knots across the top and my trademark little cross stitches in the calico above. 

The full stitch run down for this hoop is; bullion knots, back stitch, blanket stitch, running stitch, couching, french knots, stem stitch, cup stitch, seed stitch, satin stitch, straight stitch and beading. What a lot of stitches!

A reminder that I have a tutorial on how to frame your pieces in the hoop if you are keeping them that way. They can be displayed on their own in the hoop (hung with a ribbon through the hoop screw or propped up in a plate stand), or you can get frames for them which you just wedge the whole embroidery hoop inside - my favourite maker of these frames is Barton Studios UK, linked for you here. 

The main thing to do is to round off your calico/backing fabric, about a couple of inches if you can from the hoop (don't worry about the fabric layers just yet). Then securely knot a long, strong thread to the calico about a centimetre from the edge. Work running stitch all of the way around, then pull it tightly so the fabric gathers up into the middle. Knot securely, and run your thread (if you've enough, or just get another piece) underneath the gathers to about a centimetre from the hoop. Work running stitch again, but this time folding over your fabric layers one at a time so that they sit flat on top of each other, making your running stitches go through both them and the calico and go all of the way round. Pull it again, this time it won't pull so impressively but may tighten it slightly, and knot off. 

Trim your fabric layers between the two stitch lines for a nice and neat finish, and go back and stitch any trimmings that got missed, or any bobbly areas of fabric. 

You can find the full photo tutorial here. 

April Farmyard Friends Swap Cards

Hehe, these guys are so cute! There were lots of cheeky faces plopping through the letterbox in April (yes, I know I'm behind and writing this up in July!). That super pink pig snout in particular is very sweet. 

The theme, as if you didn't know it already, was Farmyard Friends and I think we've covered quite a few different varieties of farmyard animal; sheep, chickens, cows, pigs, sheepdogs...there's even a beehive!

There's a really varied range of styles and methods here again too. One of the most striking is that floofy chicken on the top right. She was stitched up by Sam and, we have checked, she used turkey work to stitch the feathers (as a two-for-one on the farmyard theme!) which has worked brilliantly well. 

There are a couple of cards with elements of cross stitch on and lots of appliqued or layered fabrics, plus a pig with a button nose. 

There's so much detail in the farmyard card above. The beehive with the little bead bees, the hay trolley with hay spilling everywhere, flowers growing up the tweed farmhouse, sheep in the pasture and a blossom tree with blossom blowing away in the breeze. It's absolutely fantastic how it's all been fitted in, so delicate!

This cow looks like a perfect match for his little pink pig friend, both seem to have had their layers stitched on the sewing machine with little details hand embroidered on. I love his fluffy fringe!

Sabine has also opted for cows but had the best fabrics in her stash for the job, the brilliant stone wall print and the cows in the the field print! She's outlined the stones to give them some definition, and then layered the cows over the top of another green fabric, blending the two together with straight and pistil stitches by the looks of things. 

I love the use of the frayed fabric edge here to look like a bed of hay - especially when combined with lots of crossing straight stitches. And the edge of the pig sty just being stitched semi-circles with extra woven threads criss-crossing between the rows is really clever. It makes it look like another fabric cut out. 

This chicken is really interesting with the cross stitch chicken but then couched purl wire and extra straight stitches to create her nest, and detached chain stitch (lazy daisy) flowers underneath. Seems like several styles all coming together to create this card. And it's so beautifully edged too!

What a brilliant collection! Well done to everyone who made a card and sent it in for the swap.