Tuesday 3 December 2019

Happy & Sad Day


Had a great day last Friday when I went on a coach trip to Harrogate with our quilting group to the Knitting & Stitching Show. Now I love a coach trip, takes me back to when I was little in the days before nyone had a car & I went on trips with my Nanna & Granddad to various places for the day. We didn't have holidays in those days, no money around to do that other than maybe a couple of days to Blackpool to see the illuminations.

I loved the atmosphere with families chattering, eating their sandwiches & singing songs on the way home. Well today we certainly did a lot of laughing & chattering & on the way home showing the stuff we had bought at the show.

There were lots of smashing things on show or to buy. I didn't take my camera as I was trying to keep the weight of my gear to carry down so my phone camera's photographs are not brilliant & it was often hard to get near enough to take a photo. 

However the sad news of the day was we discovered that Sewing Quarter which is my favourite crafting telly channel is closing down. They show such great products & with some brilliant folks showing you how to quilt, dressmake, embroider, make bags & lots more. The programmes are all available on YouTube so doesn't matter if you miss one.

I had noticed that for the last couple of weeks there has been mainly sales of stuff rather than the mix of how to make the things they sell. The sale of stuff is masquerading under Black Friday when really it seems to be a closing down sale.

Well it's big shock as it's such a popular channel, we chatted to some of the designers & staff at the exhibitions & it's come as a shock to them too. Sad that so many people will be out of work just before Christmas.

I only bought some dress fabric, a couple of little bag handles, the Sewing Quarter Advent Calendar & a Sewing Quarter Scissor mug in the photo above. 

I've opened three of the boxes in the Advent Calendar so far, I got a thimble, a brooch styled like a black Singer featherweight & today it was a seam ripper. Twenty two more to go! Just hope I am not tempted to go mad & open them all at once.

I've opened them out so you can get a better idea of what they're like! 



The mug is lovely with rose gold finger holds like scissors. Very nice! Think the original price was £39.99 for the Advent Calendar & £8.99 for the mug. I got the pair of them for £10 at the exhibition, I wouldn't have paid the full price for them even though I do like them. For a tenner they're an absolute bargain!

Now I just have to resist opening the rest of the Advent Calendar boxes.

15 comments:

  1. Beautiful Advent calendar !
    I loved going on coach trips with my grandma. She owned a bakery, but Monday was her day off, and she would always book us a trip, to Southport, or Rhyl or Blackpool to see those fabulous illuminations. Happy times, they stay etched in my memory.
    Glad that you enjoyed yourself Winifred.
    Hugs,
    ~Jo

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jo, just like my Nanna & Granddad! I remember Blackpool too & we stayed the weekend. Did you go to the Tower Ballroom? I remember dancing with my little sister we must have only been about 7 & 4 at the time. Also Reg Dixon playing the organ & the circus where at the end the ring filled with water. They have Strictly Come Dancing there one of the weeks of the show & it's still a fabulous dance floor apparently.
      Yes the illuminations were great. As you say such happy times.

      Delete
    2. Yes Winifred, I danced on the ballroom floor in the Tower, with the magical lights dancing around, glowing from the ceiling :)
      I loved going to the top of the Blackpool Tower and looking out over the sea, and when I used to bring my daughter back with me, my dad would always make so a visit to the Pleasure Beach, she loved seeing the laughing King with the little boy on his knee :)
      Wonderful memories.
      Happy and a Healthy New Year to you and yours dear friend.
      Hugs,
      ~Jo

      Delete
  2. Fantastic calendar and very original mug.I'm sorry to hear that a good channel is closing down. I suppose times change....
    Have a nice weekend.
    Tina

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh my goodness, it all sounds like fun! I would be tempted to go mad and open more than one at a time. What lovely things you got and I'm sorry your sewing show is cancelling! I will look for it on you tube. It sounds so interesting to boot. I used to watch a sewing show and I got so inspired by it that I sewed some full skirts by taking a kitchen fork (yes, really) and using it to fold over the waistband creating pleats. They were so easy to make....I think they were lined (those skirts) and even had a secret pocket sewn at the top of the waistband that the pocket tucked down in out of sight. All from a tv show that only aired for 30 minutes a day, but what inspiration!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'll be truthful & admit I did open the boxes! We've never had a sewing show on telly like this one so it's a real shame to lose it. I'm sure I've seen that technique of folding using a fork on Youtube, it was an American video.
      If you find Sewing Quarter on Youtube each programme lasts about 5 hours so you have to ignore the selling bits & just watch the techniques.

      Delete
  4. what a cool advent calendar. sounds like a good deal and that i sad your favorite show is closing down. It sounds like a nice day out though. As i usually do when someone mentions a place i have never heard of in a post i have to google - and i did - harrogate looks like a beautiful place.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes Harrogate is a lovely place. I particularly liked the theatre adjoining the exhibition which was quite old. They let us have our packed lunches there!
      I often look up places I've never heard of around the world. SO many lovely ones.

      Delete
  5. I'm sorry to learn that you're losing a valued TV channel, but happy you had a safe and fun outing. "Coach" is such a pretty word compared to the American version, which is "bus." Your words and spellings are often that way.

    I know that I'm going to sound deplorably ignorant, but while I suppose that the thing behind the cup is the Sewing Quarter Advent Calendar, I don't know why it is so thick? Are they all thick like that? I regularly attend the Gregorian Chant evening prayer service at a parish within America's Anglican denomination, the Episcopal Church, but I must say that I don't pay much attention to the seasons, and I so hate crowds that I even avoid attending church on major feast days--particularly in the winter when so many people are sick. This brings to mind the fact that Peggy and were married during Advent (in 1971) by a reluctant priest who said that every couple he ever married during a penitential season had divorced. Well, his daughter is on her second or third marriage, and his granddaughter on her third or fourth (one loses count as the years pass and contact lessens).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We have buses too but they are mainly the ones that run on local routes. Coaches are a much higher quality than our buses, single deckers with nice comfortable seats, seat belts and usually a toilet because they are hired for longer journeys.

      The Advent calendar is thick because it has things like scissors, tape measures, bobbins of thread and other sewing items most Advent calendars tend to just have a sweetie in them so they're smaller & thinner. When we were little after the war sweets were rationed so ours just had a picture behind the window!
      That Gregorian Chant service sounds lovely wish we had them. I love to hear that singing. Wonder what the relationship is between getting married in a penitential season & getting divorced. Definitely weird.
      You're nearing your Golden wedding anniversary so hang on in & prove the old beggar wrong Snow!

      Delete
  6. That looks like a wonderful Advent Calendar and now you have all the bits from each day so you need to do a new post to show them all. £10 for both the mug and calendar was an excellent buy!

    Sorry to read about the show closing. How sad, and a reflection on the changing lifestyle of most people today.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm not sure why it closed. It offered a range of crafts & I was amazed at how popular quilting & sewing is now. I can only suppose it didn't make enough money from sales, some of the stuff was quite expensive, you could frequently buy it online elsewhere much cheaper. It was great being on telly & you could watch it on computer & order online or by phone. You could then watch it on YouTube if you missed anything or needed to watch the hints & tips on making things. Quite unique really.

      Delete
  7. Just stopping by to say hello to one of my favorite bloggers. How are you doing? I havent' blogged since December I think. My blog hasn't gone anywhere and thats a bit nice.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I'm glad you still have your sewing channel!

    ReplyDelete

I'd love to hear from you:

The End of a Reign & the Passing of an Era

It's the day that most of us have dreaded even those who are not royalists.  Many of us grew up with her and have seen a long momentous ...