For years I have wanted to visit the annual Antique Textile Fair run by the Textile Society. It is held in Manchester these days. And yesterday (Sunday) I drove up there. The above shows some of what was going on. Most of the stuff was vintage not antique, that is, it was 20s or later. Beaded flapper dresses, lovely hats, shoes with stiletto heels and a stall selling the kind of 60s curtain fabric that we bought for our first home. In short not a lot to interest me. There was a stall selling spinning bobbins and fly shuttles. Not that I need a fly shuttle and these ones were in very bad condition and would only have been usable with a lot of TLC. I suspect they were being sold as props for displays. I did find a stand with some chops for sale (metal devices for applying a wax pattern in batik) and they had clearly been renovated with some care. So I bought one for my sister. I also bought a couple of wooden stamps. The only other thing I bought was some rather nice ribbon. A nice day out looking at lots of fabric but I would not bother going again.
These are my purchases. The chop is right centre. The strange paper bag was given to me with the stamps and the chop in. It is made from Indonesian local papers!! I will put it on display. Interestingly enough, I was asked by other stall holders if they could look at it and where did I get it?
Saturday was Kennet Valley Guild day and the three monthly Challenge was 'Chocolate'. This brought out the best in the Guild and I cannot resist showing two of the (all) exceptional entries.
The chocolate cake is by Sal Shepherd and is beautifully knitted. The top is knitted to look like chocolate butter icing which has been smoothed on with a fork. The chocolateswere needle felted by Chris Fletcher who made a gold paper box to fit the four chocolates.
Now off to tidy up. We are finishing the 6 yards of tweed in the bath today. I will have very clean feet at the end of the process!
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