I was thrilled to be invited to CHSI Stitches this year, a huge trade show at the NEC in Birmingham. A chance to see all the new fabric and bask in stitchy goodness without being able to buy anything! It was also the perfect opportunity to meet up with Nat and hand over the #therearenowordsquilt. I was super excited to receive a press pass and we got a lovely welcome, thank you ladies!


There was a lot to see and we actually did get lost, there were so many stands! I loved the towering wall of craft books and being able to see so many useful Clover tools in one place. There was the new Art Gallery Fabrics denim but I have to be honest it was really hard to get nice pictures because the lighting was so bad.


The highlights were definitely meeting lovely fellow quilters and bloggers, being able to see the beautiful samples and being able to talk in a totally geeky way to companies about needles and thread!

I finally actually met Karen Lewis - she was part of our quilting bee, Bee A Brit Stingy, before she got too busy! ;) It's so lovely to meet someone you feel you've known for years and they are just as friendly and wonderful as you imagined them to be. Also what a beautiful display she had!


I am in love with the colour combinations in the HRTs cushion she made, as well as the adorable bunnies from this pattern. The colours of the Blueberry Park prints are all gorgeous. 
This amazing quilt was made by Nicky using the Welsh Blanket Quilt pattern by Mary - she made it double sided! Really stunning!


Another pretty booth was Dashwood Studio, filled with really cute and inspiring makes. The shoes!


I would happily have this gorgeous quilt by Lou Orth on my wall! And those bags - second from the left was made by Katy, who has mad bag making skills and shares excellent tips on her blog!


At the Aurifil stand it was cool to see the projects made by designers using their thread collections. I fell in love with Bari J.'s stitching, it was beautiful!


We had lunch with three delightful Northerners - Justine and Lisa from Simply Solids and Katy Jones, editor of Quilt Now. I couldn't stop laughing. I want to move to Huddersfield. If you can get to the shop I highly recommend going and taking a class or joining the Simply Sew'in evenings, you will learn a lot in great company!

I really enjoyed my day out and was thoroughly inspired after seeing so many beautiful projects and fantastic products. It has definitely enhanced my sewjo!

*this post is a little late, I meant to publish it before my trip to Paris but in the excitement it somehow didn't happen. Good news is I will have plenty of sewing to show you soon :)