Festival Ribbons and Trims

At the festival, all the textiles and trims laid out one after another was such a feast for the eyes. Like the ribbon above, it all appeared to be sweets in a candy shop. Now I get to feel like Emily at Ravenhill showing off the finds she makes at her Oslo flea markets.

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Our first stop today is at Jennifer Zanetti's antique European textiles and hand-dyed ribbon and trim booth. My goodness, her hand-dyed trims are bright and beautiful and soft and muted.





I thought I had a shot of her whole booth, but just a lot of close-ups. You wouldn't believe how lovely and soft that ruffly trim below (center right) is. I couldn't stop running my hands over the ruffles while holding the card of trim. Here's a picture of everything I bought from her:




Here is Helen Gibb's booth. She is from Australia and does beautiful things with silk ribbon.




You know, I'm the great name dropper, so I had to point out to Helen that my friend, Beth, who was with me (our picture is in the last post) - that her mother is Lilla of the justlilla blog and is a New Zealand native though lives in Hawaii. Right away, Helen popped out, "I've slept with your mother!" Nice. Turns out, they went on a trip to Australia on a teaching trip together. Beth didn't realize where her mom's name got us, either! Lilla's art has been on the cover and inside of some of the Somerset magazines, so several vendors/artists there were acquainted with her.

Finally, I leave you with these lovely photos of another very colorful trim stall.




I can't tell you whose shop this is, because the vendor practically accosted us when Beth was trying to take a picture of me in a pretty corner with all the trims around. She actually said - first thing on Thursday morning, too - "Oh, no you don't!" We were so stunned, I actually flushed and felt ill, like I had been shoplifting! What do you think she was afraid of? It was TRIM! I can't manufacture it at home, there is nothing to copy, and it's not like we haven't seen ric-rac laid out so nicely before. So, I already had about five photos of the booth already and thought, "Oh, yes, I will!" and have posted it to share with you, too. Too bad she didn't talk nice to us, because I would have put her name and site here, too.

Above: Some pretty Texas Star ornaments that I couldn't resist.

That was the worst moment, though, and took a bit to get over. Otherwise, the festival was completley marvelous and well run. You really should think of planning a trip for yourself to attend. It might seem to be a hard decision to just decide to buy a plane ticket, make hotel arrangements, and leave the family behind to attend a quilt and fabric festival, but you will so appreciate yourself for doing so. Everyone is lovely and excited, and it is so good to see so many of our favorite things all bunched together row after row after row!
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I have two more postings of the festival planned to show you, one of my fabric finds and one of the friends we met. After all that, if you have read to the end of the posts, you'll find I have a festival stash gift planned. Part of my purchases were intended as a treat for someone who couldn't attend the fest. Don't broadcast the news, though. Let's just keep it among us, so I know the reader's name that I pull enjoys the same things I do.