The Festival of Quilts 2012

The Festival of Quilts last weekend at the NEC Birmingham was a colourful and impressive show. The show took up two massive arena halls and had a presentation of over a thousand quilts.  The rooms were packed full of buttons, threads, fabric, sewing machines (some very impressive) and enthusiastic craft lovers.

This was the first show for Claire, Charlie and Harriet the new members of Team Toft.  It was a wonderful show and we all thoroughly enjoyed meeting everyone who came to say hello to us.

As ever the Toft Stand was full of bulb bag kits, yarn and our softer than soft teddy bears (which people just had to stop and touch). We also took our 20% summer sale with us, ponchos, cross over dresses and snoods which proceeded to fly off the stand.  We did however, manage to get some time to have a wander and pick up a few treats for ourselves.

Claire was able to meet Kaffe Fassett, she brought his new autobiography and got it signed too which was a highlight for her.  The Cotton Patch stand was gorgeous, full of colour and patchwork kits including Kaffe Fasset and Amy Butler.

Magee was an exciting find of tweed patch work kits, they are Ireland based company but the colours of the tweed were beautiful.  Fabric Galore were selling Liberty Fabrics showing off there attractive designs and even had some Manolo Blahnik fabric for sale (not for long we’re sure).  The amount of fabric showcased was amazing!
 

The four days were very exciting for us at Toft we always enjoy meeting new and existing customers and helping them get on to the next Toft kit. As always it was a pleasure to meet some new customers who found us for the first time at this show.

We are looking forward to next year’s show already.  Look out for Toft coming to a venue near you, next stop Manchester 13^th to 16^th September.

A very crafty afternoon in the Studio

This Saturday we enjoyed a very busy day here at Toft with a visit from the Knit Now magazine editor, followed by a taster workshop for 18 ladies keen to learn all they could about alpacas and knitting in three hours.

Kicking off at 1pm just after lunch we welcomed the group and then set off on a farm walk while the sun was shining. As ever the cria didn't fail to please and there were plenty of photo opportunities as they all played with each other in the field.

For those more advanced ladies who already knew their knit from their purl they set off knitting a phone sock- or upgraded to another one of the Toft knitting kits. 

This coming weekend we have our Intro to Knitting workshop.  Speand a whole day on farm knocking the rust off your skills or learning to cast on for the very first time for just £50 per person including all your materials and lunch. 

SATURDAY 7th JULY 2012.

BOOK HERE. 

The next date in the calendar is a first for us- in the form of  Giant Knitting workshop learning to use two very big sticks!  This is an afternoon workshop and just £33 per person including lots of cake and your very own set of 25mm knitting needles! Suitable for total beginners. 

FRIDAY 13th JULY 2012.

BOOK HERE.

If you've always been intimidated by cables and boobles but loved that traditional texture in knitting then our Aran Workshop is the one for you.  You will need to know your knitting basics (cast on, knit, purl, inc, dec, cast off) but we will take you through getting to grips with a cable needle and getting proper texture into your work.  This is an afternoon workshop and costs £35 including your aran weight yarn.

FRIDAY 20th July 2012.

BOOK HERE.