What's new at the fair, and stash use report for October

It takes me days to recover from a short trip, but today I'm ready to tell you about the exciting trip to Germany and back. Only on the day before we left we knew the strike threatening our flight was over and we could fly as scheduled to Hamburg. There we missed a train by minutes and had to wait an extra hour for the next train to Hannover. On the way back home we just had to change from a train to a bus and back again on another train to get to the airport so that the normally 25 minutes ride took more than 45 minutes. Careful travellers as we are, we were prepared and had still enough time to catch our flight. I could very well live without all this excitement.

At the fair, the EuroBLECH 2010 Exhibition I concentrated on comparing the methods of sheet metal working with my work with fabrics. They weld the edges together and we sew a seam by machine. They spot weld, and we can baste.  They rivet, we pin. They use roller seam welding in cases like where we need to add some piping in a seam. They use presses and cutting tools, laser or water jet to cut out shapes, we use a template and a roller cutter or the sophisticated GO! cutter. I think this satisfies your curiosity about the fair. It was spread in 9 giant halls, so we walked several km on both days. The machine colours were pretty much the same as two years ago, maybe purple is more up and gray and green are disappearing colours.

Saturday was our holiday, and we walked a little in the pedestrian area of my sister's home town:

It was Halloween there too, and we saw these little pumpkins at the market.

The most exciting part of my trip was the meeting with Suzie on Thursday after the fair. I was so happy to finally meet her, and it really felt like meeting an old friend. We sat down at a café for cappucino and latte and a nice long chat. I had such a lovely time, just sitting there, letting my feet take a rest, and enjoying Suzie's company. We also exchanged presents, and here is what she made for me:

The cutest little pumpkin pin cushion! She also gave me these sewing themed fabrics, both new to me and I have not seen either of them here in the shops.

This is the bag she carried as indentification, and it was also meant for me. So suitable for our coffee time.

She included something more, but I don't know if I can show it yet, because there are others who will receive something in the same line from her. It is very beautiful and useful. Naturally I forgot to take pictures of what I packed as my gifts for her, but who cares.

The next day we started to the fair very early so we could spend some time in Hannover for shopping afterwards, and finished the shopping in the local shops on Saturday. Here are my new fabrics, 3.4 m in total.

And here with the rest of my shoppings: handles for the Ladyfingers bag by Stephanie, black and blue quilting thread, and in the background is some heavier fusible pellon.

The change in my stash in October was negative: I bought those 3.4 m of fabrics, and only used 1.3 m for sewing my little blue bag, some gifts and giving away some bits to Suzie. I hope November will be better because there will be so much sewing for Christmas.