Twist Festival 2017

I have no stitching update to share today. I did almost no stitching this weekend. Instead, I spent the weekend at the Twist Festival with Patricia Côté the owner of l'Atelier de Pénélope helping out at her booth. Patricia came to pick me up at home on Friday and we made the hour and a half drive to where the Twist Festival is held.

The weather was very strange on our way there. When we got to Montebello, it suddenly started pouring rain (check out the video below).

Luckily the rain stopped before we reached our hotel. We dropped our stuff and made our way to the festival complex in Saint-André-Avellin which is about 10-15 minutes away from where we were staying. The drive there was lovely and we saw some beautiful sights; farms and fields, horses, cows and even lamas. So glad the sun came out so I could takes some pictures.

When we got there everything had to be unpacked to get ready for the opening of the festival the next day. Luckily our booth was in the gymnasium. The second larger location was in an arena, an ice arena!! It was freezing in there. I don't know how the exhibitors there could stand it.

Patricia brought all kinds of goodies with her. I love looking through everything when I unpack the stock. Here's a video tour of the booth. I really love how she displays her fibers.

We weren't the only ones setting up on Friday night. Once we finished, we took the time to walk around the empty gymnasium and arena. The booth below was not far from ours. The owner makes the cutest felted dioramas.

There was also a booth selling brooms.

Natalie who was there as a teacher bought one for her daughter.

It's not only the inside of the complex that was filled with fibers. The outside was also yarn bombed. The fence below was decorated with "Pourquoi tant de laine?", translated to English it means "Why so much yarn?".

There was even a tractor and spinning wheel that was covered in crochet and knitting.

We were completely swamped on Saturday, barely getting the chance to eat lunch. Patricia even taught me how to process sales so she would be able to help out customers. I met many embroiderers who came especially to see Patricia's booth. It was the perfect opportunity to advertise the Lakeshore Creative Stitchery Guild as many of them were coming from the Montreal area and had no idea there was a guild there.

Things were quieter Sunday morning, so Patricia and I took turns going around all the booths for some shopping. I got two cute bags as a souvenir of the festival. This big one below would make an excellent bag to take to embroidery classes and I got a smaller one (in the next picture) that would be great as a project bag.

This year there were two embroidery booths: l'Atelier de Pénélope and Mes Broderies, Ma Passion. The rest of the booths were all about wool, yarn and felt. I considered bringing back some felt for my sister but there were so many booths I didn't know what to get. So I stuck to getting stuff for me :)

I really couldn't resist getting a felted animal from the booth I showed you earlier. The fox is a creation by Melissa Bellmare. Carolyn I think I bit the fox bug, they're just too cute.

A hand made wooden thread minder from La Maison Tricotée that is so Alice in Wonderland. This will come in very handy.

Some beaded bracelet kits from BeadAddict. These bracelets uses a bead weaving technique, which I've been wanting to try out. I've already tried Kumihimo and bead crochet.

From l'Atelier de Pénélope, I got two magazines, a sashiko and cross stitch kit. We sold so many sashiko kits that I got tempted to try it out again. I didn't get the threads as we'd sold out of the navy thread I wanted, but I'll pick that up from Patricia the next time I see her. The cross stitch kit is a really cute pincushion with a darning pattern in pink, black and white.

The Italian magazine is a technique book on whitework embroidery. It was the last copy in stock so I couldn't pass it up. The other magazine is volume 3 of Les broderies de Marie et cie which is a project book. It's a pretty magazine but I mainly got it for the projects below. (Open the post in your browser to see the images)

I also got two panels of this fabric. Patricia had stitched two of them for the shop to make into cushions and I thought they were just so pretty I wanted to try my hand at designing something with them. I don't know when I'll have the time though :P The panels I bought are pink but they are also available in red.

This last one is not a purchase but a sample piece of fabric. When Patricia ordered the Graziano linens she ask for samples of of the Bissos linen. They sent her 5 meters of it! It's a 42 count very fine transparent Italian linen that's great for shadow work and very fine white work. Patricia gave me a square piece that would be great to embroider a handkerchief or doily. I'd love to stitch a design in the broderie blanche technique using DMC broder special thread. My eyes will not thank me but it will looks amazing!

This week I need to really spend some time on stitching my runner. I need to finish at least two flowers before the end of the week or I will be in trouble of not finishing in time.