The Twinkling Firs Fair was a roaring Success!

Hello from Craft Hub Central, I would go on and on about yesterdays fair but actually i think im going to let the pictures and the comments from people who attended on the day, do the talking:

• 'fabulous Great Atmosphere!'
• 'Such a lovely relief from the commercialism of high street stores'
• 'Festive Fun'
• 'Interesting, Lovely, Pretty' Nora Age 10
• 'Great Christmas Gifts and Ideas, Please Have another one!'
• 'A Lovely Mix of Different Crafts - Happy Christmas Crafters!'
• 'Inspiring! When's the next "hub" exhibition?'
• 'Fantastic!'
• 'Fantastic! Great to see so many unique and skilled crafts in Topsham, Thanks. Great to hear poetry too.'
• 'Excellent Promotion of local talents, hope to be ready to join you all next year!'
• 'Fab, fun to be part of the fair'
• 'Fabulous and an inspiration!'
• 'Please, can we have you back more often! FAB original crafts'
• 'Worth Coming, Excellent'
• 'A Cupcake Frenzy'
• 'Thank you! Beautiful crafts. Christmas Shopping Heaven'
• 'Loved It! Happy Christmas'
• 'Thank goodness Christmas shopping heaven!! Thank you'
• 'Very good, especially the sewn creatures'
• 'Absolutely Fabulous!'
• 'Lovely, Ideal before Christmas'
• 'Fantastic & What a Variety'
• 'Lovely can you extend advertising to Exmouth, would love to have tell more friends about it x'
• 'Wow, that is amasing'
• 'Delicious Cupcakes'
• 'A Real Craft Fair, Brilliant!'
• ' I like this fair' Ella Age 5
• 'A Real Craft Fair! Just lovely - come again soon - have run out of money!'
• 'Lovely things at reasonable prices, Loved it. Will come again!'
• 'It was fun and I loved all of the different things people were selling'

We had such a wonderful day, really cannot thank the vendors enough and all the visitors who came on the day. We had over 1000 people come through the doors! Just fabulous. Keep up to date with our next fairs for 2011 either on the blog, or by going to our website www.thecrafthub.co.uk

The Falling Leaves Craft Fair, St Matthews Hall, Newtown, 30th October 2010

The Falling leaves Craft Fair is finished, what a fantastic time we had, the fair was busy all day, our little cafe was cute and well enjoyed. It was lovely for visitors to have a little place to rest whilst enjoying the fair. Lucy, Ulrika, Hannah and I went in the night before to pimp the hall ready for the day, helped along with a glass of wine and ABBA we set about making it beautiful the vendors and the guests. We think it all worked really well. Well worth the effort to set it all up.













Jackie Nixon's gorgeous appliqued cushions
















Lucy hard at work and keeping us all sane with her infectious laugh




















Lou Bluebird and her lovely covetable sock cats








There was a contest on the day for the best dressed stall, the Winner....................Ellorias Boutique had made individual autumn leaves out of orange and rust coloured felt and really deserved their win. Their prize...................................a free stall at the Twinkling Firs Fair.


Thank you to everyone who took part in the day, who turned up to the fair and also to Lucy, Ulrika and Hannah who made the day really special and without whose creative flair and enthusiasm this great event could not have happened.


See you at Twinkling Firs,

6 days till the Falling Leaves Fair 30th October 2010

So much to do! The fair is now only 5 days away, its going to be fantastic, we have so many talented vendors selling their gorgeous handmade work. Exeter is full of talent. Come along on saturday, bring the kids (creation station will be onsite for them to do their own creative work). Start your Christmas shopping in Style.......................at The Craft Hub's second fair. See you on Saturday xx

New Venue for the Twinkling Firs Fair

We have changed the venue for the Twinkling Firs fair and the date, it will be Sunday the 12th of December from 10am to 5pm at Matthews Hall in Topsham. The venue is perfect, its on the bus and train route from Exeter and has its own onsite Cafe who will also be supplying Mulled Wine on the day too. There will be a free raffle ticket for those who travel by bus or train when you show your ticket. There are lots of lovely handmade goodies to win on the day. See you there xx

Cr'After Dark October 20th Sock Monsters Rock the City Gate!

Well what a fabulous evening spent in the City Gate, making our little Sock Monsters with the lovely Kate McCully of www.madebykate.co.uk I was absolutely overjoyed with the finished monsters, they were all fantastic and totally different. Lots of people turned up, 28 of us, did the workshop and each and every monster had a little imprint of his maker, little details like buttons, added tails, squiggly mouths, flowers and my personal favorite, one with her own little contrasting hat! Oh it was such fun, can't wait for next month's Crocheting Christmas Decorations. See you all then X

A perfect English Garden Party - Poltimore Falconry Day

What a glorious day of sunshine we had for our crafty stalls at Poltimore House for the Falconry Day. Turning up in the morning, with sandals on, trudging through dew strewn grass to set up camp for the day in grounds of Poltimore. It was a sight to behold. 15 + Craft Hubbers battling with gazebo poles and anchor lines, i was the most inept at this and sadly had two to set up! But finally we were finished. It was a really lovely day, and the craft hub were very happy to be a part of it. Roll on Poltimore Christmas Fair!! So looking forward to this fair. Things are beginning to take shape on both our fairs. Poltimore is such a glorious place, the twinkling firs fair cannot fail to feel totally christmassy and magical in such a magnificant setting.

Confessions from a self-confessed creative chaotic...

Well the registration forms are coming in and once again The Craft Hub is gearing itself up for the Autumn fair. We are all so looking forward to the "Falling Leaves" fair on 30th October at St Matthews Hall in Heavitree. Needless to say while the Hubbers are busy getting creative Pip, Ulrike and I are also busy behind the scenes co-ordinating all the stuff that will make the Fair run smoothly on the day. So far it's been real fun. If blog posts start to unravel as we get closer to the end of October you will know that life might might be getting a tad stressful!

I think the best part of being a Craft Hubber is that I can't think of a period previously in my life where I have been so creative and so industrious. Sadly it's becoming a little obsessive - I doubt any of my friends can now remember a time when I haven't been working on some little project while enjoying their company. I had a lovely evening round at Pips last night with Ulrike and managed to crochet my way through some recently purchased and quite delicious Shilasdair wool in varying hues of sage to lime greens. I blame Heavenly Yarns of Fore Street, Exeter who came to the last Cr'After Dark social event and sent me swooning with all their yummy yarns - the Shilasdair was however love at first sight. I guess that's the worst part of being a Craft Hubber - I end up meeting loads of inspiring people with gorgeous products and homemade items to sell and I'm afraid I'm a slave to beautiful things... though let's face it everyone - sometimes it's good to be bad!

Lucy

Our New Banner

This is our new sign, beautifully photoshopped by Hannah. we spent the larger part of friday afternoon putting it all together, i made the T, the B and the u, Lucy did the r and a in watercolours and the e in applique, The C and t were done by Katie Parr, in gorgeous beading, really sparkles, the patchwork H is hannah's intricate work and the f by Jackie, rather cleverly it is a bag so we can always pop something in it when doing our fairs. Finally the small h was done by Ella and Olivia, Hannah's beautiful little girls 8 and 5 respectively. This is lovely and just adds to the beauty of our sign, thanks to everyone. Big thanks to Hannah for putting up with us wrecking your house and for the glass of wine, it definitely helped the creativity. It is now our new blog banner. I love it xx

Exeter Craft Saturday - our very first co-operative stall

I was so sorry to miss being on the stall today, the girls Jackie, Lucy, Penny, Amy all gathered together to make the most of the stall and as you can see they made it look absolutely unforgettable! The stall was colourful, bright, happy and friendly all perfect and i am so thrilled with how we all worked together to create such an eye catching stall. Our products were fabulous, it was just rather a shame that Exeter Craft Saturdays had not been so well publicised. Thanks guys for all your hard work. You are amazing!

Falconry Day at Poltimore House

Come and join Poltimore House from 11 until 4pm for an exciting family day of falconry displays and country crafts for everyone to enjoy.
Watch Ben Long’s spectacular Falconry Display, get the children involved in the ‘Creation Station’ and discover some fascinating crafts.
Be tempted by tasty refreshments in the historic surroundings. Join a tour of the grounds and visit the house to find out more about the restoration*.
Visit The Craft Hub, showcasing modern, eclectic, vibrant products from some of the best local talent.
Meet artisans with a passion for handmade, good quality, affordable products from fashion and home accessories to cup cakes and other delicious temptations.


This day is going to be marvellous and i am really excited about the Craft Hub being able to support Poltimore House Trust and Friends.

Come along on the day support the restoration and have fun !!!

Craft Hub Vendors include:

• Pippiknit selling crocheted and hand knitted goods
• Babsyboodle hand sewing and artistic creations
• Katy Parr stunning jewellery and tiaras
• Ulrike Igraine ceramics
• Away with the Fairies cakes
• Anna White cupcakes
• Yelena Jenkins Mediterranean food
• Bluebird designs hand sewing
• Heavenly Yarns luxury yarns
• Carole Hynam watercolour artist (prints/cards)
• Kate Sloan Fabadashery Memo Boards
• Gina Alton Crochet designer
• Peggie Clark childrens clothing

Craft Hub demonstrations and activities:
• Julia Hetherington felt making
• Creation Station creative fun for kids
• Devon Guild of Spinners, Weavers & Dyers spinning fleece and weaving

The Christmas Fair Venue Date confirmed for the 11th December

Oh My Goodness, I am so excited about our venue for the Christmas Fair. It is none other than the wonderful Poltimore House of RESTORATION fame. Poltimore is currently in the safe hands of two fantastic branches of people whose aim is to see it restored to its full glory. The friends of Poltimore House and the Poltimore House Trust are currently raising money in all sorts of ways to bring this beautiful lady back to life. She is magnificent and every corner of the house, grounds and outbuildings inspire me and give me goosebumps. I am falling in love with Poltimore. Keep reading for more news about our christmas fair.

First Cr'After' Dark crafty social !

Needles.................Check, Hooks.......................Check, Beer.........................Check
Wonderful company........................Check

It must be our very first crafty social Cr'After' Dark int pub. What a great evening. Considering I only promoted the evening through word of mouth and emails. It was really well attended. Gina Alton, a whirlwind of creative inspiration, taught 8 budding new crochet experts, the secrets of her talents. I brought along two projects to do on the night and am embaressed to say that I did one row of eight stitches on a shawl and the first round of a hexie. Oh dear, too much fun chatting and watching the others concentrating soooo hard on their stitches. Next Crafter Dark will be on tuesday the 24th of August, watch this space for the workshop on the night.