Just got back from a full day at Ally Pally - fabulous! Bumped into so many friends, it was such fun. I drove down with some friends - two embroiderers from the Oxford Branch and a quilter friend whom we may have persuaded to at least 'visit' on occasion. Three of us were still thrilled with managing to persuade the rest of the Oxford Branch to vote to stay in the Guild despite the appalling state of things after dropping out of the Manchester project. I was so pleased; being a part of the Guild has meant so much to me over the past 20 years and I really didn't want the Branch to walk away from the problems, rather to help try and build a Guild we could be really proud of instead.

Anyway - the Knitting and Stitching Show. Yes - of course I spent more money than I had planned to. Bought all sorts of lovely things - some lovely Koh i Noor paints that Frances Pickering recommended, some wool tops dyed in really vibrant colours that are really crying out to be put under the Embellisher, a doll pattern for a niece, some beads, some dyes so that I can have a go (again) at dyeing fabrics - never something I willingly did when doing C&G, and a few other bits and pieces. Wonderful exhibitions, particularly the Val Campbell-Harding retrospective that Maggie Grey and Jane Lemon have put together. Val would have loved it and it was so 'Val', lovely to see all her samples again. I can't believe it's a year since she died.

Loved the Pfaff exhibition too - based on still life and what a lot of different takes on it there were! The Graduate exhibition, as always, very exciting. The 62 Group - loved some of it and hated some, but so be it. A great day, can't wait for next year. Now I just need to get on with some work.