For the first time,
NNC had its Stitching Bee outside of Kuala Lumpur. The
idea was mooted during the last stitching bee by Margaret and Janet , but, unfortunately,
Margaret was out of town during the time the NNC Stitching Bee was held in Ipoh. She was having a good time,
enjoying herself whole heartedly in London while she attended her daughter’s graduation.
The Ipoh Stitching Bee was held on the 17th of July. It started out with about 7-8 people responding that they were coming, which was actually a good enough crowd. Unfortunately, when the day came,
Mel couldn’t make it as Nigel was down with the flu, and
Sabariah’s body took a toll when she was working overtime the week before. Ratna from Sabah said that she was coming, but for some reason , she never made it to the bee that day.
Zarina got held back by some family commitments.
Finally, those that did make it that day were just the
4 of us – Paul, Janet, who played host for the Bee, myself and Radha who came all the way from Alor Setar.
Paul was there first at 9.45am, followed by Radha and Janet.
I arrived an hour late as we kind of woke up late due to
a crisis the night before when our
bathroom door suddenly locked itself and we couldn’t find the key , despite looking for it everywhere until
2.00am.
Aiman excitedly woke up at 6.00am, eager to get started on the journey to Ipoh, but we had to tell him that
we might not be able to make it as we couldn’t use the bathroom until we could get to a locksmith (we have 2 other bathrooms but all our toiletries’ were in the master bedroom toilet). Aiman got up to his mini clothes rack,
flipped through his clothes, and wah lah! He found the keys! LOL! *grin*
We rushed to get ready, and we were finally out the door at about 7.45am. We dropped by for breakfast at the
Restoran Jejantas Sungai Buloh, hoping to get a quick meal, but, unfortunately, the
service was very slow. The queue to pay and order the drinks took us almost 30 minutes! We quickly rushed through breakfast, and when Paul smsed me at 9.45 am, I was still an hour away from Ipoh.
I finally got to
Starbucks at Ipoh Parade at 11.00am. Sorry, guys!
As soon as I sat down, I showed some of the works that I have been working on, though there wasn't much. But, I did pass on to Janet my
blocks for the nine-patch block swap.
We didn’t stay long at Starbucks as adha had a bus to catch at 3.00pm, and thanks to me for being terribly late *blush*, we had to start on our
shopping trips to some of the craft shops Janet frequents as part of the
programme for this Stitching Bee.
We got into 2 cars, one driven by Janet and the other by Radha’s lovely daughter who was doing her housemanship in Alor Setar.
Before we went to the craft shops, Janet took us for
a round of Tau Foo Fah at a small end lot shop.
I was amazed at the
line of cars that were queuing up, waiting for their orders to be taken like a drive-through service.
I understood why though, as the
tau foo fah was really delicious! 
We visited two craft shops which, unfortunately I could not recall the names of the shops. They were across from each other.
One shop was more into bead works and cross stitch, while
the other shop carried things for weddings hantaran and other craft works.
We were not allowed to take any photographs in the shops, which was really a pity as it could have gotten them some
free promotions and advertisements. I guess some people are still ignorant of the power of the internet.
At the first shop,
I bought 2 meters of 14ct aida. I suddenly got bitten
by the cross stitch bug again and want to work on a sampler where I had bought the chart on my trip to Melbourne more than 3 years ago. I will blog about it in my next posting.
I also
bought quite a lot of DMC threads as they were cheaper than in Kuala Lumpur and I needed them for the sampler project I Intend to start on.
At the next shop, I bought
a glue gun. I have been wanting to get one for quite some time, but simply could not find the time to make my way to a craft shop to get one earlier.
After the visit to the 2 shops, Radha had to part ways with us as she had a lunch date with her daughter and her friends.
After we said our goodbyes to Radha and her daughter, Janet , Paul and I decided to make our way to
Nagoya as Janet said that they are having a sale. But, we decided to
stop by for lunch first at Old Town White Coffee. There, my hubby and son joined us.
Shucks! My hubby just spoilt my plans to tag along with Janet and Paul to Nagoya! LOL! *wink*
We parted ways at the restaurant. I went back to our hotel (we spent the night in Ipoh for my hubby’s 21km run on Sunday) while Janet and Paul made their way to Nagoya to add more to their fabric stash! *wink*
Despite the small turnout at the Bee this time around, I am still happy that we had it. It was
a change from the usual one we always had in Kuala Lumpur. Someone was even suggesting that we have
another one outside of Kuala Lumpur, this time to Kuantan where
Aw had just opened her own craft shop. It’ll be part of our agenda for next year, for sure! *wink*
I wish to thank Janet for hosting the Bee and for bringing us around to the craft shops. Thank you too for the delicious tau foo fah.
Thank you too to Paul and Radha who came all the way from Kuala Lumpur and Alor Setar respectively for the Bee.
The next time we have it out of Kuala Lumpur, I hope we will have a bigger turnout. For the
next Bee in October, however, it’s back to Kuala Lumpur! See you guys then!
