Spruce Meadows International Christmas Market

Last week I spent a great day with my friend, Eileen, at the International Market at Spruce Meadows in Calgary. This is Eileen standing by some wooden stars we thought were pretty cool. Nothing to them but, with the lights and all, a great country-style decoration!

It was one of the first stalls we went to and I'm sorry I didn't get his name. They had lots of great items like these wonderful rustic birdhouses...

...these great hearts that would look wonderful hung on my porch next to the front door...

...and these so cute reindeer! There were over 200 vendors at the show altogether and Eileen and I stopped at each and every one! lol

I was very taken by these. Although at first glance they look like ribbon roses, if you look closely you can see they are actually small purses. The entire front of each purse is a huge overblown fabric rose - gorgeous!

I have seen Christmas decorations made by glass blocks before but this was the first time I had seen it with the use of lights. I thought it really added another dimension to these festive bits of fun.

We found this incredible goldwork dragon at a booth dedicated to the silk embroidery of three Chinese artists. I wish I had taken more photos or, better yet, bought more!

This silk embroidery of carp feeding was my other favourite from this booth - it was so beautiful! Occasionally I find silk embroidery pieces like these at the thrift stores and I snap them up and incorporate pieces of them into my pieced crazy quilt blocks.

Spruce Meadows was all decked out for Christmas! There were over one hundred thousand Christmas lights strung and live music throughout the different buildings. This harpist was our favourite though because her music was so restful and her gown was so lovely. Yes, I did covet pieces of fabric from her dress for my crazy quilt blocks! lol

We saw so many wonderful ideas! I joked with Eileen that I was shopping for ideas - not gifts! Look at these gloves though so see what a bit of embellishment can add to an ordinary item. Just a bit of velvet made these simple gloves sophisticated and elegant.

It was a great market and I think I will have to make it an annual event. Thanks to Eileen for inviting me along!

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