Quilt Show

Well, my parents have moved in. It didn't feel like it went particularly smoothly yesterday while it was all happening (removal lorries breaking down on the motorway, stair lifts not being fitted as expected, Maria being poorly...) but looking back after the event it seems a lot smoother already (lorry was repaired, stairlift coming tomorrow now, Maria better...). Things are all a bit chaotic still and I'm sure they will be for quite a while but there are still quilt photos to be shared! Lots of quilt photos in fact, because on Friday I sneaked off to a nearby Quilt Exhibition for a couple of hours and had a good wander around. So here are a few photos of some that caught my eye...

These first two were made by Stuart Hillard who was at the exhibition - for those of you reading this in the UK he was on 'The Great British Sewing Bee' on BBC2 earlier in the year.

Then there was a section of Kaffe Fassett inspired quilts - it wasn't entirely clear but I think they were made with just his fabric and at least some of the designs came straight from his quilting books. This was a gorgeous, colourful patch of the exhibition...

And I think it was a very effective way to get people desperate to buy the fabric, which was for sale just adjacent to the quilts! It was hard to resist going and buying a big bundle of this amazing fabric after seeing the quilt above...

It was really gorgeous fabric, but I was very good and resisted!

Next up was an interesting collection of quilts, by Alicia Merrett, all inspired by mapmaking.

Incredible detail in the quilting...

Then more of a hodge podge of individual quilts. I loved this quilt by Pam Keatinge:

The information read:

'One of my most enjoyable projects. The fabric I dyed in the kitchen, some adresses printed on the computer, others written with fabric pen. It encapsulates my life so far; from rural Hertfordshire to rural Dorset via Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and the Emirates!'

It's hard to see in the photo but the quilt is arranged in date order and has particular 'years' sewn on different squares - you can just about spot a couple below:

I don't suppose I would ever do it with letters, but it seems such a lovely idea - to make some sort of 'story of my life' quilt, and not just in the more normal way of using fabric which has special memories. Definitely an idea to have in the back of my mind to mull over for some time in the future...

I loved this quilt too. Not the most exciting design ever, but I loved it for the fabric combinations.

You get a much better idea of this in the close ups, which show the colours so much better too...

It was a mixture of beautiful, soft wools and gorgeous, vibrant cottons, and it worked brilliantly.

Here's another eye catching one...

This next quilt had a lovely, soft, faded old feel to it. I'm not sure what the fabric range was but I really liked it.

It had lots of different nursery rhymes...

Here's the 'Owl and the Pussycat'...

Then another Kaffe Fasset design. This was a huge, amazing quilt made by a Quilting group in Bath. It was being raffled to raise money for a charity supporting young carers in the area. The raffle is being drawn later this week and I will be extremely happy if they pull out my ticket!

Each member of the group was asked to make different sized squares using old shirts. They had to be stripey and the colour scheme was blue.

Every join in this quilt seemed to match up perfectly, it really was a gorgeous piece of work, and the fabrics worked so well with the design.

All this time I'd been incredibly good and not bought a sausage - except for my raffle ticket of course. And then I came to 'The African Fabric Shop' and all my good intentions to spend as little as possible disintegrated! There were so many gorgeous fabrics, and all a little bit different to the kind of thing you normally see in a fabric shop. Very hard to resist!

And I'm afraid I didn't manage it! I bought a selection of these fabrics:


And a bundle of strip cloth, a bit like these:


I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do with either of them yet but I expect an idea will pop into my head at some point. If you're looking for something a little different then have a browse through their website. The lady who owns the shop is clearly incredibly passionate about what she does, about Africa, and about how she can help the people she buys from over there.
And lastly I'll leave you with a photo of some slightly unusual bunting - knicker bunting! Made by customers at the Quilter's Dream. It made me smiile as I walked past!

Hopefully I'll get a few moments tomorrow, between unpacking boxes and bags, to get back here again, Sally.