A Quilty Day Out

I have had a lovely day today joining over 60 quilting ladies at a Quilters' Guild Area Day held in Nottinghamshire.
After a good journey in early autumn sunshine we arrived at Epperstone and were greeted with a cup of tea, a name label and an invitation to hand over the quilts we'd brought with us for the show and tell.  It had been decided to display the quilts in exhibition-style and to celebrate the creative skills of local quilters.  The range of quilts was amazing and I would have happily given any one of them house room.  They made the hall look splendid and were a reminder of all the possibilities in this art-form of ours.

There was a lot to keep us occupied once the day got underway.  Jenni Dobson gave a demonstration on how to produce a perfect binding, with perfect mitres.  There was a table where we could try our hand at mono-printing -

and there was a trader, the Guild stall (with lots of exciting new products available) and a sales tables with secondhand books, magazines and bargain bundles of fabric.
Two speakers had been invited for the meeting.  Before a "faith" buffet lunch Greta Fitchett made us very peckish with her talk, "Don't Count the Calories".  Firstly she showed us some journal quilts depicting foods of various kinds and then showed how this developed into the creation of a whole series of realistic looking, larger than life, cakes and chocolates.

 

In a complete contrast to those fabric confections Gillian Clarke was welcomed to speak to us after lunch.  She had brought a wonderful collection of her hand pieced, hand appliqued and hand quilted wallhangings and quilts based on illustrations in medieval manuscripts including the local  Luttrell Psalter.  There were quilts representing the months of the year, the story of the Nativity and the Pilgrimage to Compostela de Santiago 
and Gillian explained how she created her designs by taking elements from various sources, by adding floral borders and by using the curlicues of the calligraphy as quilting designs.

Gillian also showed us a wholecloth quilt.  White with dragons, interwined lovers' knots, flowers, with a binding and backing in a glorious bright red.  The quilt looked wonderful from both sides.  However, in the top right hand corner of the white side was a red, pink and orange dye bleed.  The quilt had been exhibited and suffered from a leak in the ceiling above.  Surely someone as experienced as Gillian would have pre-washed her fabrics when combining red and white?  Indeed she had.  The stain was from the thread she had used for the quilting!  I don't think I would have been quite as calm as she was but maybe she's got used to it now and it's a good story - we can't really consider pre-washing our thread, can we?
To top off a well organised and stimulating day I had to quickly silence my mobile during Greta's talk (how shameful but fortunately few people heard it).  Checking at lunch time I found it had been my DS phoning and we have now arranged to get together with him and his fiancee for lunch tomorrow, I'm very excited.

Mother:  (answering phone), Hello?
Son:  Hello Mother dear, how are you?
Mother:  Not so well darling, I feel quite weak, I haven't eaten for 38 days.
Son:  My goodness Mother, why not, what on earth is wrong?
Mother:  Well, I didn't want to risk having my mouth full when you phoned.

Boom boom!!

Finally, here's a couple of photos of one of the most praised quilts on show today, this crazy quilt that was a celebration of love and associated memories: