Saturday 31 May 2014

Lovely Day Out

Yesterday I went to a local quilt show with friends but I can't show you any of the quilts!  There were notices posted around stating that photographs could only be taken for personal use and must not be published on any website……without prior permission of the show organisers.  How strange.  I can understand that the quilt artists' permission must be sought, but the show organisers?  They don't own the quilts, or the designs or anything.  Anyway, no photographs of quilts, and no free advertising on this blog for the quilt show organiser either, so there!  Instead, I will show you what I bought and tell you about the people I met, and about the quilts I admired.

Our first stop was at Images of Egypt (who can be contacted by email at kirdassa@kirdassa.karoo.co.uk) and I bought these lovely batiks and a couple of bargain scrap-packs.  One contains a selection of hand dyed cottons and the other is full of glitzy bits.  I'm not sure what I shall do with them yet but am thinking that Christmas Prayer Flags might be fun things to create...

I am doing a workshop with Liz Hands at Country Roads Quilters in July and bought some fabric and threads for the project we'll be working on.  The Finca Number 12 Perle and bobbin fill was from lovely Laura at Little L's, the linen from Sunflower Fabrics (who stock a wonderful range of Liberty fabrics) and the other FQs were from Pippins Patchwork and Crafts who are quite local to me so I think it would be good to invite them to trade at one of our quilt group meetings.

Lunch was a great disappointment, with poor quality food, appalling coffee and service at the speed of a snail.  We agreed that next year a picnic might be in order, or a drive out to Unique Cottage Studios might be an even better plan.  To console ourselves, more shopping was in order!
House of Embroidery threads from the Out of Africa stand, it took ages to select these, I really wanted the whole range of colours!  Finally, more batiks, this time from Kaleidoscope.  I was a little niggled here as, like several other traders, fabrics were only offered in half metres rather than the traditional FQ.  The batiks were so gorgeous, however, that I wasn't about to cut my nose off to spite my face!

There seemed to be fewer quilts on display than when I visited this show last year, and I was less impressed with the range of styles, techniques and designs but I suppose the show organisers can only exhibit what we, the quilters, enter.  I was taken, however, with the work of Pauline Barnes.  I urge you to go to her website here:  http://www.paulinebarnesquilts.co.uk and look at her stunning work.  Some of the Mayan series were on display yesterday and they are worked in various threads and techniques on plain fabric.  She writes:
"Thread is a major element in my work with thread and stitch alone often providing the colour on plain fabric.  All my stitching is done by machine and I enjoy 'playing' to see how different fabrics, threads and stitches react."

We had a great time chatting to Marion Barnett.  Marion writes a blog here:  http://artmixter.blogspot.co.uk
and has a studio in Norfolk called the Little Green Shed where I hope to go for a day of playing with textiles and techniques.

Returning home (after a detour to Unique Cottage Studios for a chocolate brownie and excellent coffee) I found the postman had delivered a parcel.  Sarah's Quilt is the book for June in the Quilters' Online Book Club and I ordered the sequel at the same time.  A lovely ending to a good day out.





6 comments:

  1. sounds like a wonderful day despite no photos and the bad lunch. I would love to see your stash - all of it!

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  2. We had the same experience with the cafe today and apparently all events there are the same. :-( I have shopping envy, I wasn't nearly as effective but I will show mine once I get some photos taken. A play day with Marion will be. We had a nice chat too and a meet up somewhere equi-distant is in the offing. I like the lucky bags you got from Images of Egypt, they didn't have much left when we got there.

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  3. Love those dyed threads. Batik fabric is always my favourite fabric to buy, Enjoy creating with them - hugs Nat

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  4. You got a lot of lovely things! Have you got any money left in your purse?!

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  5. Great haul, gorgeous fabrics - any plans?

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  6. You had a marvellous buying trip didn't you? Beautiful fabrics and threads hope you post later when you have some of your haul.

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I really appreciate your lovely comments, ideas and opinions, they make my day. Thank you for visiting Piece'n'Peace,
hugs, Lis x