My Busy Weekend

 Fumiko Ohkawa: Log Cabin / Kaleidoscope II

Festival of Quilts Winner - Traditional Quilts

Phew, what a busy few days!
Friday:  Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate
Saturday: stripping wallpaper at my son's newly purchased house
Sunday: at college
Monday: back to work

The Knitting and Stitching Show covers a wide range of crafts which includes some quilts. They did have on display some winners from the Festival of Quilts and the nice thing was you could get a closer view than in the original show and I managed to get better photos of a couple of my favourites. The one above was the best in show and the workmanship was amazing - so many tiny pieces!

Here's another I admired for the machine quilting:

Sheena Norquay: Pearls are not Always White

Festival of Quilts Winner - Contemporary Quilts

These close-ups show the lovely circle patterns - I like circles!

Next I visited a lovely display of quilts by  Janice Gunner who specialises in quilts using fabrics dyed with indigo:

These were beautifully quilted to emphasise the patterns created by the dyeing. I treated myself to her book 'Shibori for Textile Artists' and chatted with her about the workshops she teaches - they are now on my list for future reference. We are doing indigo dyeing at college next month so the book was an essential purchase!

There weren't may other quilts on display apart from this one made from cans from a famous Irish brewer- very clever but not a cuddly quilt:

Drunkards Path by Beck Knight

There was plenty of lovely embroidery on display too. One stand featuring the work of the East Anglian Stitched Textiles group - EAST. I spent a lot of time looking at their sketchbooks and completed work as it was just the sort of design work I'm doing on my college course. They very generously allowed visitors to photograph their sketchbooks and finished pieces which were gorgeous. Here are some photos of their work:

You can learn more about the group on their blog and also see more photos of their exhibits here.

So there were some very clever and talented people showing their work - well done to them. There were also, of course, hundreds of stalls selling fabric, threads, beads, supplies etc plus other incongruous items like floor sweepers and manicures! I was pretty restrained and didn't spend much - well the entry cost and parking charges were enough! I may be turning into a grumpy old woman but I do resent having to pay so much for entry to events which give far more space to a large shopping mall than exhibits. I have to admit that despite that they are extremely popular - someone must be getting very rich from them but no the stitchers!