Thursday 18 August 2011

A Whirlwind Week

Phew! My feet have hardlytouched the ground recently and I have got seriously behind with posting my news. The past week has been particularly busy, starting last Saturday when I got up early and caught a train to Birmingham for the Festival of Quilts. I had a fantastic 2 days there viewing all the wonderful quilts, attending a few lectures and, of course, shopping! One of the highlights of the show was a display of quilts by the Tentmakers of Cairo. I was so impressed I treated myself to this beautiful cushion cover and at only £20 I thought it was a very good price. These gorgeous applique quilts are sewn by hand by men sitting cross-legged on the floor and two of the makers were at the festival demonstrating:
The speed at which they stitch is amazing! By the time I got to see the gallery almost all the quilts had been sold. That's probably just as well because I would have been seriously tempted by some of these beauties!

Luckily there will be another opportunity to see these in November when there will be another exhibition at Durham University. When I find out more details I'll post about it again. I took 244 photos at the quilt show so I need to spend quite a lot of time organising and naming them. Hopefully I'll post more pictures over the next few weeks.

Yesterday I taught a workshop on Convergence Quilts at the Bernina shop in Leeds for 10 ladies so Monday was spent preparing for that and I took time out on Tuesday for lunch with my daughter. The workshop was great fun and everyone made excellent progress with their quilts. Everyone finished their quilt top and added a border. Some even started quilting too!
 One of the best things about doing workshops like this is seeing how other people's fabric choices look. They all look beautiful don't they?

Today I had a lovely day out with my other half in the Yorkshire Dales. We took the dogs and headed for Kettlewell to visit the Scarecrow Festival. What fun! Hundreds of imaginative variations on a scarecrow on display in a stunning setting.







After that we went to Aysgarth Falls so the dogs could paddle in the river and we had a good walk.I think I'll sleep well tonight!




4 comments:

  1. Weren't the tent makerrs amazing: so fast! I'm amazed you got anything, I got there at lunchtime on Thursday and it looked as if well over half had already been sold!
    The scare crow show looks great fun.

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  2. Sorry to have missed you at FOQ Hazel. Like you, I was very impressed with the tent makers and the quilts were wonderful. I'm glad your workshop at MKC went well.

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  3. Wow, those applique quilts are just gorgeous. I cannot believe the workmanship and detail. Love your scarecrow pics.

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  4. I'm tired now from just reading about your week!

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