2019 Wk 31 - Festival of Quilts Day 1

Woohoo - a weekend with Jackie, and with a zillion other (mostly) ladies in Birmingham.

Some stunning quilts were on show: This amazing piece was made but a lovely friend of Jackie's called Valerie

And a close up

And these next two are by the very talented Avril: a friend who also attends Richmond & Key Quilters

This circle was made from gathered fabric - gathered as if for smocking - I was desperate to touch it: a lovely piece of wall art, although the pleats must collect so much dust!!

These are dorset buttons: tiny ones about thumbnail size, mounted in plastic rings

After 14000+ steps, we went to the town to find out hotel,

and show our purchases

The one where I've been to Festival of Quilts (part 2)

I have taken some photos of some of my favourite quilts from the festival - and some that have inspired me.  They are on the "Private Use" page

Whilst travelling, and chatting in the evenings I finished two cogs on the La Passacaglia (almost: two tiny triangles left to do on the top one, but I'm delighted I managed to get the same purple to be able to finish the outer hexies)

 and I started the next cog

We saw this felted bag when we had a coffee and a rest - a lovely lady called Heidi made it, and told us she was hoping to teach a felting class next year - we'll sign up!

And being too impatient to wait, I bought some hand made felt and matching buttons to have a go at making the bag!

I also bought some more picture fabrics

and some gadget type stuff - pre-wound bobbins and this fabric gel that turns anything into water resistant sewable farbic!

I also came home with these lovely goodies from Jackie: an Avoca button mug, a zippy pouch and a sewing essentials folder - thank you Jackie!!!

 Now I need to spend sometime in the sewing room finding places for all this stuff!!!!

The one where I've been to Festival of Quilts (part 1)

Oh my gosh - lots of inspiration, lots of shopping, lots of walking, and lots of talking!  Altogether a great 48 hours in Birmingham!

For now I'm going to share some of the  shopping!

some grey FQs and some picture fabrics as I'm running low for i-spy quilts

Plus a few more greys (I have some ideas!)

And some wool for Lisa,

Plus threads and new snips for me

And somehow I bought some charms too!!!!

Quick Rewind

I've finally found the cable so I can download the camera photos from Festival of Quilts.  I've added some more quilt photos to the Private Use tab, and here is the photo of the bloggers I managed to meet up with:

From left to right: Margaret, Sue, Jackie (who doesn't blog, but is frequently mentioned here), me and Eldrid who blogs as KameleonQuilt.

 We met at Deborah's (the blue hare) stall and her daughter kindly took this photo (thanks Charlotte) but Deborah herself was busy at the time, so didn't get included in the pic.  It was lovely to meet / see you all and put faces to the names.

Shopping Show and Tell

Now that I'm home and have recovered from walking *hundreds* of miles (my feet tell me I'm not exaggerating much) I can show you day 2's shopping haul:

The Warm Company were giving away wadding (batting) in exchange for an email address: Warm and White on Friday, and Soft and White on Saturday - thank you, I'll have some of that!

There was a stall selling 150cm wide fabric cut into 50cm lengths (so nearly the size of 3 FQs) for £3:50 a piece, so I bought some red and whites from them, and I picked up some £1 FQs that will be great for Sunday school.

I also got some picture FQs, some buttons and some beads, some sea fabric for a lighthouse quilts I've been asked to make, and that wibbly pink frame is a pompom maker - the ladies on the stall made it look really easy!

I think that's about all :-)

I did take some photos of some fab quilts - they are on the Private Use page

Festival Fatigue

We've just got back to the hotel after our first Fesitval of Quilts - my poor feet!!!

However, we had a lovely day!  We met up with Eldrid, Margaret, and Sue at Deborah's stall. (Photo on camera so I need a PC to get them onto the blog)

Today's shopping was mostly ticking things off the list:

Fabrics for the red linen quilt, buttons for a waistcoat mum knitted me, and lace to lengthen a denim top.  Additionally I found a stitch ripper with a rubberised end for gathering up the scraps of thread (thanks Katy for the suggestion) and some soya wax (I'll let you know how successful it is!)

I also got Kona steel and white for two in- progress projects, and thermofix red paint plus a new silk screen.

Fairly restrained!  I wonder what tomorrow will bring!

PS, thanks to Jackie for this fab wide mouthed bag , perfect for the next stage of rainbow hexies