Mrs A arrived very early, 7.50am early, to head off to the Malverns. Have to say that at that point in time she didn't look as if she was going to make a whole days adventure. She's still recuperating from a cough and cold. But where there is treasure then Mrs A will come to life!
Even the weather decided that we needed a treat and behaved itself - the threatened rain/showers no where to be seen and so off we head into well not quite the unknown. An uneventful journey taking about ninety minutes or so. You know you're nearly there when you start seeing coaches full of women!
The quilt show was held at the Three Shires County Showground - such a lovely venue - beats the NEC anyday and you don't have to pay to park in these beautiful surroundings.
Me all mad - well excited about the show. Oooh it's like going to an enormous sweetie shop for grown ups.
Just look at all this material! This is only just ONE stall! I could not guess how many more there were!
As well as the many stalls tempting you to become bankrupt are the rows upon rows of handmade quilts. I did take 113 photographs but you'll be pleased to note I'm not putting them all on this blog.
Some of the quilts you think they're not what you would like but you cannot go by them and not appreciate the workmanship that has gone into making one.
The downside of this venue is that this was never it's intended use and the low ceilings of the buildings, masses of women makes one feel a little claustrophobic. So it was lovely to have the good weather and be able to enjoy a cuppa outside and admire the view. Just noticed in this picture there seems to be a lot of men. I think what they did was bring their wives, come with a newspaper and just relax outside. They were not apparent inside.
Back inside and you can just see what fun there was to have. As well as the fabric stalls there were many who are just full of gadgets! Cutting boards, needles, templates, patterns, books etc etc. Then there were masses of plastic cutting shapes - which I think need a degree in maths to work out how to use them properly! Mrs A was buying one - mmmm and her maths leave a lot to be desired! Oooh I am being cheeky - I'm sure she'll make a good job.
Love the way that shops have to as creative as possible in order to get customers. What a great way getting your clients to make something - even if it is bloomers!
This is only half of this quilt. There were too many people admiring it to get a full picture. But it took a primary school three years to make it. It is their whole village. Soooo cute. No wonder there were so many people looking at it.
Love the way the children did a square with their faces on - harder for the boys to do one.
Love the Mrs Vicarage!
Just realised that I have not explained to you readers that the quilt show is also a competition. The theme for the competition was "celebration".
This quilt had many of us standing and calculating what we should be receiving next for our anniversaries. I should be getting coral - mmmm (Don't forget Mr P!)
I adored this quilt - probably one of my favourites. It's obviously a take on one of David Hockney's tree paintings, in panels. I even have this book of his tree paintings. So to see a quilt in this vain was great. I don't think it won any prizes but in my mind it did.
It's hard to show you the size of these quilts but this one was the size roughly of a sheet of A4 paper. Sooo cute and I adore all the embroidery that's been used to embellish the quilt. Think this one won a prize.
I love the humour in this quilt. Sadly I cut off the word "does".
Must stop saying "I really like this one", but I did. If I remember correctly this one was made by a few people and won a prize. I love the way the panels are connected with beads.
The amount of work that has gone into each panel - must have taken ages.
Have often thought I'd like to do a picture/quilt with houses. Not sure why but I just like them.
This is not my favourite type of quilt but I do appreciate the amount of work and skill that has gone into the creation of it.
I've a feeling that this was the winner of the quilt show a few years ago. Sorry the angle of the photograph hasn't done the colours justice. It's rather difficult to take pictures when the quilts themselves are so large and there are masses of people milling around. Have to take a picture quickly before someone else walks by.
Think this picture does the colours far more justice.
This is the centre piece of the quilt.
Sorry about the angle but these two ladies would not budge. They were nattering away - not about the quilts but her bl.....dy ipad! They seemed to deliberately not move knowing that others wanted to take a picture.
Anyway thought I'd show you another style quilt. Loved the colours.
Mrs A says that the red bit has significance in American quilts - but I can't remember what it was now! Might be something to do with the heart.
Finally the winner. Have to be honest and say Mrs A and I had to go back through the quilts to find it. We'd passed it by without hardly realising. Guess it wasn't our cup of tea. But I believe the fabric had been hand painted and lots of various clever techniques had been applied. So sorry to whoever made it - a pair of ignoramuses.
Someone said that this is felt melted/burnt onto the fabric. All very clever and far beyond me.
Well as you can see Mrs A and I had a wonderful day. She came back with her purse in ruins and mine only a little depleted. All I bought was a special sort of pencil to mark fabric with. But to be honest it wasn't that I wasn't tempted (didn't know I could get 2 "wasn't" into a sentence!). But rather that I have sooo many projects on the go and some fabric that I was looking for I couldn't find, so I managed to keep hold of my money. Also I have another thought about some special expensive French wool that I'd like to get - this is all going on at the back of my mind.
"Good-bye, two travellers ... till our next exciting adventure!"
(2nd misquote from Enid Blyton - Five go off in a caravan).
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