Sunday, September 02, 2012
WHAT A YEAR SO FAR!
It has been some
time since I took time out to record what has been happening, since my last
blog.
It has been an
amazingly successful year for me and I still cannot believe what has
happened. Back in May, my cot quilt ‘In
Dulci Jubilo’, not only won the Cot Quilt category, but also won the overall
Championship award, at Quilts UK, Malvern.
Unfortunately, we hadn’t planned to be there this year, it being very
close to another trip, but my great friends, Sue Goodman and Rosemary Hillman
accepted the cup, on my behalf, at the awards ceremony. Poor Sue and husband Mike, very
kindly, managed to fit the sewing machine into an already heavily burdened car
to bring it home to me, together with the silverware.
Moving on to June
and the National Quilt Championships at Sandown, I was amazed to find that my
entry into the Theme category, “Flower Garden’, had won first prize. Not only that, but my entry into the ‘In the
Pink’ theme (‘Pink? Of Corset is!’) had come second, as well as receiving the
hand-quilting prize and the little boy’s quilted jacket, first, in the Wearable
Art category. I was very surprised and of course, very pleased and had a lot of silverware to take home with me, on
the train, the next day. As always, it
was a great Show and the standard of quilts was very high this year, with my
friend Ferret scooping the Championship award, with her amazing (and very
large) wholecloth quilt ‘Prometheus’.
Whilst all this
was going on, I was informed that my quilt, “Lux Aurumque’, had been invited to
be part of the special exhibition ‘Quilts All Around 2012’, at Houston this
year. A great honour, especially as only
33 quilts were chosen, from entries all around the world. ‘In Dulci Jubilo’ was also juried into the
World Quilt Show in New England and won the ‘Best Hand Workmanship
(Traditional)' award. I was, of course,
thrilled with this as ‘Lux Aurumque’ won the same award, last year. (Please see photos of these quilts on the Gallery on website).
Finally, I have
just returned from spending a day at the Festival of Quilts. This is the first year I haven’t spent
several days there, as both Sue and I had found it very tiring last year and
had decided to give it a miss this year.
At the last minute, I managed to get a day return coach ticket from
Norwich, so I set off at 6.30 on the Saturday morning and we arrived at the NEC
about 30 minutes after the Show opened.
My bucket bag had won a second prize and was displayed amongst the other
Quilt Creations. Unfortunately, they
were positioned under the tunnel connecting two halls this year, so the
lighting wasn’t very good. However,
there were some very interesting pieces on display, including an anatomically
correct boy baby in a crib and a full sized bed ‘a la Tracey Emin’. I didn’t have a lot of time to see many
quilts, as I was catching up with lots of friends as I went around the Show,
but the ones I did see were wonderful, especially those in the Traditional
section which, I understand, were up in number this year. The
Festival is now under new management and there were a few hiccups that will
need to be addressed, but from what I can tell from other postings, everyone
had a good time and enjoyed the Show enormously.
Carin was over in
the UK again however, due to the Olympics, had decided to spend all her time
in Norwich, thus avoiding London. As it
happens, London wasn’t as busy as everyone had anticipated, as we found out when we went to the see the athletics on the evening of 'Super Saturday', but as Carin has so
many friends in Norfolk, she had very little time on her own, before she made
her way to the Festival of Quilts, where she stayed for the usual three
nights. Sue and I shared a glorious
summer’s day with her on a trip to Sandringham, where we were able to enjoy the
house, museum and gardens, whilst catching up with all our news. Carin’s delightful miniature candlewick
quilt, was also on display at the Festival of Quilts, amongst many others,
which in my mind, is always the ‘star’ category of the Show.
Sadly, the venue
for the Chilford Autumn Festival burned down earlier this year, but we now
understand that it will still take place, as planned, at a new venue at the
Conservation Hall, The Imperial War Museum, Duxford, Cambridgeshire.
The Block of the
Month, I designed for Region 9 of the Quilters’ Guild still goes from strength
to strength. Ros has just sent out the final month's instructions. However, it is still not too late to join in. Just read the instructions on my website
Homepage, make an application and you will be sent the whole 9 months patterns
and instructions together. I am very
happy to say that over 200 people have applied so far and yesterday I taught a morning’s workshop
based on the BOM for Region 9 members and other visitors at Mundford Village Hall, Norfolk. I cannot say how wonderful the blocks and part finished quilts look already and I look forward to seeing lots of photos when they are finally completed. Ros is now actively looking into the possibility of sending a collection of the finished quilts to a national Show sometime next year.
Just as a teaser,
there will be a new BOM, which is due to be published in Patchwork &
Quilting magazine next year. Just look
out for the announcement in the magazine for the start date.
I am also looking forward to our trip to Skye in October when I will be spending a day with the Skye Quilters, teaching a workshop.
So now the summer
(such as it was) is beginning to close and we look forward to the autumn
colours, it is time to get back to the drawing board and start on next year’s
pieces. One is already on the go and I
can tell you it is very RED!
Looking forward to
catching up with everyone during the next few months.
Happy quilting,
