This day consisted of two talks, some demonstrations, a small quilt exhibition by Pilgrim Quilters and some traders (yes, of course I bought some stuff - I'll show you at the end). And a raffle, of course. (Always a raffle - and actually, I was kind of looking forward to the raffle because last time I went to a Surrey area day - 3 years ago - I bought 2 strips of raffle tickets, and had two of my numbers called - I got two different show guides/small books from shows I hadn't been to, so that was nice. Anyway, I thought, hey, maybe I'll win twice again this year. Now, you aren't going to believe this, but I did. I got a bottle of champagne the first time and then, the very last prize, my number was drawn again - but as it was a bottle of cream sherry, I declined the prize and had them draw someone else - cream sherry's not my favourite, and as I'd already won once, it didn't seem like much of a hardship. But how funny is that!)
Anyway, the talks were both very interesting - the morning talk was by Sheena Norquay, a Scottish quilter who doesn't seem to have her own website that I can find, but if you google her on images, you can see some of her work. She showed slides of her early work, which was very interesting - to see someone's development in the field, especially someone who started in the late 70s, doing what was then the main thing patchwork-wise in the UK - piecing over papers. She also had some of her more recent quilts with her, so we got to see lots of her work. She's an amazingly talented machine quilter.
The afternoon talk was by Barbara Weeks, whose work I'd seen recently at Hever Quilt Show and liked very much. Her talk was on "Instant Colour" and as it was largely about dyeing with either Procion dyes or steam-fixed silk dyes (not a technique I've tried, but I know the theory) I didn't learn much per se, but she also talked about her own work and brought lots of quilts to look at and hear about. And she told us of an art shop right near the British Museum, which I just might happen to visit when we go up over half term to see the Chinese Warriors. Such a hardship!
And here's what I bought from the traders. The book was actually in a box of secondhand books being sold for £1 to support the new Guild Resource Centre in York (or something like that). Not that I have a lot of interest in minature quilts, but there are a few in here with very interesting techniques, like a paper quilt and one stitched with a double needle - for £1, it was well worth it. Also in the left picture are some cross-stitch patterns (small, acheiveable ones), some cards, and a paper-piecing pattern, which I might give as a gift, with the fabrics to make the hanging up. On the right, fabric. A few things which I actually needed - some black on blacks, some orientals, both for blocks for the birthday block swap, but mainly just fabric I liked. A few beads and bits, as well. I discovered the other day while working on the back of the beaded doll (yes, I'm still working on the back) that I have almost no black beads. Yikes! That's remedied now.
Anyway, in all, it was a lovely, peaceful day, with lots of grownup conversation. Following on from a dinner at friends' last night, for which we got a babysitter in for the kids, you might think I was actually a proper grownup! (But you'd probably be mistaken, lol)
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