Festival of Quilts: Part 2

I remembered my camera for day two at The Festival of Quilts so be ready for a very picture heavy post. Click on any of the pictures for a larger view. After all the shopping on day one we decided to concentrate on the exhibited quilts on day two. I was surprised by which quilts I was drawn to but I think the overall theme is: I love symmetry.

In the Traditional Quilt section, it wasn't the pieced quilts but the appliqué that really caught my attention. The first quilt didn't win a prize but was commended. I thought the simple colour scheme made a terrific impact and the quilting was fantastic. The appliqué was done by machine using a zig-zag stitch in an invisible thread. I think it would have definitely got a prize if it had been hand done.

The second was the winner of the category. This was all hand appliquéd, hand quilted and hand beaded. I dread to think how long it took but it was absolutely beautiful in person. Makes me think I should really try appliqué.

The other section that I found intriguing was the pictorial quilts. Previously, I would have walked straight through this section but some of the quilts were so beautiful you just had to stop and marvel.

This is a small section of the winning quilt, can't you just feel the heat of that sun?

This one reminded me of holidays on the Isle of Wight; crabbing off the dock and drinking gin and tonic at sunset - bliss!

There were a couple of exhibitions that weren't part of the competition. These quilts were from the "Arabic Inspiration" stall. They really call out to my love of symmetry.

This was the "Tentmakers of Cairo" stall. There were some absolutely beautiful quilts that were all hand appliquéd. There were two Egyptian men in there sewing panels all day long and they were amazing to watch. So quick!

My camera ran out of batteries there so all the rest of my photos were taken on my phone. I took some fantastic Hexagon inspiration pictures so I'll try and get those up on Flickr,

Festival of Quilts: Part 1

I am back in the hotel after a heavy day of shopping at The Festival of Quilts. Note to self: when you're going to be on your feet shopping for 7 hours, don't go to the bookshop first!

I very stupidly forgot to take my camera so settled for shopping today, quilt ogling tomorrow. Here's a run down of my splurges tactical purchases.

For the hex-a-long I decided on shot cottons instead of solids to frame my spots. I thought they would give the quilt a little bit more interest. I got both of these fat-eighth stacks from Oakshott Fabrics and have just spent a fun half hour in the hotel bar matching up fabrics to spots. I guess that doesn't happen often because the waiter moseyed on over to ask what I was doing (I wonder what he'll think when I start basting my diamonds!).

I also fell in love with this large scale floral by Kaffe Fassett. I thought I could fussy cut the large flowers for the odd non-pieced hexie. They will probably have other flowers poking in the edges but I'll see how it works. I bought a half yard which should give me about 8 big flowers. This beauty came from Doughty's. 

I didn't plan on buying it but mum was inspired after getting her book signed by Kaffe himself and spent 45 mins picking 21 different prints for a quilt. I had to buy at least one. It would be rude not to!

For non-hex-a-long quilting I bought this book:

Seriously! There really are 5500 quilt blocks in there. Do I just start at number 1 and keep going?

I promise I'll have my camera tomorrow so you can see some of the beautiful quilts in the exhibition, including the hysterical winner of the group quilt section which has a lot of meerkats.