A grand day out

I mentioned in my last post that I had a couple of entries in the British Quilt and Stitch Village show and on Sunday it was time to go to the show and collect them.

We decided to make a day of it and first went to SudburyHall which is only a few miles from Uttoxeter. We spent a very pleasant couple of hours there, got some lunch and, given the weather was so much better than forecast, sat in the sun by the lake. I even managed to do some fabric shopping, spotting these rather P&Q appropriate tea towels in the shop (I have plans for a sewing caddy for these). At only £8 for two I thought these good value, especially as they were wrapped with ~1m of gross-grain ribbon.

Then it was on to Uttoxeter for the last hour or so of the quilt show. Arriving at this time meant the crowds had been and gone and there was plenty of room to do some shopping and view the competition entries. I was quite focussed with my shopping, but surprised myself at how much I could spend in a short time. First in the bag was some Oakshott cottons, quickly followed by some more shot cottons, all for the quilt for my husband. Then it was time for some bargain hunting - I found lace zips at 5 for £5 and a rummage in the thread baskets resulted in 12 reels of silk thread for £10 (I used the same thread for piecing and quilting the rainbow pouch and wanted to add more colours to my stash). My final purchases were a reel of 40wt Aurifil and very small quilting ruler which will come in handy more for measuring that cutting.  

Then it was time to wander around the quilting displays and it was great being able to view the quilts without having to worry about bumping into people. The work on display was stunning which was only to be expected given there were entries from professional textile artists and full-time quilters. I must admit to a little bit of excitement at seeing my own entries on display, though if I ever enter another show, perhaps I should roll not fold a quilt for packing.

(I’ve put more photos of these at the end of this post.)

It was rather like report day at school when I got the comment forms but I packed them in boot of the car and had to wait until I got home to read them. Given the calibre of the other entrants, it was no surprise that my entries did not get placed but the judges’ comments were very fair and it was nice to see a few excellents on the report sheet. 

 

This is my third time visting this show and I must admit to liking it for its size and location - it is not at every quilt show that you can sit in the sun on the grandstands looking over a racecourse. I’m sure I will be back again next year, but I’ve yet to decide whether it will be as competition observer or a competition entrant.

Quilt (Special Theme Category- British Royalty)

Rainbow Pouch (3D Category)