Woohoo!! On our way!

This was Cathy and I on our way to the Uk from Pearson.

Another week

Finally settling into routine and trying to decide how I am going to spend my time. I will have a lot more free time this coming year and I am looking forward to it. I really want to get some quilts made so I am going to work out a plan and see what happens.
I have a Trunk show of my work coming up at the end of the month and I will be teaching in the new year and I also have to get pieces made for the gallery in Port Stanley.
The next thing will be to come up with a subject but I think I will find one!

After Birmingham

We got back to my Aunts house early evening on the Friday and we were able to sit and relax and tell her all about the show and the quilts we had seen, I showed her photos on the camera and she was very interested.
The following day was glorious, we had had rain all day the previous day in Birmingham, not that it worried us being inside, bunt it was good to see the sunshine again.  Aunty had asked for our help on small jobs that needed doing and we were only to happy to oblige, so off we went to St Ive's , we had a lovely visit it really is a lovely town and we walked from one end to the other!

 We had visited the Ferry Boat Inn in Holywell prior to going to Birmingham and this is Cathy and I standing in the pub with the beam just above our heads.

 The great British Breakfast!!

 I couldn't resist taking this. I used to drive around London, England in  the exact same Land Rover, it was my favourite vehicle. It 's an ex Army Series III, the petrol tanks were located unde the drivers seat, and under the passenger seat, when one tank was empty you just flipped a switch and the other tank would then be used. She was a joy to drive, hot in Summer which is why you took the canvas hood off, and cold in Winter, I can remember getting wet feet as the rain would drip in  through the window area. As for heating, it didn't have much! However, I loved driving it but was then upgraded to a Range Rover!

Views of St Ive's, the weather was extremely hot, the following week saw the temperatures drop quite considerably although it was still warm. We then went to the Garden Centre in Brampton and had lunch and then back home to do some planting and other jobs. We left after lunch on Sunday and then headed back to London where we were staying with friends. But that's another story!

Home again

Well, that was a hectic two weeks!

The Festival of Quilts was very interesting, and I had every intention of posting whilst we were there, unfortunately, the signal was week or non existent and I could not connect to the Internet in the hotel so was unable to post anything.

We arrived at the show on the Thursday morning and parked the car far more easily than I thought as it was very busy. We went into the show and straight to the Israeli Quilters Association booth to meet Clara Kichel, the President of the guild. They were expecting us and we had a little time to walk around the show as Clara wasn't there. The show did have rather a strange and confusing layout with Quilts on display as soon as you came in the main entrance and then a big area of display booths which was put straight through the middle of the vendors, not easy to negotiate and it necessitated looking at the map provided in the catalogue, and also broke up the flow, think that is something that should be addressed personally, we found it difficult to find our way back to where we wanted to be. However, we met with Clara and then arranged to meet her for dinner that night. That gave us plenty of time to go around the show and vendors and also back to the hotel to freshen up and relax a little.

 I am posting a few images of the quilts we saw, in fact I had also seen some of these in Houston last year at the IQF. The second image is beautiful and consists of three layers of sheer fabric, each one different allowing there to be depth to the entire piece, truly beautiful.

 A display by  European Quilting Association members from the UK, These were challenge pieces.

A beautiful Miniature quilt which was had appliquéd and hand quilted.

 You really needed to stand away from this quilt to appreciate its beauty, one of my favourites, the watery effect was achieved by layering fabrics and has a wonderful sense of movement.

What better in this Jubilee year than the Coat of Arms?

We had a wonderful evening with Clara and also bumped into some of our old friends from the Netherlands who were with us last year, Jeannette and Leontine. It was lovely to see them and there were hugs all round. We arranged to meet for lunch the following day, which we did and then had dessert with my Cousin's wife who was visiting the show and we had arranged to meet her too, a very busy day!!

Cathy and I with Jeannette and Leontine at lunch.

All in all, it was a successful visit and we achieved a lot. We then drove back to Cambridge that night as we had been staying with my Aunt.