Quilters' Guild Conference and AGM

As the annual Quilters' Guild conference and AGM was fairly local being held in Portsmouth at the Guildhall.  I attended on Friday and Saturday (the conference continued to Sunday lunchtime).  I had booked back in November last year just for the conference so I had the opportunity to hear lectures.  I decided to stay overnight in one of the hotels and unfortunately it was not one that I thought I had booked but another in Southsea which is just about 20minutes walk from the venue.   Normally when visiting Portsmouth by car we head straight for Gunwharf Quays shopping centre but not the city itself, and as I went around on foot it was a chance to explore a bit of the city.

The Guildhall

Charles Dickens, who was born in the city 

Ravelin Park gate, which these leaves over the gate

On Friday afternoon was a lecture by Maryke Phillips, who runs online store "Batiks and Beads" and her experience of patchwork and quilting, from thinking she knew no-one who did patchwork and quilting until she discovered other patchworkers in a new area. Then from embarking on a course which turned out to be a City & Guilds course.   She has a love of batiks and whatever is left from making quilt tops gets pieced as part of the fabric on the back so nothing is wasted.

I then took the chance to shop from the retailers there and came away with a creative pack of felt and fabric from Maryke's shop and also thread and fabric from The Dye Bag shop. Just look at the variety of colours, yummy.

After finding the hotel and later having dinner at the pub opposite the Guildhall the evening lecture was by Susan Chapman, who is a textile artist and teacher, who teaches City and Guilds and degree courses at Eastleigh College, so very artistic and contemporary stuff, but an interesting speaker nonetheless.

Saturday started early with a walk on a quiet Saturday morning back to the Guildhall when during that walk came across the Anglican Cathedral, not very showy, just tucked away. Just to the right is the top of the Spinnaker Tower

The AGM took place until lunchtime and afterwards had the chance to hear about a project the Guild has started to undertake called "Talking Quilts" which is currently in a few areas at the moment, but will spread to other regions.  Here's a link with info about it.

There were some meetings after, but just at the end of the afternoon I met up with David and with a short walk back to Gunwharf Quay it was nice to relax with dinner.

But I can't finish this without a pic of more quilty purchases. This time another ruler - a 45 and 90 degree ruler

Then these lovely new Janet Clare fabrics "Hearty Good Wishes" from Quilters' Dream, they have a lovely textural quality about it.

And just look at the selvedges!