August

August usually means one thing - the Festival of Quilts.  I go there most years and this year, being the 40th Anniversary of the Quilters' Guild of the British Isles and a lot of things linked to this event.

I didn't take part in any way at all though - I didn't make a party hat block or make a mini quilt to celebrate the Ruby anniversary.  I did make a couple of thread catcher containers for the Tombola and also won another!  I didn't book a workshop as there weren't any that appealed but I did book the Jenny Doan (of Missouri Star Quilt Co) lecture, which was really brilliant.  She is such an entertaining speaker.

I really go for the competition quilts and the galleries.  I take photos - not that many this time compared with previous years. There are so many on social media sites - Facebook and Instagram and when I've taken photos I don't often look to them for reference.  There has been some retail therapy as well, but more of that later.

Before then there was a hashtag titled helloFoQ on Instagram and I posted my photo and trying to get a selfie right in front of my Dazzling Diamonds quilt took some doing, with arranging myself, getting the phone in the right place and it still wasn't a flattering pic!

The star of the show seemed to be the Red House Quilt.  The original was with the curated collection of the quilts in the Guild's collection and in the new book about the collection called 'Forty'.  There is also a Block of the Month due out soon to make a modern version of the quilt.  Below is the Modern one.

I tried to take photos of the winning quilts but the quilts are displayed under a single spotlight which highlighted the middle of the quilts but made the outside edges dark.  The pic below is called Who Will Tell the Bees  by Mary Palmer and Anne Kiely and is the Best In Show.

This pic is "Hermanas por el mundo" by Naroa y Nahia Sevilla.  The description was in Spanish in the catalogue but I think it is about a cultural exchange between the Spanish and Japanese girls and was in the Young/Quilter Embroiderer (10 - 13 years).

 You can see what I mean about the lighting in the pic above as this was the side of the quilt in the pic below show the colours better.  This was the winner of the Group category "Over the hills and far away" by 4 group members from Cowslip Workshops.

The pic below was a Traditional Quilt but unfortunately I didn't take one of the number so I can't tell you what this is and I thought I removed the person's arm (oops)

I will do some editing and share more photos soon.