4th Week of February - a Few Quilts Short of a Quilt Show

 Ever looked forward to something and felt underwhelmed when you’ve got there?  I wanted to go to the South West Quilt Show in Newton Abbott so I booked the tickets and David booked an overnight stay at a Premier Inn that we’ve stayed at previously in Paignton for a quick weekend getaway. So the weather may be wet but that’s ok.  We travelled down to south Devon to go to the show at the race course there.

As soon as we walked in there were traders so had a quick look but I don’t usually buy anything until the end of my visit and going to the end of the hall was a display of journal quilts and some gaudy coloured quilts by Alicia Merrett.   We wondered where the other quilts were, then found a sign that took us outside and into another part of the building.  The space was small and sometimes crowded and there was a small selection of quilts.

The ones above are by members of SAQA, Studio Artists Quilt Association of quilt makers from different countries with the theme of The Orient Express. They are lovely interpretations of the theme but they were near the door of this room so you had to pick your moment to take photos.

I loved this large quilt, by Helen Burnham and a few of her quilts were exhibited.

This Platinum Jubilee Quilt (I can’t remember who made this) which was sold, had a lot of fabrics and machine quilting used to great effect.

Below is a quilt of small scenes by Gillian Travis

I liked the use of African fabrics in this quilt. Again, I didn’t make a note of the quilter,  it it used the method of piecing by Papper, Sax, Sten. 

One of several quilts by Carolyn Forster, which have appeared in Today’s Quilter magazine. 

It was disappointing not to see more local quilters and quilt groups involved as I’ve seen before at Exeter, where previous shows have been.  Perhaps it’s a sign of the times that things may not have returned to what they were before Covid. 

Of the traders, which included Doughty’s and Quilted Bear, there were one or two unusual ones. One being Old Maid New, who produces small embroidery kits, printing stamps and blocks. I bought some fabric and wadding too.

We were there for a couple of hours, so could have done the whole thing there and back in a day, but as we booked the overnight stay we made the most of the rest of the day, going to a very windy Teignmouth 

Then on to Paignton for our stay and a fish and chip tea at a nearby restaurant. Then on Sunday it rained so instead of spending much time around the Torbay area we came home, but not before getting breakfast.

Don’t those lampshades look lovely? We had breakfast at Costero Lounge on the very blustery Paignton sea front and it was quite busy, with people escaping the windy wet weather.

So that was our foray to a quilt show that seemed a bit short on the quilts,