I generally to go to two quilt shows a year - the Festival
of Quilts in Birmingham in the autumn, and Malvern in the spring. The shows are
quite different from each other, Malvern being smaller and more intimate, while
Birmingham you need several days there to get the best out of it.
With shows, I sometimes have a small shopping list of
obscure quilting 'stuff' I might be able to find, but the real joy is
discovering (and buying!) things that are completely unexpected. There are two
Malvern quilt shows each year, one in the spring, and one in the autumn. As my
mother lives 10 minutes' drive away, we can have a mother and daughter trip
round the show, a walk in lovely Malvern Hills, followed by tea and cake.
This year, the show had a proper printed catalogue. I love
these. I keep them as a record of the event, and I also like to make notes as I
go round so I can follow up people or products afterwards.
Going round the halls, there were some beautiful quilts on
display. I did take photographs, but according to the catalogue, you can't put
photos of the quilts online, so they'll just have to be for my reference only.
I bought four books (eep!), two of which I was able to get signed by the
author, which was nice. And although I never intended to buy fabric, I couldn't
resist a kit from Patchwork Corner. It's an almost monochrome quilt, made from irregular blocks, and the
fabric is a thick linen rather than cotton lawn. Among all the batiks, Moda,
and general girly fabrics and designs, it really stood out. They also sold some
sweet ribbon, with a delicate crocheted edge, so I bought a few yards of this
too.
Another shop I'd not come across before was The Button
Lady, who had an amazing selection of decorative buttons - I especially
liked the wooden ones.
There were racks and racks of patterns on sale, more than I
have ever seen before. I bought one for a sweet little folded sewing case from Antique
Angel. On the whole, though, I'd rather buy a book with a variety of projects
in it.
After several hours wandering round, I was just on my way
out when I made the mistake of slowing down imperceptibly while passing The
Cotton Patch stand, where they had several long arm quilting machines on
display. While I'm happy with the walking foot on my sewing machine, as my
quilts get bigger, I'm finding it harder and harder to roll them under the
throat of the machine while I'm quilting. And while I don't think I'd ever want
a standup machine, on a frame, I have had my eyes on the Handiquilter Sweet
Sixteen for a while, as it seems like a natural step up for my quilting needs.
The very nice Mr Geoff Sewell persuaded me to 'test drive'
the Sweet Sixteen, and despite my initial reservations (it looked a bit scary!)
it proved to be much easier to use than I anticipated. After some tweaking to
the speed, to make it match the speed I was moving the fabric, I found it very
easy to get on with. Because the speed is even, I was just able to concentrate
on 'drawing' the design, without having to worry about keeping an even stitch
length. Once we have the stable sorted out, I'd be extremely tempted to buy one
of these; it was gorgeous.
