The show was a blast! I'll get to it...
We went up to Coventry on Thursday evening - somewhat later than intended, as Alan spent the day with his left ear glued to the phone for work! We had an easy run up, despite travailing during rush hour times on the M25! It's a really simple journey - M2, almost from our door, M25 and Dartford Crossing to get north of the Thames, then M11, A14, M6 and the Coventry ring road across to the west, and Kenilworth is no problem to find! Did it in just 3 hours, door to door! :) Wahatja mean Seat Ibiza TDi's are not rocket powered? I'm sure they are...
We presented our hosts with a solid silver Canterbury Spoon as a token of our esteem and in celebration of 25 interesting years together. Though I wasn't at their wedding, I first met this couple at their engagement party in Durham, and their elder daughter is my Goddaughter. This gathering was a 4 day 'NOT a party, really' celebration of their 25 years together as a married couple.
Friday was good - went out to the pub for lunch after our hostess had a
3 hour meeting in school to make their minds up about the prospective A level candidates. Then we went to John Lewis's to get some silk thread and a few other bits for sewing... Nothing really quilty, but after the pink bridesmaids, I needed a new button covering gadget, and I also got one of those double tracing wheels - wanted one for ages! Picked up a few bobbins for the Singer 15-88 while I was there. Friday evening Nel and her family arrived and we had a late supper... Nattered a lot, drank a few bottles of wine... Chilled a little... We got reasonably 'relaxed', as we usually term it! ;) gently merry and garrulous! The kids all went to bed WAAAAAAY too late, but as they were being good, it didn't matter, and mine is the youngest by several years. Most are teens, and the odd few days of late nights are fine as long as they're having fun.Saturday was Quilt Show Day! Off we went... Gill, our non quilting hostess, did the driving. The day was perfect, for me! The quilts were fabulous, and we really didn't get to see all of them, nor to linger as long as we might have wanted with them. We all three failed to take cameras with us, so no pix! Wah! Sorry! There were some stunning things there, but on the whole we agreed that the red and white ones were probably the best over all, the sashiko ones were stunning and elegant, the miniatures were mind blowing, and the wearables were occasionally very odd but rather fun! The red and white one with the dragon on it was my personal favourite of them all, but it was a very close call!
There were a lot more stalls than we thought there might be, and we did spend a lot of time hunting through them, but were very restrained! Gill bought a mini soldering iron and a kit to do some fabric soldering (I KNEW she would be tempted by something!), Nel bought a single bag full of goodies, and everything I bought fitted in my (teacher's Large sized) handbag! I bought NO FQ's or other fabric, other than a small kit for a whole cloth hand quilted cushion cover. I did buy the big 60 mm Olfa ergonomic rotary cutter for doing my Stack'n'Whack quilt, and some thread - though NOT stripy thread! My only real impulse buy was the Curve Master foot - it was so neat when the inventor was demonstrating it, and I have a passion for accuracy that I don't always live up to, so I thought this would be a reasonable purchase. I'll write a full report when I try it. Apparently they are also going to make a 5/8" version for garment making, so I'll be on the look out for that too! I also bought a needle threader for the treadle - it threads from the right of the needle, and try as I might, I CANNOT thread a needle with my right hand! There was also a hand sewing needle version I got for the kids to use - we spend way too long threading needles when I'm doing the workshops! I also bought a Mavis Haslam stained glass pattern for a Macintosh rose wall hanging, which will look lovely.
My whole cloth cushion is a Sandie Lush pattern and kit and was so easy... hehehehehehe! I never thought I'd say that about hand quilting, but it wasn't really hard at all. Nel is such a nice friend to have! She helped me choose it - a fairly simple 8 pointed star pattern, helped me set up to trace it off, lent me her new gadget to baste it (we were a little over enthusiastic, and bent the needle on the basting gun, but it was possible to straighten it enough to use again!), leant me a 'spare' quilting hoop, and I got started... She gave me a couple of quick lessons in the rocking stitch technique, and away I went! Nel also gave me a thimble - our hands are uncannily similar in size and shape, so one of hers became mine in an instant! As a thimble hater, I thought I'd NEVER get used to the thimble, but it was soon a real friend - to the point that I forgot to take it off when we sat down for dinner! Made us all giggle, that did! Saturday was spent quilting
- and the cushion top is almost finished! I think I managed an average of six stitches to the inch... This kit has calico (plain muslin) for the top and a poly batting, and I have a feeling that with a smaller needle, finer fabric and a cotton batting, the stitches will get smaller. I'm pleased the stitches came out quite even, and no doubt they will get smaller with practice.
On Saturday night we had a BBQ - the men shared the cooking, and the rest of us helped make salads... and we stuffed ourselves silly! On Sunday Gill, her DH, my DH and Nel's DH dragged the kids off to Kenilworth castle to play with some Right but Repulsive Roundheads, and they had great fun. There are pix of James trying on 17th C armour several sizes too big, and various other goings on. I'll try to get some up on the web site at some point.
I sewed the cushion cover most of the day - my knees did NOT want to go to the castle! Yesterday evening was spent eating coq au vin a la Chez Gill, (she's a damned good cook, and did her best to make everything as low fat and gall bladder and WW friendly as possible for me, so I could eat almost everything, and did!), and 14 of us sat down to eat and watch LoTR The Two Towers in two halves - we had dinner in the middle of it. The adults (who are all feeling our age!) bagged the sofas and chairs, and we covered the floor with cushions and teenagers! There's nothing quite as good as a warm Goddaughter for keeping your feet cosy! ;P James hit his bed at midnight, happy but exhausted!
Today we rose at our leisure... Nel and family departed late morning, and the rest of us repaired to the pub for lunch. We came home early this evening, and James said he wanted a light supper that didn't take too long to cook: he wasn't very hungry, and he wanted to go to bed!
On the whole, it was a very successful weekend, the quilt show was very impressive if a little overpowering, and while Nel and I were sorry to have missed the official meet-up, we managed to have our own mini-meet and have fun. There was a lot there to inspire us, and a lot to admire. Unfortunately, Thursday was never going to be good for either of us this year, as our main reason for going to Kenilworth was our friends' celebration.
I am now completely shattered, have chewed my way through over 1100 posts that appeared since I left on Thursday, and I'm off to bed!