Wealden Quilt Show, Crowborough

I've had a busy weekend and got a bit behind with my blogging, so here are a few photos from the Wealden Quilt Show, which was held in Crowborough, Sussex, on Friday and Saturday. Although Friday clashed with the royal wedding, the quilt show (the 10th anniversary show too) was all arranged well before the wedding was announced and it was not possible to reschedule it for another date. The organisers went with a wedding and anniversary theme instead, including a display of vintage wedding dresses, quilts with hearts etc. and many of the visitors' choice award winners from the previous decade's shows.

The quilt in the background is 'Love Hearts' by Angela Turner.


A couple of my quilts filled in a gap in the foyer (the two on the lower rail). I have a few more photos of quilts (although somehow I didn't get one of this year's Visitors' Choice, a lovely Lone Star in spring greens by Dorothy Thompson - can anyone send me one?)


My sashiko workshop, a one hour 'taster' session on the Yuza sashiko hitomezashi (one stitch sashiko) pattern kusazashi (grasses sashiko), was scheduled for an hour at 11 a.m, exactly overlapping with the royal wedding on TV. We delayed the start for five minutes, so the quilters could see what the wedding dress was like, but still had nine quilters in the class. I don't think I've ever had such competition from another event .


It was a pleasure to do this show again, which has such a good variety of local quilts displayed - something to appeal to all tastes and levels of ability in quilting, sure to inspire visitors! Thanks to Lynette, Dorothy, Jan and all their team for staging another fun event.

St George's Day in England & Wealden Quilt Show

InWales, it was Thursday, but in England, April 23rd is St George's Day. What could be better than to celebrate by spending the evening out at a good pub, watching some morris dancing?

Hartley Morris Men and Kettle Bridge Clogs danced at the Queen's Head, Mereworth.

Four of the local scouts had learned a stick dance for their Heritage Badge and they performed it with some of Hartley's dancers. Afterwards, the Squire of the Morris Ring presented them with certificates.

There were plenty of St George's flags and red and white to be seen, not only on the dancers' kit, though Hartley's Fool leaves you in no doubt where they're from with his Union Jack tailcoat & hat. One of his coat badges is "You can always tell a Brit.... but you can't tell him much!" LOL



There's always some good singing in the bar after Hartley have danced out, with lots of choruses to join in with. I was trying to look after my voice for two days of sashiko demos at the Wealden Quilt Show at Crowborough, so I tried to keep quieter than usual. After three days' demoing & talking at Quilts in the Garden earlier this month, I could only croak on the Monday morning!


The Denman Kannon central panel is nearly finished and I'll be able to add the borders soon.

It was a lovely show with many excellent quilts, and a good proportion of larger bed quilts - often there aren't so many bed quilts at shows these days. Thank you very much to Lynette (the "Stitch Witch") and Jan for inviting me at short notice!

There were several large "Round the World" theme sampler quilts done to Lynette's designs, with blocks for different countries. It is always refreshing to see a new take on a sampler quilt. She also had her lovely new pansies panel on display - you can see it on her website.

Jan was demoing with one of the top of the range Bernina sewing machines, with programmable embroidery designs. I was too busy during the show to see it working, but it looked really interesting.

A surprise visit to the Wealden Quilt Show next weekend

A surprise date for your diary - I'll be demoing sashiko on the Denman Kannon panel at the Wealden Quilt Show in Crowborough next weekend, on both days - Friday and Saturday.

The following info is edited from Jan Allston's post on Yahoo! BQL group -

This year's show will take place on Friday 24th and Saturday 25th April. 10 - 5 pm on Friday and 10 - 4 on Saturday. All Saint's New Church Hall, Chapel Green, Church Road, Crowborough. East sussex. TN6 2LB.

As you would expect there are lots of lovely quilts to drool over and we have three traders in attendance. Sleeping Bear Crafts, Puddleducks and Stitch-Witch, so plenty of variety.

There is also the Wealden Challenge. the theme this year is "Stars", smaller quilts with dimensions between 30 and 39 inches square.

With cakes, drinks and ploughman's lunches it should be a really good day out.

If anyone wants raffle tickets, (remember that last year's first and second prizes were won by BQL tickets), please contact me off list.

Prizes this year are amazing bed-sized quilts for first and second winners. Lots of other prizes too.

******

She also mentioned -

"There are demonstrations all day both days - Friday - I'm on all day Friday with my Bernina Artista 630 doing machine embroidery/appliqué from design to stitchout; Dorothy Thompson will be demonstrating mitred bindings and her exquisite hand quilting, Christine Cooper will be doing Colour Design and Lynette Harris will be showing us how to do Shadow Appliqué. On Saturday, we have Anne Weald - Fabric Painting, Sue Rhodes - Machine Trapunto, Sara Cook -
Drunkard's Path, Corinne Simpson - Machine foundation Piecing and Lynette again with Shadow Appliqué."

If anyone is wondering how the Denman Kannon is coming on, it looked like this last week in Linlithgow, but I've added some juujizashi (cross or ten stitch) to the robe hem. I decided to keep the name, as "denman" sounds like the Japanese for "10,000 legend".


The halo is complete and I'm quite pleased with the glow effect made by the variations in stitch patterns plus various shades of cream and white thread. After next weekend I'll need to add the borders. I had put aside a length of tsumugi cotton with a narrow stripe in several shades of blue but there is another bolt on its way which might be even better (slightly more regular width stripes, about half a centimetre wide), so I'll hold out for that arriving before I decide.


The Kamon Sampler is back from its trip to Prague (see my earlier post), so I'll have that on display too.

Morris dancing update - Hartley Morris Men & Kettle Bridge Clogs are dancing at the Queen's Head at Mereworth. Hartley have been teaching six members of a scout troop to dance and they will also be dancing to complete the requirements for their heritage badge. There are five girls and one boy - as Brian wrote "a sign of the times".