I haven't had time to blog for a few days, because I've been at the Quilters' Guild's AGM and conference weekend in Dundee every day from Friday to Saturday. I missed the last few conference weekends, because I was already booked for teaching when the dates were annouced.
The venue was the Caird Hall, so we had excellent facilities for the conference, and the gala dinner was at the Apex Hotel nearby. Because Kettins is only about 11 miles from Dundee, I just commuted and even managed to come home to get changed between the Saturday afternoon sessions and the dinner.
Of course the big part of the conference weekend (which isn't as formal as that sounds!) is meeting other quilters and socialising, plus the temptation of shopping with the traders, the Guild's own trading stall and fundraisers like the bring and buy. I wanted to enjoy the full lecture programme this time and it was a really good one. On Friday we has Jamie Malden of Colouricious with 'The Art of Block Printing', Patricia Macindoe on Provencal boutis, Lesley Knox on the new V & A galleries which will be built on Dundee's waterfront and Sheena Norquay with a new talk 'Seasonal Inspirations'. I enjoyed all of these very much but I think Sheena's talk was my favourite of the whole weekend but then I am a bit biased because I love her work. She's also a fantastic photographer with a great eye for tiny patterns and textures in nature.
Saturday's talks were 'A Quilter's Journey' by Katherine Gurrier and Pat Archibald's 'Around the World in 80 Quilts'. The photo at the top of this post is from Katherine's talk. I remember doing a workshop with Katherine about 10 years ago (her 'Colourblocks and Whacky Stars') which was lots of fun and I love her take on scrap quilts - the way the colours and patterns flicker over the surface like a piece of complex abstract art. Pat's quilts always seem amazingly calm and controlled, and her use of colour is always delicious.
Rounding off Saturday, we had the Gala dinner at the Apex Hotel. I should have photographed the food, as it was not only delicious but very well presented. We were able to have the veggie main course but the salmon starter, which was excellent, and the focus was very much on Scottish produce. Our after dinner speaker was Katie Pasquini Masopust, our international quilter for the weekend. Her talk,'Painting with Cloth', covered her life in quilts.
After the AGM itself on Saturday morning, there was a lot to discuss about the future of the Quilt Museum at York, so I decided to go to the discussion form on Sunday morning, which meant I missed the talks by Gillian Cooper and Janice Gunner, which was a shame. I know Janice's work quite well, as we have often crossed paths via the Guild and my stand at Festival of Quilts was next door to her gallery in 2009, plus we've just had some of her work at Quiltfest. I would have liked to see Gillian's talk because I'm not so familiar with her work, although I've followed her writing in the quilting magazines including her Popular Patchwork column. However, I'm sure I'll have another opportunity to see her work up here.
The conference closed on Sunday with a lone piper after the final presentation of awards.
I'm already looking forward to Nottingham in 2013 and Portsmouth in 2014!
1 comment:
I wasn't able to go to the AGM Susan so thank you very much for this resume and flavour of events. Nottingham is on my calender for next year.
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