Great Northern Quilt Show, Harrogate

 

The photos from Great Northern Quilt Show at the beginning of September are a bit late I know!  Glyn took the photos for me and I didn't get a chance to download them to the computer until yesterday.  Here's a small selection of quilts we liked, plus my quilts in the competition.

I won second in Bed Quilts with my Japanese Taupe Sampler (above), made with blocks from 'Japanese Taupe Quilt Blocks'.  As this was the largest section in the show (about half the show) with a high standard of entries, I was very pleased to win second. I am teaching many of the special techniques used in this book and 'Japanese Quilt Blocks to Mix and Match' in a series of workshops at The Royal, Bridlington, at the end of October, which can be done individually or as a residential course (residential participants will get a special extra sashiko workshop on one of the evenings!) - click here for more info.

I also chose my 'Judge's Choice' award from this section, 'Japanese Garden' by Pamela Reynolds.  Although I helped out with the judging this time, of course I wasn't judging the quilts in this part of the show, but the judges can choose their Judge's Choice from any quilt in the show.  I loved the twirly leaf border on this quilt.  The pattern is from the book of the same name by Karen Kay Buckley, an American designer, but I thought Pamela's varied choice of fabrics really made this quilt.  You can see Karen's original quilt here.  Pamela's meticulous machine applique on the leaves and floral marumon circle designs was impressive.

 

'We are the Champions', my entry for 'Going for Gold with Fire and Circles' at Quilts UK earlier this year, won a Judge's Merit award in the Small Wallhanging category.  I wanted it to have another show outing this year, since it is about the Olympics.

 

'Garden Party' was in Large Wallhanging.  I want to add some more quilting to this one, but it doesn't hang too badly for a quilt that spent most of the last decade unfinished and squashed at the bottom of the pile in my quilt cupboard.

 

Sandra Wyman's small wallhanging had beautiful quilted leaves all over the background - just gorgeous.

 

Hilary Beattie's floral quilt was another favourite.  She also won the theme category, ' In a Spin', with a pictorial view of a windfarm, but for some reason I don't have a photo of it.

Dilys Fronks had a pair of positive/negative applique quilts that I liked very much.  The camera lens has distorted them a bit - they hung much straighter than the photo suggests!

In the Wholecloth section, the quilt that won second was my favourite.  I felt the design of this one was much more integrated than the one which one first prize, and the fabric and thread (Oakshott cotton and a varigated thread) was a good choice to show up the quilting.  It also had a very neat piped edging. I guess the one which got first won because the stitching was better (smaller and more even), but it was 'quilt at you go', which I don't feel is really a wholecloth - especially when the quilt as you go sashing cuts across and interrupts the border design.  The marks were probably very close in this section, as the third prize winner was also a very good quilt.  Unfortunately I didn't make a note of the maker's name - if anyone recognises her work, please let me know!  I can't read it in the photo.

Justhands-on TV came and Valerie Nesbitt did a little interview with me about 'Time and Again' and also about the new piece of sashiko I was stitching as a demo - using hand dyed fabric and perle threads, with the Shonai sashiko stitches in circles.  I am planning to develop this into a new workshop for next year's show, but we will be stitching on the dark blue Olympus sashiko thread for that, as it is difficult to see the marks on the hand dyed background.  I'm not sure when the interview will be on, but I'll post a link once I know.  It felt a bit weird as Valerie wanted me not to work to the camera, but did it as an informal chat.

 

We had another lovely show at Harrogate.  I much prefer this show to Festival of Quilts - it is much more relaxed and feels like a holiday by comparison!  The showground is a very easy venue from the point of view of access.  The show seems to be growing significantly, as many visitors prefer the more manageable scale of things at Harrogate than at Birmingham and there is always a lot of support from quilters in the North.  Of course, Harrogate is easy as a day trip from many places that are just too far away from Birmingham to make a visit to FoQ easy, so we meet a lot of quilters who can't come to FoQ.  I'm looking forward to next year!