Great Northern Quilt Show - part 1

I was on the judging team again at the Great Northern Quilt Show last week and the quilt I chose as my Judge's Choice - i.e. the quilt that appeals most to the judge personally, without any of the judging points (awarded out of 10 for Design, Technique, Colour, Materials and Finish) - was Carol Reay's 'Misty Mountains'. I wrote 'I love this wonderfully dramatic and moody mountain and forest landscape - so subtle but endlessly fascinating to look into'.

The old hall is still being demolished at the showground and we were in a temporary building.  It was a bit chilly in the morning and absolutely freezing on setting up and judging day when all the doors were open, but it was pleasant during the show days and the light was fantastic.  We were near the front, with my demo stand plus some extra sales space.

Second in the theme category was won by Caole Galbraith, longarmed by her daughter Emma Galbraith, and made using a technique inspired by Ricky Tims.  It also won the piecing award.

Emma's 'Prism of Light' won third place in Bed Quilts.  I thought it might have come higher.  It was very precisely pieced and quilted.  With a design like this and with much less dense longarm quilting than is currently fashionable, there is no room for error and the quilting, like the piecing, was spot on every time, which is quite an achievement.  The quilting thread followed a similar colour change to the patchwork.

Another quilt with just the right amount of longarm quilting is this subtle Double Wedding Ring by Liz Villalobos, quilted by Kay Bell.

Unfortunately, the quilt had been marked with a different pattern for hand quilting before Kay quilted it and the quilting marks were showing in the narrow ovals.  Such a shame, because I liked the subtle colours of this very much.

Andrea Stracke won the hand quilting award for her miniature.  Her wholecloth designs are always very inventive.

This pictorial quilt, inspired by Ivan Bilibin's illustrations, by Anne-Marie Tye, won first place in Miniatures.

Anne Gosling won the Sue Belton Memorial Award for her miniature.

There were several German quilts at the show, including Birgit Schuller's 'Masquerade', which won first in the Large Wallhanging section.

'Bonfire Night' by Claudia Taeubert was also longarmed by Birgit.

European influence continued with Lorene Horner's quilt, inspired by a course with Jacqueline de Jonge.

Perhaps Hilary Jackson, who made the lush green quilt below, is a fan of Alicia Merrit? I thought this wallhanging was lovely.

 

Andrea Stracke's cot quilt won that category too, plus the wholecloth quilt award.

I spotted a version of 'Irori' from my 'Japanese Quilt Inspirations' book -

There was a lot of longarming at the show, ranging from very densely quilted longarmed quilts to some well-chosen pantographed quilts, like this fan design below.

Gill Young had finished her English paper pieced Bishamon design in Japanese fabrics and it was quilted by Linda Paris.

More quilts to come soon.