No sour grapes

Today I have been to 'The Festival of Quilts' at the NEC. It's such a fabulous show, and I was realy looking forward to the quilts, the shopping, the demonstrations - and to see how our group quilt fared!

Here I am, standing in front of it, and blending in well with the landscape! It was looking very good, nicely hung in a well-lit position, but had received no accolades from the judges. We didn't really enter the show thinking we would win, but you never know. Well, in fact we did know, because the rules on the qualifications for a 'group quilt' have changed this year. To enter this category the quilt has to be made by at least two people. Yes, TWO! So the three prize-winning quilts (all absolutely lovely and very deserving of merit) had been made by just two people. Here is the winning quilt for you to see.

It's a lovely design and the machine quilting is absolutely stunning, but it's not a group quilt, in my book! While Stephanie and I were discussing this state of affairs, two ladies joined in to agree with us. They had entered a quilt in the traditional category, but because one had pieced and one quilted, they were moved into the group category, where they clearly felt they did not belong! Ruth and I have already commented to the organisers of the show about this situation, and would be grateful if group members could do so as well. If the situation remains the same next year, we will have to think hard and long about whether we enter this unfair competition again.

Highly commended!

Yesterday I went to the Festival of Quilts at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, which is where our quilt 'A Forest of Seasons' was exhibited. I know it must be very difficult to hang so many different quilts and make them all look wonderful, but we were disappointed last year that our 'Cosmic Wonders' quilt didn't seem to be looking its best. So this year I was delighted to see that the quilt was hung prominently on a corner under a spotlight. It looked great!

Then, to my amazement, I noticed a little label on the side, saying 'Highly Commended'! Apparently (according to Mary Mayne, who is one of the judges) they only award a first, second and third in each category, and reserve the highly commended awards for when it has been really close! It was enough to see our quilt at such a huge exhibition, displayed so well, but the icing on the cake was the award.

Here are Andrea, Gaynor, Bunty and Di in front of the masterpiece, looking like the cats that have just got the cream (well, all except Andrea, who seems to be still in a state of shock, quite understandably!)
The quilt was attracting a lot of attention, and lots of people got out their cameras to take a photo of it. The idiosyncrasies of each block fascinated many, and people enjoyed pointing out the birds, animals, catkins, flowers and clever use of buttons, lace and other embellishments. One lady said to her friend, 'Oh, another tree quilt. Well, it's certainly nicer than the other one,' which must be a sort of back-handed compliment!

Although the workmanship and creativity displayed in each and every block is wonderful, I must say that the way that Andrea and Bunty assembled those blocks is outstanding. The way that they have been put together so cleverly, to unite the individual trees, but also to create space between them so that each can be appreciated, is superb. I'm sure that was a major factor in the quilt's overall success.

The quilting is beautiful, and compliments the blocks beautifully. I especially liked the way that the trailing leaf border has the names of the different seasons along the top and bottom borders,

and the names of the participants along the sides. The quilt will be 'raffled' amongst the participants at the next meeting, and I think the winner (and I hope it's me!) will be delighted to take this beauty home. Well done everyone - it's a stunner!

Cosmic Wonders

This year, Piecemakers' members decided to enter a group quilt into 'The Festival of Quilts' at the NEC in Birmingham. Bunty and Andrea bravely volunteered to organise it, and came up with the theme of 'cosmic wonders'. Members were invited to participate, and 24 of us received a pack of fabrics and embellishments and a sub-theme of rays, planets, Milky Way or comets to inspire us. The brief was to make a small quilt (8" finished, and bagged, so there were no bulky bindings) which were to be joined together in some way. On the due date, all 24 small quilts were returned to Bunty and Andrea, who had the task of displaying them to their advantage, and in a way which would work at the NEC. As you can see, they have made a great job of putting the very different quilts together to form a whole.

We were disappointed not to win anything, but pleased to have entered the competition, and seen our work hanging in such illustrious halls.