Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd October saw our biannual exhibition at Walcote Village Hall. The banner looks good here, but the wind took its toll, and by the end of the weekend, it was sorely in need of repair. 
We had over 200 visitors over the two days, and all the comments I heard were very positive. One man said that coming into the hall felt like 'a breath of fresh air' compared to the entrance to the Festival of Quilts. I'm not quite sure what he meant, but it must be a compliment!
The hall is spacious, and the lovely wooden floors set off the quilts to perfection.
On the right you can see Stephanie's king size quilt - our hangers were amazed at how big it was.
The variety of different quilt styles was very pleasing. There were applique, abstract, scrap piecing, curves, traditional blocks, strippies, blocks of the month and original designs. Something for everyone.
Some quilts repaid careful close scrutiny, while others looked their best at arm's length. 
Some had been hand pieced, such as Sylvia's wonderful Patchwork of the Crosses, made for her grandaughter's wedding, while most had been machine pieced.
No British quilt show would be complete without a few hexagons, and Ann's blue and white quilt is simple yet perfect.
We wanted to appeal to people's aesthetic senses, but were aware that some had travelled some distance, and would need sustenance. Refeshments at a quilt show aren't right without an array of tempting home-made cakes. These proved to be very popular amongst all our visitors, old and young alike. 
The refreshments area gave visitors and stewards a chance for a sit down and a restoring cuppa! 
Another big draw was the sales table, featuring everything from fabric, kits books and patterns, through home-made items of all descriptions to the unwanted Bads and Uglies from the AGM! 
And of course, since quilters are such generous people here is our charity corner, showing Quilts for Injured Servicemen, donated to our brave boys and girls at Headley Court, and Project Linus Quilts, for children in need of a hug.
What a great exhibition, and a great weekend. It gave us great pleasure to stage this community event and give entertainment to so many people. Hope you enjoyed it too!
Philippa Naylor was our speaker, and I was very disappointed to miss her talk, and look at her lovely quilts. Jane and Jenny seem to be having a lovely chat with her though.
Here is some of her work - fabulous colours!
It was obviously worth a close examination!
The group quilt is now a top! Ruth, Paula and I have arranged and appliqued all the birds ready for a layering and quilting session.
Three lucky grandaughters had a quilt each. One is here and 
This quilt was inspired by New Zealand - you could have guessed that!
This design is simple, but so effective.
This quilt looks like one made at a Ferret 'quilt in a day' workshop. What gorgeous bright colours!
This one was made from little pictures, and the off-set frames make it fun and quirky!
Another clever quilt from Muriel. These blocks have dark fabrics behind then which make them look 3D. Very effective.
Here is Ann peeping over the top of a charming scrappy Irish Chain quilt. I bet she's hand pieced and quilted this beauty!
And last but not least, Liz is holding a quilt she made for her son. She says it was quite taxing to draft, but the results are well worth the head scratching! Keep sewing and I'll hope to make the next meeting myself!
We just tackled some easy hearts, which provided a chance to practise points, both 'inny' and 'outy'. Look how well everyone did! Alison was a bit worried that her heart had a very narrow point (the green one on the bottom row) but she coped with it superbly!
Rebecca showed how to do Sashiko, and brought some of her beautiful work. People on this table were delighted with her easy style and knowledge - I can feel a day workshop coming on! Here is everyone with epuipment ready for the off.
And here they all are, hard at it.
Liz gave people a chance to try free machine quilting, and found herself challenged by the idiosyncracies of other people's machines. Rosemary and Paula, despite having identical machines, bought at the same time, found that only one foot pedal gave them the pace control they needed. Jane produced patterns which were more 'crown of thorns' than 'bunch of flowers' until she tried Liz's machine, which enabled her to make flowing designs! I think some people will be back at the sewing machine shop in the near future! 
People have obviously been busy in their gardens, as there were only a few items for show and tell. Stephanie had been making jelly roll quilts. This one is a snowball, in lovely freah, folksy colours.
This one is a rail fence variation, again with a lovely colour palette. Doesn't the border set it off well?
Liz brought this quilt which gaynor had made and Liz quilted, which will be on its way to Japan (via Malvern). Several members of the group are donating quilts for the earthquake victims in Japan. 
Ruth brought this Windmill quilt in autumnal colours. This is such a great design for using scraps and leftover strips.
Another scrappy one is this positive and negative design. I'm just trying to work out how she made it - it's not 9 patches, is it? Very effective at any rate.
Everyone had very much enjoyed the evening, and got a lot out of it, although the workshop leaders are looking forward to the next meeting, when they can sit back and relax!
Dawn brought lots of her quilts, from her very first one, through prize-winning Invisble Machine Applique ones, to her latest designs. Dawn is well known for her beautiful machine quilting (as well as the IMA) and she did not disappoint in this area. Her use of decorative threads and both machine and hand quilting was stunning. 
After the talk, lots of people rushed to have a closer look at her work or ask questions - she was so generous at sharing her expertise!
Show and tell was a little disappointing in quantity, although the quality was (as ever) excellent! I had organised a sewing morning with Botcheston WI a few weeks ago, at which they had made lots of Linus cot quilt blocks. I agreed to put them together into 3 quilts. The blocks are all the same, but by using diferent arrangements and different border colours, they look quite disimilar. This one is a diamond pattern, in yellow (or at least, it looks very yellow due to the yellow border). 
This one is a zig zag in pink. 
And finally barn raising, bound in blue. All gorgeous, in my opinion.
Jane had brought her very first quilt to show us. She made it for her grandaughter, from flower fairy panels, and it looks fabulous! 
Ruth had bought reproduction fabric at the V&A, and had used it to make this gorgeous bag. It was also very functional, with pockets and zipped compartments inside.
Now onto the Linus quilts. This one has been made from Australian fabrics, and the use of dark 'L' shapes behind the blocks makes it look 3-D. many thanks for donating this super quilt.
And look at the backing - a car play mat! This quilt will do double duty for some lucky young man! I hope there will be more sewing before the next meeting, so I can put plenty of show and tell photos next time. Happy sewing!