I managed, by the skin of my teeth (!), to get to go to the The Fesitval of Quilts at the NEC in Birmingham this year.  It is the largest quilt show in Europe and lots of people fly in to Birmingham Airport to visit the show, I heard lots of different languages today as well as the many visitors from the UK. However I didn’t see anyone I knew, which is quite unusal.  The last time I went with Jayne, I saw DH’s cousin!!!!!

Anyway enough chatter get ready for a heavy picture post as I took a lot of photographs but only of quilts I love.  I don’t know how many quilts were entered but there were a lot.

You know I am a huge fan of elephants so this was the first quilt I saw, I just love it and cannot believe it is quilted.

I just loved this because it was quirky!!

This was not in the competitions but an exhibit and I just had to take a picture because of swimming and the Boys!

Can you actually believe this is a quilt?  I also took this because of the Boys.

The picture does not do this justice but I just loved the horse shoes on it.

This was stunning.

This is entitled “York Minster”.

Love this quilt

My favourite block, log cabins.

So after seeing all these wondeful quilts and snapping away, I suddenly realised if I also took a picture of the quilt number I could tell you about them!!! Amazing!  But I had already moved through several sections, so I didn’t go back, sorry.

Tiny hexagons, really tiny!!!! This was in the two person quilts and by Kerrie McCormick and The Bramble Patch.  Kerrie loves paper piecing and she designed the quilt and it took her six months to complete.

This is by Sarah Joy Ford and is called “She Whom the Moon Ruled”.  Now when I first saw this it reminded me of Brienne from Game of Thrones but I am not sure now.

Here is a picture of Brienne from the show, what do you think?  Anyway I digress!

This quilt is by Kathleen Matthew-Saunders and is called “Memories of Scotland” which is quite appropriate as we are going away there tomorrow!!!  A lot of the pictures are very familiar to us and who does not like Highland cows?!

This is by Mara Brands and Anne Lillholm from The Netherlands and is called “Africa a la Mara”.  I love it.

These are the elephants from the top of the quilt.

This is a miniture quilt called Light at the End of the Tunnel by Jill Cooper

I just loved the colours in this quilt, especially the main colour of Blue.  It is by Simone Steuxner from Sweden and is called “My Heart is Swedish”.  The quilt tells of her life from being born in Austria but moving to Sweden in 2013. 

I loved the sewing machine (sorry it is blurred).

This is “Nellie” by Pam Morris in the Quilt Creations (!) category and she is raising funds to stop the elephants in India being used for Circus and tourism purposes.  I love her

And finally to the quilts which won (sorry but I don’t agree with all of them!!!)

This quilt is by Janneke de Vries-Bodzina from The Netherlands and is called African Village.  It won the Pictorial Quilts section.

This is by Anita O’Brien and is called “Peter and Amina’s Quilt” and won for the My First Quilt Category (!)

This is by Judith Lynch and is called “Sticks and Stones 1” and won for the Modern Quilts Category.

This is by Annelize Littlefair and is called “The Trouble with Magenta, Hot or Not” and won the Traditional Quilts Category.

This won the Miniture Quilt Category and is by Phillippa Naylor and is called “Measure for Measure”.  Not only that but it also won Best In Show.  Although it is lovely and the work and time that must have gone into it is amazing especially for a miniture quilt but personally I think the African Quilt should have won Best in Show!!! 

I did take a few more pictures which I will show you in a few days time and if the wifi is not working well, when we get back from vacation!!!! 

It was a good day although the one thing I did notice was that there were less trade stands this year than before and I wonder if this is because the show organisers have increased the costs of having a stand at the show!  DH and I do technical shows at the NEC and know how much they charge us for the stands so it may be because of that.  There were quite a few big traders who were not there.  However it did not stop me from buying some fabric!!!!  I will also take some pictures of that and post them, hopefully in a few days.

I have managed to keep on top of all my jobs, work wise and house wise and we just now need to pack and load up and then we are off tomorrow for two whole weeks and I cannot wait.  Of course the sewing machine and a few projects are coming with me!!!!! 

I hope you enjoyed this quick visit to the show and you all have a lovely Summer Weekend.

Hugs, Susie x