Wednesday, 26 September 2012

The Scottish International Quilt Festival - Helen Miller


Todays blog post is brought to you by our roving reporter, Helen.


Friday morning glowed as one of those wonderful Autumn days that put you in the mood for a jaunt to somewhere nice. Luckily, Helen and Stephanie had arranged to visit Ingleston for the Quilt show that day.

To the uninitiated, the concept of a “Quilt Show” would appear to be a bit strange, verging on the really odd! How wrong could you be! This event was attended by hundreds of enthusiastic crafters. In fact, they came by the bus load from far and near. Bishopbriggs, Bearsden and Cumbernauld were represented by our Valerie Lennox, Carol Judge and Janette Kirk.


 (Janette admires one of the competition pieces at the Scottish International Quilt show, Edinburgh)

Many wonderful and amazing quilts of all shapes and sizes were displayed. Colours, shapes, amazing fabrics and adornments assaulted and dazzled the senses. How could anyone fail to appreciate the skill, ingenuity or inventiveness of these talented quilters. To be honest, many of these quilts were so intricate and beautiful that they should be considered works of art!


 (fabric for sale and so much more)

The event catered for stitchers of every kind. Retailers such as the Contented Cat, Patchwork Cottage, the Seattle Quilt Company, Kaleidoscope and many others were there to tempt you with fabulous fabrics, novelty buttons, threads, knitting yarns, ribbons and other fixings. To buy or not to buy, that was the conundrum for many people! After all, you only have two hands and one purse. Stephanie and I were quite restrained during the retail therapy session. No credit card was harmed or abused during any purchase!


 (one of the wonderful quilts on show)

Our eyes were opened to possible new hobbies or learning new skills such as making fabric landscape pictures, bag making, painting on fabric and creating Christmas decorations using polystyrene spheres and ribbons. Actually, the range of new ideas was so numerous that we felt overwhelmed. Stall holders were only too willing to demonstrate their skills and wares.


(one of the mini quilts by Margaret Morris. This looks like the quilter had a lot of fun creating this work. Look at the detail!)

We headed home feeling inspired and humbled by what we had seen and heard. Between us, Stephanie and I hope to attempt a couple of projects that were on offer, including something for Christmas! The Scottish International Quilt Show was an entertaining day out and we look forward in anticipation to next year.

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