Showing posts with label malvern. Show all posts
Showing posts with label malvern. Show all posts

Tuesday, 24 October 2017

Quilt Show Recap - The Malvern Autumn Quilt Festival

Amazingly I am remembering to do this post shortly after the event itself and not months later when it's become a bit irrelevant!

The Autumn Quilt Festival in Malvern is held at the Three Counties Showground in Malvern, the same location as Quilts UK in early summer (spring?). It's not a competition show as such like Quilts UK and as a result is a lot smaller. And because it's a smaller show, it isn't as busy. The weather is also mixed for this show; it's been really warm a couple of times and others, typical autumn weather.

This year was an autumn weather one I think you could say! The drive over on setting up day on Thursday was quite horrible with very heavy rain and poor visibility on the motorways. It was still raining when we arrived, so Tom and I had our lunch in the van first in the hope it might stop. Not quite the usual view of the hills though!

What hills?!

The unloading and setting up went fairly smoothly. This was the first time at the Malvern shows when we've had a smaller stand space as my mum wasn't trading there too, so it is always a bit of 'fun' working out if the tables and shelving will fit in the space as you had planned them in your head!


Friday was the first day of trading and as is usual was the best day for visitor numbers and sales. Storm Brian blew in Friday evening and Saturday which may have kept a few visitors away that day but overall it was a really good show for me; well up on last year!

And the show's bestsellers? Probably the shaded prints from the Effervescence collection from Robert Kaufman. I suspect a couple of these will sell out at this week's show at Duxford so you need to get in quick if you want some! They can be ordered from the website here if you aren't going to the show.


And so onto the last event of the year, the Quilt Festival at Duxford, my 'local' one. I can be home within half an hour which is great, although it does mean cooking dinners and washing up!
 

Monday, 29 May 2017

Quilt Show Recap - Quilts UK 2017

The first of the big, must-visit shows of the year is Quilts UK at the Three Counties Showground in Malvern, Worcestershire. The showground has the wonderful Malvern Hills as it's backdrop. It's a beautiful setting and one of the reasons why the show is as popular as ever. And this year's show was no different.

My recap of the show is going to be a little sketchy though as I was only able to be there for a couple of days for personal reasons, namely my son starting his GCSEs. It's not easy knowing you need to be in two places at the same time when there is only you.

My parents did a great job as usual setting the stand up.


The quilts on display at the back were my Very Hungry Caterpillar and Galaxy Stars quilts, both of which have been projects in P&Q and my ever popular Ombre Squares quilt. The fabrics and kits for this quilt were probably the best sellers at the show, so much so that there are maybe only five or six kits left now.

So, for the days I was there; Thursday and Saturday, the show was very busy. Lots of visitors from near and far enjoying the lovely weather (in between the heavy showers) as well as the wonderful quilts on display. As my time at the show was brief and busy, I didn't get the chance to look at the quilts other than the Championship Quilt, 'Latin for Quilters' by Moira Neal. It was a quirky quilt but I loved some of the detail in it.


The quilt also won first place in the Theme category which this year was Gardener's World and the award for Fabric Painting

The only other quilt I managed to take a look at was 'Peony Ring' by Sally Bramald. This was stunningly quilted by Sally, as usual.


Peony Ring also came first in the Bed Quilt category.

Such was my time and the show so busy, that I didn't get the chance to go back to take flat shots of each quilt!

A week after the event now and I think I can say the show was my best ever at Quilts UK. Next up is the National Quilt Championships at the Sandown Racecourse in Esher, Surrey.

See you there?