National Quilt Exhibition in Birmingham
Susan very kindly bought tickets for us to attend the National Quilt Exhibition in Birmingham. This was a major expedition traveling two and a half hours by car each way, the return trip in Friday afternoon peak hour traffic. Geraldine, Susan't very spritely 83 year old friend who is in a quilting group with Susan came with us. John was left at home for the day to mind Daisy and Bella.
The trip there was uneventful and we had booked into the disabled parking hall, which made the walk to the NEC entrance very close. We'd arrived too early for the Exhibition to open, so found a restaurant near the entrance to have a cup of tea and peruse the brochure of exhibits. Susan saw a few people she knew as the bus from her Cambridge Quilters group also arrived early.
It didn't take long for the Exhibition Hall to be heaving with people. It was almost mind blowing the number of quilts on display. Some of them were not to our particular taste, but you could appreciate the hours of work and design skill in their execution. Goodness knows how you judge these things. There were lots of different categories of quilt, so that narrowed down the prize choices, but the over-all grand champion quilt was a difficult decision.
There were many different stalls there too, selling everything from quilts to materials, embelishments, threads and even sewing machones and over-lockers. Geraldine was on a mission to buy an over-locker. We caught up with her at lunch time and found a quiet out of the way spot to eat our lunch and discuss the pros and cons of her purchase.
In the end she settled on the most expensive one, the Baby Lock, which she felt would be the easiest to use. After lunch she went and ordered it!
Susan and Barb were more restrained. They looked at lots of material, but in the end didn't purchase anything. Both of us have a cupboard-ful of material and Barb needs to consider luggage allowance to return home with it.
We left the NEC after a cup of tea, feeling rather weary from walking around the exhibition. Barb didn't envyher having to drive back. We made it!!
The trip there was uneventful and we had booked into the disabled parking hall, which made the walk to the NEC entrance very close. We'd arrived too early for the Exhibition to open, so found a restaurant near the entrance to have a cup of tea and peruse the brochure of exhibits. Susan saw a few people she knew as the bus from her Cambridge Quilters group also arrived early.
It didn't take long for the Exhibition Hall to be heaving with people. It was almost mind blowing the number of quilts on display. Some of them were not to our particular taste, but you could appreciate the hours of work and design skill in their execution. Goodness knows how you judge these things. There were lots of different categories of quilt, so that narrowed down the prize choices, but the over-all grand champion quilt was a difficult decision.
There were many different stalls there too, selling everything from quilts to materials, embelishments, threads and even sewing machones and over-lockers. Geraldine was on a mission to buy an over-locker. We caught up with her at lunch time and found a quiet out of the way spot to eat our lunch and discuss the pros and cons of her purchase.
In the end she settled on the most expensive one, the Baby Lock, which she felt would be the easiest to use. After lunch she went and ordered it!
Susan and Barb were more restrained. They looked at lots of material, but in the end didn't purchase anything. Both of us have a cupboard-ful of material and Barb needs to consider luggage allowance to return home with it.
We left the NEC after a cup of tea, feeling rather weary from walking around the exhibition. Barb didn't envyher having to drive back. We made it!!
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