Festival of Quilts - or A Grand Day Out!

On Sunday I persuaded my eldest, (A.) that he really would like to accompany me on a train expedition to Birmingham.

He's a good boy though and without much persuasion, he made the very early start and we set off to the NEC, travelling from Manchester Piccadilly. I had never attended a big event like the Festival of Quilts and I really wasn't sure what to expect.

I have to say - it was FANTASTIC!

Amy Butler was there, she seemed lovely - very relaxed and friendly. I did spend quite a bit on Ms Butler's fabric and a lovely pattern for a handbag that I can't wait to try.

There were just so many lovely fabric stalls - wonderful fabric shops are rare enough, and here under one roof there were hundreds!! All together, all next to each other - it's fair to say I was in Fabric Heaven!

I did buy quite a lot of fabric I'm afraid. It was all just too inspirational.

Sustained by plenty of cups of tea, my son sat reading for much of the day, guarding the bags that I kept returning to him, whilst I shopped like a lunatic!!

There were ribbons, and some buttons, but most of all there was fabric, fabric fabric!

Of course, there were lots and lots of gorgeous, inspiring quilts and some of the lovely people who made them. I loved this windmill quilt:

this one was called 'One for the Boys' - very funny!this was more like a painting - absolutely beautiful - would have liked it on my wall at home:-apologies for the dodgy photo but had to include this as it was A's favourite:-

This was my favourite:-

and we were lucky enough to meet the artist who told us it had taken her 500 hours work!

there were of course so many more...

If you're thinking of going next time, I can highly recommend it - although as a novice I didn't have the wheelie-bag that many regulars had - a necessity if you're buying any fabric. It was sooo heavy! At least A. was still smiling at the end!