A brilliant day with friends last Saturday at the Grovesnor Shows' Spring Quilt Festival at Westpoint, near Exeter. Always a good show with lots of inspiring quilts and many quilt stalls. I have to start by showing you some quilts by Gilli Theokritoff as I liked so many of them. I think though that this one is my favourite. It is called "Klimt2" and these pics show details of the areas that I like the very best - ovals within ovals (raw edged with dense quilting) and squares within squares. Gilli's work is so varied - this is "Urban Folk Quilt" and these are three of the nine squares that made up ""Little Kanthas". The Kantha stitching is really effective. As usual the entries for the Journal Quilt (A4 size) challenge were interesting and thought provoking. This year the title was "Let's Dance". They were not easy to photograph and could have been displayed better. This pair are by Jane Adamson and won first prize - Spirit Hare's and Earth Hare's Tea Dance. The Light brown squares are actually empty tea bags! This pair are by Dawn Fenn and also won a rosette - Birds Do It / Bees Do It The birds are a murmuration of starlings and just look at the detail in the tiny bees!! These Dancing Shoes are by Shirley Matthews and immediately caught my eye. What a brilliant use of the stripey and dotty fabrics in the ladies shoes ...... I want some!! I also really liked the section on sashiko quilts. They were made by ladies who attended workshops by Susan Briscoe in Scotland. These two are by Pamela Lyall and Moira Gaw and I particularly like the colouring of these two by Maureen Arnott and Ruth Higham. Sashiko stitching is something I'm definitely going to have to try! Finally another beautiful quilt by Annelize Littlefair who's "Journey" quilt I loved so much at the Bristol Show. This one is called "Sea Urchins". All in all a thoroughly enjoyable day in good company. Happy Stitching - Anita x
