Quilter's Guild Regional Day

I had a lovely day on Saturday attending the Spring Regional Day of Region 13 of the Quilters' Guild of the British Isles (The Guild is divided into Regions and the North West is Region 13). As always it was held at the community centre in Frodsham (where Gary Barlow grew up for those of you who are Take That fans - not me!) and we had two very entertaining speakers.

The speaker in the morning was Janice Gunner whose work I already knew and admired. She's particularly known for her 'log cabin with attitude' designs as in the picture at top left. Her talk for the day though was 'Kangaroos, Koalas and Kwilts' in which she told us about her recent trip to Australia to teach a number of workshops. The picture at the top of this post is a detail from one of the quilts she made from Aboriginal fabrics she bought there - I thought the colours were just amazing and one of my all-time favourite colour combinations. The log cabin at bottom right was also inspired by the visit and made of similar fabrics.

We were then treated to some of her latest work. The poppies are painted using heat-sensitive paints - if you put your hand over to warm them up, the colour becomes brighter! On another quilt the colour disappeared altogether - I wish I'd written down what they were called. She's also been making quilts from vintage kimono fabrics (bottom left) and hand-dyed indigo and shibori (tie-dye) fabrics. Chickpea would have liked these as she's fascinated by Japan.

After Janice, it was time for Show and Tell. I'd taken Chickpea's quilt and was first up. I managed to mumble something about moving from the sublime to the ridiculous but otherwise completely forgot everything I'd planned to say - doh!

Of the other quilts brought along, this one 'Dear Jane in Liberty' by Val Neve caught my eye. I think she said that every block is different but I may be making that one up!

While we were enjoying the speakers, a group of eleven young quilters, including one boy, were having a workshop in another room and they came out to show us what they'd been making. It was so great to see them and the lovely work which they proudly held up.

After show and tell it was lunchtime and a couple of lovely things happened. Firstly, a lady came up and said how much she had liked Chickpea's quilt. Then another lady asked if I would submit a photo to be included in the regional newsletter! Of course, I said yes but, remember fellow bloggers, you saw it here first!

In the afternoon our speaker was Linda Barlow who had us all laughing with her irreverent and quirky sense of humour. One of her quilts is called 'Lust and Envy go out for a drink after work'! Another features the Grim Reaper and a Phoenix representing the people who've lived in her village forever and the newcomers!! And another had Dame Judi Dench dancing with a tobacco indian at a garden party in York!!!

A lot of her work is around the theme of motherhood, juggling priorities, and the difficult balance to find time for yourself. The quilt on the left is 'They never actually belonged to you' about children leaving home. At top right is a detail of 'Sometimes she felt as though time itself was dragging her down'. And bottom left is a detail of 'The fragility of friendship' about the time she fell out with a friend. I found her fascinating and could have listened to the stories about her work all day.

There were also traders present but I managed to restrain myself and only purchased 2 fat quarters of fabric, one of which is a gift and therefore doesn't count :-)

And that was the day over. It's a quilty week as it's my group's meeting tomorrow evening too. If only I could find time to actually do some quilting...x