Visit to Quilters' Guild York

Today was very exciting as I managed to have a day off work and go flaunting off to the wonderful city of York with fellow members of Cumbria Patchworkers on a 'jolly'. Phew, it was a day I needed I can tell you after the rigours of the Keswick Mountain Festival last week left me shattered. I even managed to find a seat to myself so that I could sneak a cat nap on the way back as I am still not getting a full nights sleep at the mo due to a certain brown terrier who keeps barking at 2am. I suspect a neighbour has a new cat and its waltzing into our garden in the small hours which Bella of course takes exception to......

Anyway, I have decided that is the moaning over now and so to business. The museum is superb and I am sure most of you will know where it is and have visited it by now, but here is the website incase you need to do your own research or if you just happen to be one of my overseas readers.
http://www.quiltersguild.org.uk/

The main hall has some of the collection on display but the rest of the many quilts owned by the Guild cannot be shown in such a small space so you need to consider that if you plan to visit and choose a theme which appeals to you.  We chose to go when Sheena Norquay from the Orkney islands was doing some workshops and giving talks as she is one of the foremost quilt teachers in England today. Her work is always winning awards at shows and features very heavily quilted landscape quilts usually with views of Orkney and often with mythological themes added for interest. If you need to know more try her website.

http://sites.google.com/site/sheenajnorquay/

York itself was worth a quick visit too and I managed to view the entrance to York Minster from a Starbucks 'perch' whilst sipping a Latte, (that is a new desire which I acquired whilst visiting my daughter in Palm Springs) so now if I see a Starbucks I just have to indulge :-) However, I did not order the iced variety because it was nothing like the temperature in California.....

I did manage to find some Aurifil 40/2 thread though which I have wanted to try for some time, they did not have the 50 which would have been finer but I was lucky to find any at all. I also found some orange batik style material from Benartex called Fossil Ferns which is just what I need for the edging on my quilt.

Yes folks, I hope now I can start to quilt it. I enclose a few photos of the edge of the quilt after I stamped some more fabric and made what I call my trademark 'candy' border. Basically, I just keep putting together lots of coloured squares with a plain sashing border either side to make them stand out well. The stamped squares I made are the purple, green and yellow/orange ones.

This last photo is a closer look at the overall design around the central motif of the quilt I showed you before when Bella was having a sneaky sleep on it. I really like this quilt and although I have not even tried to piece it perfectly, I find that its little inaccuracies don't bother me. Quilting it is going to be the challenge I need.