~Catch up after the Show~

It's hard to believe that this time last week I was down in Auckland at the Festival of the Quilts and run off my feet at The Country Yard's booth. It was a new experience working at such a big show, a lot of fun and I really enjoyed soaking up the buzz that happens when you're at a quiltshow.

Setting up the day before was a big job!

But it finally all came together.

A bird's eye view - the netball centre was a spacious venue.

I was just working on Friday so on Saturday I treated myself to a 'play day', and spent my time having a good look around. There were lots of gorgeous inspiring quilts and lots of gorgeous inspiring booths :-) so it took me quite a while!
I had read that any photos of the quilts could not be posted online so didn't take photos for my blog... instead my photos tended to focus on a clever bit of quilting, great block, colour and so on...however there was no signage or notices about this so there are a lot of blogs showing pictures so if you're interested in seeing some of the variety there was, have a browse through the Kiwi blogs listed on my sidebar. Hopefully the Auckland Guild will have some photos on their website sometime soon.
I can say that Best of Show went to a Dear Jane quilt. I thought it was beautiful and a well deserved win - such a lot of work goes into a quilt like this... who knows maybe I'll have to pull out my DJ book one of these days!
I was delighted to meet some bloggy/online friends while at the show. One of them, Linda of Koka Quilts, has introduced me to a new hobby... a while ago she offered me her mother-in-law's loom. She'd seen that I was learnng to spin and thought I might like to give weaving a try as well!! The show was a good place to meet up so that I could collect it. Once I have mastered the spinning I will play with the loom. Thank you Linda, it was lovely to meet you :-)

Another plus for me during my few days away was that I got to spend time with YD and her hubby. They live only 5 minutes away from the venue so that was great :-)

And isn't it nice to see things we do rubbing off on our children? I felt very welcome when I saw this small bear sitting on my bed waiting for me ♥ YD made this wee fellow a few years ago.

Since the show I haven't had a chance to turn my sewing machine on - apart from giving both machines a good clean, needle change and oil at the start of the week. I have squeezed in some evening handwork though —

Another one of my Country at Heart stitcheries, isn't she a sweetie?!

And I've been hexing a bit lately [not related to Halloween or Guy Fawkes :-)] 

Some of these may or may not be part of a new project.
Some of these may or may not be part of my Chooky-blue SSCS gift.

Rounding the week off nicely, we had a skype session with our wee family the other night. Our son has bought a new web-cam - wow what a difference that made.

Finally, last post I mentioned the super-dooper Ganma cotsheets I've been making. Below is a picture (an old one apparently) showing the sheets in action. A noodle fits in the flap and keeps the girls close but with no roll-together :-)

hehe a good excuse to show a baby photo!

Till next time, 

happy stitching,