Festival of Quilts NEC Birmingham August 2013 - Part One

I have just returned from a fabulous visit to the Festival of Quilts. Due to business, I was not able to be certain I would be able to go till last minute. I travelled down on Friday evening and stayed at The Village Hotel in Solihull.

Really clean & comfortable with a superb leisure centre too.

After a lovely breakfast, I set off to the NEC. It only took around 12 minutes, and was really easy to get there.

I parked up and headed off down to the exhibition halls, then spotted Susan Briscoe, so walked down with her.

In the queue I met some lovely friendly quilters from Lincolnshire too. 

Once inside I decided to work from right to left - well that was the theory, but I think I must have walked several miles over the two days going back and forwards and round and round!

I found Ferret next on the Innova stand with Meret. Ferret had her longarm machine set up and let me have a go. WOW I think I can now see the attraction. 

Then Bonnie McCaffery came along with her video camera and asked Ferret for an interview.

Here are some pics of Ferrets Wolf Quilt

 I spend the next few hours wondering around some of the stalls. To be honest there was so much to see and buy I found it rather difficult. 

I ended up on 'Teachers Row' and it was really funny - I knew most of them as they had already taught here at The Royal Bridlington or I have already got them booked to teach. So that took a good few hours to visit and chat with each of these superb ladies.

After a sit down and a coffee I was ready for a bit more and decided to have a look at some of the quilts. Here are just a few which caught my eye.

The winner of the Minature Quilts was the amazing little pink one

I recognised this brightly coloured one by Alison Bramley. She taught a retreat with us here a couple of years ago.  She uses silks for her reverse applique techniques to create some wonderful designs.

I love these fabric flowers - I think they were by Gillian Travis

Charity Event - Quilters Needed

We shall be holding our very first 'Charity Quiltathon' in January.

The aim is to provide five charities with quilts, cushions or what ever to help them raise money.

The chosen charities are -

Yorkshire Cancer Research
Yorkshire Air Ambulance
Bridlington Life Boat
Dogs Trust
& Project Linus

We are asking for donations of fabric, orphan blocks, embroideries, jelly strips, scraps, UFO's etc from individuals and companies.  If you have anything to donate either bring it along to us here at The Royal Bridlington, or you can post it to us at

The Royal Bridlington
Shaftesbury Road
Bridlington
East Yorkshire
YO15 3NP

Tel 01262 672433    email - fiona@royalhotelbrid.co.uk

We also need quilters to come along and sew, sew, sew. The dates are 14th & 15th January 2014.

In return we will provide refreshments and lunch.  For those who want to stay over, we are offering a very very special rate for B & B of just £20.
So if you can help, please reserve your place.

If we mange to make enough items then we may well hold a charity coffee morning after the event and display the quilts before we donate them to the charities.

I have been raising funds for a roll of wadding by making Jams & Chutneys all year.

The Coming Progamme for our Patchwork & Quilting Retreats

Over the last few months I have been very busy planning and organising a fabulous programme of workshops and retreats for the coming winter season.

Here is what I have sorted so far -

7th /8th & 9th October—Pat Archibald

Ghost Images, Celtic Connection, Japanese Inspirations

20th /21st /22nd/23rd October—Lilian Headley

I day workshop & 3 or 4 day Retreat—Durham Quilting

29th /30th /31st October -Gail Lawther

Stained Glass, Glimpses of New Zealand, Monet or Van Gogh

21st /22nd/23rd January -Jennie Rayment

Wacky Waistcoat or panel, Twitch Twiddle & Tweak

3rd/4th/5th March—Sally Ablett

Hunter Star, Lone Star, Link Quilt

19th /20th /21st March-Ferret

Art Quilt by Numbers, Machine Quilting, Speed Quilt

8th /9th & 10th April—Beryl Frank

Bargello Quilt as you go / Seminole / Cracking Curves

29/30 April & 1st May—Jan Hassard

Dazzling Diamonds, Interwoven Log Cabin, HoneyCombe 3 D

7/8/9th October 2014—Angela Madden

Celtic, Beautiful Blooms, Decorative Edges

   

For further information & to make bookings, just send me an email - fiona@royalhotelbrid.co.uk to subscribe to out patchwork and quilting newsletter or check out our website - www.royalhotelbrid.co.uk    Telephone number is 01262 672433  .  There are picture of the projects in the photo tour section on the website too.

More Tutors visit

Over the last few years we have now successfully organised and run many more patchwork and quilting retreats with top famous tutors including +Dawn Cameron-Dick,  Lilian Hedley, Ferret, Alison Bramley, Katharine Guerrier, +Jennie Rayment and of course Susan Briscoe.

here are some pics from the workshops and retreats

Ferret

Our new decor, great tables & chairs and fantastic light - all perfect for our workshops

Susan Briscoe

Lilian Hedley Retreat

Designing a wholecloth

Lilian demonstrating the traditional North Country Quilting Frame

Dawn Cameron-Dick

Alison Bramley

Some of Alisons Work

Susan Briscoe

Students hard at work

Jennie Rayment

Katharine Guerrier

Susan Briscoe Came to Visit

Next  I found Yorkshires - no Englands best asset - The Sewing Centre in Scarborough.  Its a fabulous source of material and at a fantastic bargain price too.

Whilst there I booked a workshop with a local group. I learnt so much and soon became a regular attendee.

Here is my second Quilt - a vast improvement on my first.

One thing I have not yet mentioned, Tim grew up with Susan Briscoe. Tims Mum is Susans Godmother and vice versa.

We arranged with Susan for her to come over and teach if I could get a group of quilters together. So thats just what we did.

Here is one of the quilts I made with Susan on her first visit to The Royal Bridlington.

The ladies had such a fantastic time they started to ask if we could do it on a regular basis with a variety of tutors. So thats how it all began and the start of our famous patchwork and quilting workshops.

How it all Began

From being a small child I have loved colour - be it coloured pencils, crayons, paper, wool or fabric. I have tried many crafts including sewing, embroidery, tatting, crochet, weaving & knitting.  I used to borrow my aunts sewing machine when I was around 8 years old and I got my first 'modern' sewing machine ( A Singer with discs to make fancy stitches) when I was 10.

I used to make clothes, soft furnishings and curtains and I would regularly return home from school to find my mother had bought material and would want me to make a new dress for her for the next day!

Patchwork & Quilting started much later.  My Singer machine is still going strong and I will never part with it. However around six years ago, my mother insisted on me having a new machine and she bought me a Janome 11000. It came with the quilting kit and as I have never tried patchwork or quilting I decided that I really must give it ago.

I searched the web and bought a book - Start Quilting by Alex Anderson
http://alexandersonquilts.com/store?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=6&category_id=1

I then bought pieces of fabric from internet shops that I liked (not necessarily that went together)

I followed the instructions in the book and I completed my first quilt.

Ok, so the colours are not great and I knew nothing about lights & darks or small, med & large patterns and how to mix them, but that was it - I was hooked!

About Me

Hello My name is Fiona and together with my husband Tim, we own and run a small hotel in Bridlington, East Yorkshire.

Prior to our life as hoteliers, Tim was an Accountant for a large water company and I was a Sales Manager for a major Blue Chip FMCG company, but originally trained & worked in hotel management, computing,  then later sales.

This blog is going to be about our Patchwork, Quilting and Craft Workshops & Retreats with perhaps a few 'Royal Rumblings' and bits from our other loves of Dancing and foreign travel.  Hope you enjoy following.