Festival of Quilts Trip 2011

Our trip to the Festival of Quilts, at the NEC, was a great success. This year we hired a bigger coach, and a driver (thank you, Tony!) and we took over 30 ladies down to the show. Our arranged pick up point was the Unicorn Pub, just a few hundred yards from our shop.

Soon, everyone was counted aboard and was settled and ready for the trip.

We’d stopped on the way at Cheadle to collect some more ladies, and after a short journey time we arrived at the NEC. All our ladies had soon disappeared into the exhibition hall. Steve and I decided on a more leisurely approach and diverted to Wetherspoons for a tasty breakfast and a few cups of tea!

Our bellies full we made our way through to join the others.

Inside the hall, there were lots of very interesting stands with all kinds of sewing and quilting products on show. Anyone interested in quilting should definitely make the trip to the festival. Better still, phone the shop and book your place for next years trip with Bambers!

We bumped into friends and colleagues on the Janome stand and had a good chat with Heidi and Maureen. All the Janome sewing machines were very well displayed and were equally well received by the large numbers of people who came for a sewing demonstration.There was also a lot of interest in the dozens of Janome accessories on show.

Just around the corner was the Brother sewing machine stand. Again we bumped into more friends and colleagues, Guy Baker and Gill Rogers. One corner of the Brother stand had taken on a Laura Ashley theme which will have an impact on certain Brother sewing machines in the very near future.

One of the most popular fabrics stands in the show was the one run by Doughty’s. Each time we passed there was always a collection of eager ladies buying up ‘new stock’.

We also came across well known textiles artist, Annette Morgan. Annette was kind enough to allow a quick photo. For more information on Annette’s work, please click here.

On one stand we found a Janome Horizon connected to a quilting frame.

The lady operating the Janome Horizon, using the quilting frame, certainly produced some great freehand work, as you can see.

Quilts on show…
There were dozens of fabulous quilts on display, we took photo’s of our favourites.

This is a close up of one of the ‘cats’ featured in the quilt above. In case you can’t make it out, it reads… ‘Rasputin seen loitering under bird table’.

So, a small selection of the fabulous quilts that were on display at this years show.

Finally, it was time to ’round-up’ our ladies for the journey home. Everyone we spoke to reported they’d enjoyed the day. Although there were some tired feet!

We didn’t have to wait long before our coach appeared with Tony at the wheel. Quite a few people look to have bags full of goodies.

Part way home and somewhere on the M6. Some of us can take it, and some of us give up and conk out!

We arrive back in Cheadle and the Sainsbury’s car park to find dutiful husbands waiting to collect weary quilters and take them home for a cup of tea, or even a refreshing G&T…

Thank you to all the ladies who joined us on this years trip to the Festival of Quilts. We really hope you enjoyed yourselves, and we look forward to seeing you next year, by which time we may need two coaches.
Steve and I would also like to thank Kathryn for all her tireless work in organising the trip, booking the coach and the tickets, phoning people and generally keeping everyone in line.
Thank you very much, Kathryn!