Uttoxeter and more.....

It's been a busy few weeks culminating in a trip to 'The British Quilt and Stitch Village' at Uttoxeter.
The APQS UK demo team spent a great weekend at the show, we had a wonderful time speaking with visitors and fellow stall holders. The racecourse is a great venue for a quilt show, the Camping and Caravan Club have a member site right there in the middle of the course, there was a cricket match on Sunday afternoon and of course the quilt and embroidery show.

Linzi, Ani and I rented a holiday cottage on a lovely farm overlooking Alton Towers, Janette braved the traffic jams making her journey 6 hours instead of what should have been 3 1/2 hours.  We ate too far too much, laughed till we ached and demonstrated machines till we couldn't stitch another pebble.

Our stand before the show looked great decked in the company colours of blue and white.... 

Northern Spring by Rosalind Pollock

The winner of the Special Theme Quilt category was Rosalind Pollock from the Lake District, a follower here on my blog.  I loved this quilt straight away as it is probably a view from my very own window.....not really but I appreciate it all the same.  Just look at all of the detail in that dry stone wall and those beautiful wild flowers, this is a painted wholecloth quilt, it's fabulous. Rosalinds blogpost... Congratulations Rosalind.....Unfortunately Rosalind was not attending the show.
This category was Sponsored by APQS, that's American Professional Quilting Systems, Linzi, Ani and I put together hampers for 'The New Beginnings Quilts and Embroidery' Categories...

Linzi with the winner of the embroidery section sponsored by APQS

Overall winner Hillary Beattie in the winners enclosure and her quilt below....

And of course there was a little shopping.....

Fabulous quilts from 'The Tentmakers of Cairo', I didn't spring for this one but did treat myself. This monochrome quilt in black and cream took my fancy and I couldn't resist it.....

I bought some Bernatex batiks and some wonderful hand dyes by Vicky Lovelace which shimmer beautifully.
I couldn't resist buying a couple of CDs to quilt to by David Jaggs who played fabulous guitar music quietly behind our stand for the whole three days.

If you would like to get a taste of the British Quilt and Stitch Village show for real here is a YouTube video complete with background guitar music....fabulous....

I've snatched this photo from  Linzi's blog, simply because it reminded me of the poem.  The photo is the 'hill road to Roberton' only Linzi was travelling in the opposite direction

THE hill road to Roberton's a steep road to climb,

But where your foot has crushed it you can smell the scented thyme,

And if your heart’s a Border heart, look down to Harden Glen,

And hear the blue hills ringing with the restless hoofs again.