Kempton Park Quilt show

Last week wasn't great for getting on and finishing things. My son has been having very bad headaches for quite some time and has also had a painful shoulder. Both problems escalated and ended with a trip to the emergency unit. He has several appointments set up to try and sort the problems out.  On top of that work got a little out of hand, leaving me very tired. All that to say that not much sewing or knitting happened. On the upside I had booked tickets to the Kempton Park quilt show, so on Friday morning I put the roof of my little sports car down, carefully applied sun screen and enjoyed the breeze through my hair as John and I headed to the venue. The show was taking place at Kempton Park racecourse in the exhibition halls. Upstairs there were quilts on display and downstairs a good range of vendors and of course tea, coffee and snacks. I think I've mentioned that I'm trying to use what I have this year, so I wasn't planning on buying anything but we still walked round all the stalls.  Here are our purchases from the day.

The two on the right were my fabrics and I have a use for them. The others, John bought and he has a plan but he won't tell me what it is for. Guess I'll just have to wait and see.

There were a good number of quilts to see and because the show was relatively small, with less people milling around, you were able to take more time to enjoy them. They also generated a lot of chatter. It was fun spending time discussing colour, fabric choices and quilting with folks I've never met before. There were several bright quilts and people said how much they loved the colour choices but they wouldn't use them as they don't know how to put bright colours together. I suggested to one lady that she played with her scraps and a few bright fat quarters to create a quilt for a young child. I met her a little later and she showed me the beautiful colourful fat quarter bundle she had bought and her plans for using more colour in her quilts. 

So onto the quilts. This first quilt was one of my favourites. For all of them I have included the information about the process and the makers.

I only chose one area to show a close up as there was so much to look at on this quilt. It was difficult to make a decision about the area to show.

The meerkats appeared on several quilts.

I really liked this next quilt. Such a easy design but it had a huge impact especially from a distance

There were several quilts with stitch painting and I have three to show you.  They are both by the same person. This first one was such a fun theme that certainly resonates with me.

I took a close up of one of the faces.

A close up for detail of one of the dancers.

The third quilt by this maker is later  in this post. Following the stitch painting I came across this quilt. The colours pleased me a lot and the quilting was pretty.

The next quilt is on a theme that affects all women to varying degrees. It certainly got a lot of attention.

There was a series of mariner's compass quilts made by the same couple.  Here is the information related to them.

The next quilt reminded me I needed to book a trip to the seaside.

In the quilt below the meerkats are back but enjoying Shakespeare.

This quilt caused a lot of conversation. This was mainly about the difficulties of getting the stripes lined up above and below the stars. Everyone was commenting on how hard it was to do and how perfect this was. 

I have a love of batiks so I had to include this quilt.

This cute tiger caught my eye. Strangely this quilt worked better close up. Standing back from it, the tiger merged into the background.

This was another fun selection.

I particularly liked this next quilt and I like the idea of making a quilt in a day, on boxing day. The day is about coming down from the Christmas festivities and what better way to do that.

Having spent time looking at the quilts we went outside to the stands to look at the race track and cool off. It was so hot in the exhibition room! Outside we started taking to a couple of women and had a fun time sharing information about our favourite quilt shops and classes we had taken.

We sat and ate sandwiches by the winners paddock. We had fun watching the small birds busy taking food to their young in the hedges.

From the quilt show we drove to older daughter's house to spend some time with her and our grandson and to have dinner. The day was a lot of fun. I hope you enjoyed the quilt photos. The next show I'm going to is the Festival of Quilts at the NEC on 1st August. My tickets and parking are all booked and I can't wait.

Take care

Lyndsey