Open Day 2015

So despite rain, hailstones and computer problems, the Open Day happened, it was a great day and for those of you unable to come along or those blog followers who live far away, here is my annual slideshow. Fortunately, I managed to photograph many of the quilts prior to Sunday which was just as well as despite making sure that my camera battery was well charged, my memory card filled up rather quickly!!

 Enjoy.

Edit - when you hover over the play button, the big P for Pinterest appears, click just outside the P to be taken to the slideshow!

This free photo slideshow customized with Smilebox

In excess of 100 lovely people braved the foul weather to come and see this year's quilts. 30 of our "Modern Samplers" were on display - I really think my students have excelled themselves this year, the standard of work was just so high.

The Viewers' Choice this year was a lovely quilt made by Ann MacNeill - what viewers didn't realise was that Ann has actually made two identical quilts for a pair of single beds. You will have seen one the slideshow, Ann quilted her quilt using a twin needle and I suspect this tipped everyone's vote - it looked stunning. This year I asked my ladies to give me a maker's statement and this added an extra point of interest. Here is what Ann said on hers -

This quilt was inspired by the material which a friend of mine presented me with on her return from a holiday in the USA.

This made me think of American blocks such as Bears Paw, Underground Railroad and Crossroads. I thought the material and these blocks would go well together. With a few other blocks here is the result.

So, interestingly, the most popular quilt leaned towards the traditional and another that wasn't too far behind was the Underground Railroad sampler, by Amanda, a beauty, made with Downton Abbey fabrics.

The main feature of my course was for the blocks to be floated on a bigger than usual expanse of background fabric which I think leads to a more contemporary look, and of course all but two students used quilt as you go to assemble three or four quilted panels into one quilt. The two student rebels chose to hand quilt

As usual, we had our Bring and Buy Stall selling donated books, quilting magazines and this year, several large donations of fabric - sales from all of this plus teas & coffees gave us a grand total of £630 which today, I have handed over to Ayrshire Carers.

All that's left for me to say is a huge THANK YOU to all my students for continuing to support my classes, and to my lovely volunteers who helped organise and make Sunday such a successful day.