It is a few years since I have visited the National Quilt Exhibition at Sandown. This year, our quilt group had a group quilt in for exhibition, a Dear Jane, started by one of our members who was a terrific hand piecer and quilter. Sadly, she died, before finishing the quilt, and as a memorial to her, many of us finished off the remaining blocks. We could not get to the triangle borders, that would just have been a task too far, but we did get it professionally long-arm quilted by Isabel Compton. It was very moving to see it finally exhibited. We are also raffling the quilt for funds for the hospice where our friend died.
The show was much smaller than when I last attended, with far fewer quilts on display. That did give time however, to see all of those that were there. New to me was the fantastic long-arm quilting of Janette Chilver, fantastic use of negative space.
Best in show was this masterpiece go piecing and quilting, by Gilli Theokritoff. The photograph does not do justice to the quilting, which is the story of David, quilted in text across the whole surface.
More to blog about on this show, but i need to gather my thoughts before writing.
