We had a cup of tea and something to eat before we looked around – we wanted to make sure that we had the stamina! And also the showground was filling up, so we thought that this was a good plan before the queues got too big. Then we had a good potter around the stalls, and it was really difficult to know where to start! There were so many gorgeous things there, but one of my favourite stalls was Colouricious. They have the most beautiful hand carved wooden stamps, and they were doing some demonstrations of how you can stamp with paint and decolourant and used mixed media for different projects. I bought a set of blocks for printing and some decolourant too – can’t wait to have a go! My favourite stamp is this one – as you know, I just love owls!

Another lovely stall that we found was Farne Designs – they print beautiful textiles in Cornwall. We both bought a little selection of fabrics, and I got an embroidery kit for Mum for Christmas. Their stall was just so inviting – look at these fabrics!

One of the things that I was most excited about was meeting Stuart Hillard from the Great British Sewing Bee! For those of you who don’t know this programme, it has got so many people into sewing and making clothes and Stuart appeared on the first series. He was at the quilt show to sign his new book, and Mum has very kindly bought me it for Christmas so it will be fab to have a signed copy! Stuart was so lovely – he chatted to us like he had known us for years and was so welcoming. It really was a pleasure to meet him!

After we had spent up, we looked around the exhibition quilts. I can’t begin to tell you how inspiring they were – all the quilters are so incredibly talented, and the attention to detail is amazing. I love that people had incorporated different techniques into their quilts (including felting – look out for the planets quilt in my gallery below) and there were so many different styles. I went away with so many ideas, although I’m nowhere near good enough to create anything like these! The first quilt here won the ‘Best in Show’ and was by Liz Villalobos from Newcastle (quilted by Kay Bell) – simply stunning! I tried my best to take photos of all the labels so that I could credit all the quilters here, but I did miss one or tow (sorry). Click on the photos to see the quilter’s details.[/vc_column_text][vc_gallery type=”image_grid” onclick=”link_image” custom_links_target=”_self” grayscale=”no” choose_frame=”default” interval=”3″ images=”5720,5721,5722,5724,5723,5728,5725,5726,5733,5729,5738,5730,5731,5737″ img_size=”large” column_number=”2″][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1412354012241{padding-top: 30px !important;}”]Very inspiring, I’m sure you’ll agree! We left talking about all of the lovely things we’d like to be able to do with quilting one day… On the way home we met a lovely lady called Jennie at Harrogate station – she had also been to the show and had picked up some supplies for Christmas! Jennie has a Facebook page, so do pop over and say hello! Making a new friend was certainly a great end to the day! :-)[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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We seem to have been out and about loads over the past few weeks, so I’ve got so many photos to share! Highlights include a trip to the Northern Quilt Show with my Mum, a trip to Beamish, our holiday to Maryport, and we also had tickets to the Great North Run 1 Million Opening Ceremony! We managed to get a spot right at the front on the quayside, which was amazing – a brilliant night!

I’m so pleased with this photo from the ceremony!

When I went to stay with Mum and Dad at the end of August, I made my Dad a very special cake to celebrate him working his last ever overtime on a Saturday – he’s done it for over 30 years! He loves his records and we recently gave him our record player, so I made him an LP cake. For those of you who don’t know, ‘Mornin’ avids’ is how Brian Matthews opens his radio show on Radio 2 every Saturday morning – Dad will be able to sit and listen every week now The cake is a Victoria sponge with buttercream and homemade blackberry curd inside, and I made the LPs out of icing, using a cocktail stick to make the ridges.

You might have caught a glimpse of some photos from the quilt show in my Project Life post yesterday – I will be writing a post about it, so you’ll get to see a bit more! There are some photos on Instagram so have a look there if you can’t wait… Other exciting things that have happened include: booking my ticket for Blogtacular 2015 (I didn’t go this year and really wished I had, so I can’t wait!), making top secret things and starting making Christmas stuff (sorry for using the C word!) and getting into Project Life. And there are so many exciting things coming up too! What have you been up to recently?

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