Sunday, January 24, 2010

I must have been on holiday for too long!

Yesterday I took Frances to Stratford to see the NANZQ Illumination Quilts exhibition in the Percy Thompson Gallery. You may remember I had a this quilt accepted into this touring exhibition and it has sold.
We had a nice stop in Hawera where we visited the Cinnamon Lodge quilt shop (hope I got the name right) where I found some delicious fabric that just had to come home with me. We had a lovely morning tea at the Little Grans cafe that was open. Well I had coffee of course, and so did Frances so I guess it was morning coffee, not morning tea. I spied some lovely home-made looking custard squares and was ready to put one on my plate when I glanced along the cabinet and saw they also had Eccles cakes. What does a girl choose when there are two old fashioned favourites vying for her attention?*

Why have I been on holiday for too long? Because when we got to the gallery in Stratford there were no quilts! The gallery assistant didn't know anything about any quilts. Huh? I must have got it wrong. Off I go to find a magazine shop so I can check the entry in NZ Quilter. The exhibition doesn't start until 29 January. Well doh, I know it is January but I have no idea what the actual date is, I'm on holiday!

I'm not sure why the gallery assistant didn't know the exhibition is starting in a week's time. I will have to phone the gallery to check that it is actually going to be on.

To save a bit on the disappointed feeling we found the shop in Stratford which sells quilting fabric, quite a bit of it. I didn't know Stratford had a quilt shop. It is called In Stitches. Well, they sell other sewing supplies as well but they had a good selection of fabric and I got some great bargain priced fat quarters and some lovely paisley fabric in a dark green and red with caramel combination. Maudette, the owner, was very friendly and helpful, especially considering we were there right at closing time and stayed for about half and hour or so!


*She gets both and eats half of each one so that she can take the other half of each cake for a picnic lunch at school the next day, where she is going to start preparing for the new school year. By the way, what ever happened to Battenburg cake, no one makes that old fashioned cake any more do they?

3 comments:

Lis Harwood said...

Ha ha, glad it's just not me - you did well knowing it's January! I'm just about to post about the 2007 NANZQ exhibition which I really enjoyed. I'm hoping to get to this one but not sure on our itinerary yet. Enjoy it when you get there and well done on the sale - lovely quilt.

Quiltgranny said...

Hey there! Congrats on your sale! And, I'm glad to report that YOU aren't the only one that doesn't know the day - I do that all the time! LOL! You asked about ribbons for the quilt show? Of course! I can't send you an email because your email is set to with your comment.

Paula, the quilter said...

I tried to reply to the question you left about the pinwheel blocks but you are set to 'no reply'.

There is a very small sashing between the pinwheel blocks. I cut it at 1" wide and it finished at 1/2" after sewing. This is actually the back of the quilt that I am calling "Dance!" so I was trying to get that dancing feel into the pinwheels too. I like asymmetry and with an odd number of blocks on hand I thought the offsetting would work quite well.