Windows, Chilford and Gorgeousness!

I have been having a further play with the reverse applique pieces I am working on for the International Quilt Challenge and made the small piece above on a sheer base fabric and it turned out much less bulky than the first piece I made.  I decided to bind the edge and used a black fabric to represent the lead in stained glass but I feel it is a bit heavy.

When it came to binding the 10"x10" square I decided on a grey binding and I prefer that to the heavier black.  I've put together two more A3 sized 'windows' and am going to continue working with them as I am enjoying this process.  One of them will become a Pennant for the Olympics.

I haven't started working with the sheer version yet, I had the idea of printing onto the fabrics and then painting with silk paints so hopefully I will find some time for that tomorrow in between the dusting and hoovering!

On Saturday I had a lovely day out at the Grosvenor Autumn Quilt Show at Chilford Hall.  I hadn't been to one of these Grosvenor shows before and I was pleasantly surprised, not least by the venue.  Chilford Hall is in a pretty rural location and its grounds are lovely too.  Saturday was  a foggy day so it was a bit chilly for wandering around and the light was poor for photos but we were very impressed by the sculptures and statues dotted about.  Hopefully if I come back for the Spring Show the light will be better and I can get some photos of the grounds.

The show was staged in two large halls with timbered rooves and painted ceilings and in another large room that was strung with tiny 'christmassy' lights.  There were some wonderful exhibits and just enough traders to keep us interested.

Just part of the beautiful exhibition space.

Susan Briscoe, South West Quilters, Stitch Witches, Frieda Oxenham and The Blue Tulips Textile Art Group were just a few of the exhibitors whose work I admired.

This beautiful piece caught my eye with its wonderful use of silks and bead embellishments.  It is part of Frieda Oxenham's Colour-Quilt-Collage exhibition and is called Foxfires, a name used to describe the Aurora Borealis.

A detail from another of Frieda's pieces (I apologise for the poor quality of the images, the light was terrible!)

Isn't this fabulous?  So much colour and energy!

Earthly Pleasures inspired by collage.

Marie Studholme Journal Quilts from 2009 inspired by Frieda's collection of postcards about Marie Studholme (1872-1930) who was an English actress and singer.  I particularly liked this piece for the way Frieda had mounted it onto tweed and used vintage fabrics, clothing and buttons. 

This piece above is La Rue du Soleil by Maryel Cowell who is a member of Stitch Witches.  This group had many beautiful imaginative pieces on show.

Adjacent to the previous piece was this piece above entitled Mont St Michel by Terry Donaldson. 

This stunning quilt is by Pam Bono who lives in Athens Georgia in the USA.  There were many more of her impressive quilts on display and you can find out more about them at pamsclub.com.

This piece fascinated me.  It is titled 'Beyond The Naked Eye' and is by Eva Thomas a member of Blue Tulips Textile Art Group.

No visit to a quilt show would be complete without a bit of shopping and I was fairly good stitcking reasonably close to my shopping list.

I couldn't resist the book by Bethan Ash which hadn't been on my list but it's images were so inspiring and I'm really pleased that I bought it.  The fabrics are destined for some more stained glass window play.

When I got home my lovely DH had been to the post office for me to collect a special parcel that had winged its way all the way from downunder: Downunderdale, to be precise who trades as The Thread Studio in Australia.

Above is part of the hoard, gorgeous mixed embroidery threads, dyed emu feathers, tangle tuff for texture and the most beautiful turquoise stone ready drilled for a necklace or to use as an embellishment.

Look at these wonderful embroidery threads for machine and hand embroidery and some very unusual silk fibres that will be fun to play with.  Why did I receive this wonderful parcel?  I was the lucky winner of a giveaway on the Thread Studio Facebook page when Dale reached 900 'likes'.  If you would like the chance to win a similar parcel pop onto Facebook and 'like' The Thread Studio but be quick the next giveaway is at 100 likes.  Not long to go!