Meeting a Blog friend at the Festival of Quilts

Linda, me and Peggy

I have followed the Razzle Dazzle Quilt Blog for quite a while.  I love the projects Linda makes and the custom quilting that she does.  She also lives in New Zealand, a very special part of the world to me.

Then I discovered Linda and her sister Peggy were coming to the UK for a long trip and would be visiting the Festival of Quilts which is a show I visit every year.  However, I don't have to come thousands of miles from NZ to see it as I live about 20 minutes' drive away from the huge NEC Exhibition complex where the FOQ is held.  I had my sister, Pat with me too that day and the four of us met for a short while and chatted over coffee.

Pat very kindly took this photograph of the three of us. It was lovely to meet a cyber-friend in real life.  I hope we can meet up again one day, perhaps in NZ? In the meantime I will continue to follow Linda's super blog.

As always the FOQ was stunning and, I think even better than ever this year. The standard of the Competition Quilts was just amazing!  I took lots of photos and I will share a few of those with you now:

One of my favourite places in this country (UK) is Southwold in Suffolk.  My husband and I 'discovered' Suffolk a few years ago and try to spend a few days in Orford each year.  Southwold isn't too far away.  It's a lovely town, full of interesting shops, a great beach, a pier full of shops and end-of-the-pier type games, and a long row of delightful beach huts - every one different, all with a whimsical name and lovely painted details.

So, when Pat and I (she is also a Southwold fan!) saw this Group Quilt made by 23 members of the Saint Felix Frolic Sewing & Quilting Group I had to takes loads of photos.

Can you see The Pier?

 

 And a couple of beach huts?

 

If you have been to Southwold you will recognise so many of these buildings and shops - just as Pat and I did.  It was such a beautifully made quilt - Congratulations to The Saint Felix Frolic Sewers!

 

More quilts depicting places I know:

 

Lindisfarne Causeway, Northumberland, a county where we lived for the first 10 years of our marriage.

 

Sydney Opera House, one of the quilts in a great Gallery called Golden Textures of Australia.

We have visited Sydney several times to stay with good Aussie friends so this is another special place for me.

 

Another Gallery featured The Tentmakers of Cairo.

Two of the Tentmakers, Hosam Al Farouk & Tarek Al Safty came back again this year to demonstrate their wonderful art of applique.  Their fingers move at lightning speed as they needleturn the pieces in their quilts - flower stems, flower heads, birds etc. The colours are all extremely bright, their quilts are all works of art.  Lots on display and for sale and, considering how long each one takes to make, they were not overpriced.  Hosam told me the quilt he was making took six months to complete and as this is their full-time job I can't imagine how many hundreds of hours that represents.

 

A few photos:

I have lots more photos from the FOQ to share but that will have to be in another blog post.  we are going out soon, for supper at our next door neighbours, so I mustn't be late!