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September 23, 2011
Hever - Upheaval - Home!
You don't get many chances to park right outside such a beautiful castle. Here is our little van ready to be unloaded. Hever Castle was the family home of Anne Boleyn and as you can see it is extremely beautiful.
The Quilter's Guild Area 2 have held their area day in this gorgeous venue for twenty years and I am pleased to say that The Quilt Room has attended every one!
Nor should I say do you normally get customers such as this at a quilting show! He was very interested in everything!
And this quote was given to me by Jenny at the show which I thought I must remember it is so good:
Question: When is the only time housework comes before quilting?
Answer: In the dictionary.
Okay I can hear you groaning now..... sorry.
And we definitely must be mad as after the show on Saturday night we stripped out the central unit in the front of the shop and replaced it with these two new units. They look so good and it was definitely worth all the hard work. Yes we did have some help - Nicky's husband Rob came over, Mike my son was there and we also roped in our cleaner who was invaluable as he was the only one with any tools!
Now I am back in Cornwall working on a couple of quite exciting projects - but another day for those!
September 04, 2011
Delilah is Back!
Delilah has got to be one of our best sellers this year. It sold out so fast and we have been waiting patiently for another shipment. We are extremely pleased to say that it has arrived back in (all except two bolts which are due in shortly). Our very patient customers will be pleased to learn that all back orders will be shipped out this week - so sorry for the delay.
This is the range we have used for our Celebration Block of the Month so if you haven't signed up yet then maybe now is the time to do so!
You may have seen this photo as Nicky posted it on Facebook on Friday. The buttons hide ..... yes you've guessed ... the winning Challenge quilts. Last week was absolutely manic with everyone at The Quilt Room working flat out to help us get them longarm quilted and then bound. We chose lots of lovely backings - some a bit wild - so we hope the winners like our choice. They look absolutely stunning.
They are now being sent back to the publishers for photography. In the book there will be a flat shot and a styled shot of each of the winning quilts plus there will be a flat shot of our variation. Once photography is finished, the top prize winning quilts will then be sent to America to be displayed at Quilt Market in Houston. All so exciting.......
P.S. I spoke to the man who delivered our Challenge quilt parcels last week and told him he was on our blog being viewed by many. He apologised for not having shaved!!!!
August 24, 2011
Challenge Quilts Arrive!!
I had asked Chris to take a photo of the Challenge quilts arriving at The Quilt Room and yes the chap thought she was absolutely mad!! I know you won't think we are quite so mad as it is amazing that in those insignificant brown boxes there are twelve beautiful quilt tops from all over the world ready to be longarm quilted. We are so excited and I can't wait to get up to Dorking to have a look at them.
Don't forget that label!
Okay I know you are not supposed to be putting on the label just before they are being collected by the courier but sometimes life is like that!
The Challenge quilts are all arriving at The Quilt Room today which is exciting enough and here I am down in Cornwall putting on labels to two of the quilts which are going in our Antique to Heirloom Jelly Roll Quilt book due out next year. They are off to the publishers today as they are needed for photography for the advance material.
When it comes to labels everyone has their own preference but please do put on a label. Only one of our antique quilts featured in the new book has a label which is such a shame. We would like to know much more about the makers of our cherished antique quilts and just think about it..... our quilts will be antiques one day!
Here is our very basic label but at least future generations of quilters will know who we were and why our quilt was made. We print out our labels on to a Miracle Fabric sheet which feeds into our printer and prints out just like paper. You then peel the calico off and sew it to the quilt. Simple but it does the job.
August 14, 2011
Festival of Quilts - a few more photos!
Well it is now just gone 6pm on the last Sunday of Festival of Quilts and I am already back home in Cornwall. Yes sometimes it is great having a daughter and Nicky was very happy for me to leave early to get back home as she had Susan left to help her. Maybe I shouldn't say VERY HAPPY but yes I was allowed home early.
Unless you have had to do it yourself you do not know what a bonus it is not to have to break down a show. It is such hard work especially on top of five days on your feet. So a big thank you to Nicky and Susan and yes my lovely husband had a gin and tonic waiting for me!
Just another photo of Tina, Claire and Angelika with Nicky and me. We also met Chris from the Jelly Roll Quilters site who had flown in for the day from Germany and Titi who came on Sunday. I do have a photo of Titi - just let me see if I can find it...... oh yes here it is. Sorry Chris we forgot to get a photo of you.
Just to say it was lovely meeting everyone at the show. What a great show it was. If you have never been you really ought to get yourself organised for next year. You come away feeling totally inspired. Nicky took some photos of the winning quilts but we just have to check copyright to see if we are allowed to put them on the blog.
August 13, 2011
The Festival of Quilts
Tomorrow is the last day of The Festival of Quilts. Pictured is Pam early this morning looking very keen and raring to go - needless to say she looks a little less energetic this evening as today was a really busy day, just what we hoped for.
We haven't had a chance to look at many quilts yet in the exhibition but we did sneak a glance at one of the winning quilts - a pictorial quilt depicting an African scene - absolutely stunning. We aim to see the rest of the exhibition tomorrow morning and from what our customers have been saying we are in for a treat.
Our latest book 'More Jelly Roll, Layer Cake & Charm Quilts' arrived just in time for us to pack it in our van for the show. We are really very pleased with this book and it seems that everyone likes it as we have nearly sold out of our show stock!
Today was a really special day as we met three of the winners from the Jelly Roll Dream Challenge who came to the show and met up on our stand. It was a little like a blind date as this was the first time they had met too!
Pictured on the left is Angelika who had just flown in from Germany. In the centre is Tina, who is German but living in England and on the right is Claire from England. You will just have to wait until May next year when the book is published before you will be able to see their quilts. Nothing like keeping you in suspense!
August 07, 2011
See you at the NEC!
Okay I know I am meant to be packing up for the NEC but couldn't help sharing this with you.
Went out into the garden this morning to drink my cup of tea and found myself sitting next to a little lizard. I could tell you it was five foot long but in truth it was about six inches long and looked very sweet sitting on top of a shrub taking the sun.
See you at the NEC!
July 31, 2011
July 29, 2011
A Trip Down Memory Lane!
Who remembers this quilt?
Back in 1993 Pam went on Woman's Hour with Jenni Murray and invited listeners to make a block commemorating 75 years of votes for women. There was such a mixture of blocks which Pam, Sharon and Pam Anstey from The Quilt Room put together with sashing and borders in the suffragettes' colours of purple and green.
The quilt was hung in the House of Commons as the main attraction in the Women in Politics Exhibition organised by Teresa Gorman. Although Teresa Gorman had wanted it on permanent display in the House of Commons it went to the Victoria & Albert Museum where it still remains today.
And how about this photo taken back in 1985. Pam is on the right with Rosemary who was a partner at The Quilt Room for nearly 15 years.
This photo was featured in Pins & Needles magazine - a copy of which was very kindly sent to me by a customer - and also was used in this article here published in the Dorking Advertiser.
Can it really be 26 years ago?????
It makes me want to dig out more photos from the early days.
Enough it makes me feel quite tearful - no more nostalgia for the moment.
July 28, 2011
Make the most of the summer!
After the hectic past weeks of judging and then sewing the variations of the gorgeous winning quilts for the Dream Challenge I'm taking some time out to enjoy the weather and the garden. The weather in Cornwall has been fantastic and the veggie patch is looking pretty good - that is more than can be said for me in my stylish garden shoes!
I've never grown carrots before and I can't imagine why. We have had a bumper crop of them and of course courgettes always do well. Any recipes for courgettes gratefully received - I always run out of ideas on what to do with them.
... and notice those lovely blueberries.
And now to impress all you golfers out there. Playing with my friend Lesley at St. Mellion this week I drove to about six feet of the flag on a par 3 and then not to be outdone she drove and landed right beside me. However not so impressive is the fact that we both missed our birdie puts!
It's lovely not being attached to the sewing machine or the computer for a while although there is still so much to be done both with the Challenge book and also the Antique to Heirloom book which we are working on as well. However, you've just got to make the most of the sun while it's shining. Hope you are all enjoying it as well.
