National Quilt Festival: Doing courses, exploring and SHOPPING

On Saturday our whole day was taken up by doing courses.  Karin loved her course and I’d rather not talk about my course – not anything about the technique as such but heck if I never do a course with someone with an attitude like the teacher I had, it would be too soon.  If I’ve taken away one thing from this class it would be “how not to teach”.

The evening friend Celdri – even though not a serious quilter, she was the first to introduce me to quilting after having been an exchange student in the USA and telling me about the quilts she saw at her host family, came to fetch me for a night out in town.  It was so good to see her once ‘little ones’ who now have outgrown me, again.

 Only the next day we were free to seriously look at the quilts and go shopping.  The exhibition hall was done to perfection with ample space for people to move around without ever feeling squeezed and the quilts on display were out of this world.

 I’d like to show some quilts in the category I entered my peacock and I’m sure once you see these you would understand that I don’t even feel bad for not having won anything.  First, quilts I LOVED but none of these won anything.

Friend Karin's quilt

Other quilts in the same category:

Look how my poor peacock simply disappear when seen with all the other colorful quilts!

And finally the 3 winning quilts, with the yellow ribbon in third place.  “Eish!” by Macky Cilliers

In second place with the Red Ribbon,  “Showtime! Disneyworld – April 2010” by Elma van Heerden

The grand winner in the Showtime category was “Spotlight” by Adrienne Brown

And you have to agree with me, the winning quilt deserved the prize no matter what.

Then we went major shopping and I think if I tell you that my suitcase was 15kg overweight you’d get the picture – that cow at the airport made me unpack my bag just there on the floor – just to take the 15kg (Accuquilt dies) as hand luggage.  As if my laptop bag, handbag & camera bag was not sufficient!  I actually got stuck in the isle of the airplane with one snotty man saying to me “did you not read that you were only allowed ONE bag as hand luggage?”  Luckily the total strange lady behind me responded with “o shut up and help her”. 

You might wonder why friend Karin did not help me.  She got in the plane before me but absolutely steaming with anger.  She too was overweight, no wait  - her luggage was overweight, and when she took her sewing case as hand luggage they confiscated her Fiskars scissors.  Not a chirpy flight back and the hostess didn’t do much to change our mood (she did not offer the second bottle of wine as with the flight to Cape Town).  Just take a look at our luggage on the stoep of the guest house as we waited for the shuttle service.  This photo did NOT include all our hand luggage!!

The vendor hall was a beehive of activity and we talked to and met so many new friends.

 My favorite vendor turned out to be Mandy from The Quilting Bug who gave me 10% discount when I didn't have enough cash with me – I should add that this was day 3 of 3 consecutive days shopping at her stall.  Thanks Mandy!!

Mandy on the left with Doortjie Gersbach on the right

And to end my posts on the Stellenbosch 16^th National Quilt Festival I should add that no festival will be complete without the goodie bag and this did not disappoint at all.

Loved the Stellenbosch Festival, great to be back home and already making plans for our festival in 2013.  Check it out on http://oranjequilters.blogspot.com - become a follower and add them as a friend on Facebook.