National Quilt Festival: First night out to the Prize Giving Dinner

Not having a car and after we had to walk more than 2 blocks to get to the entrance of the school where the main activities of the festival was held, we were grateful to hear that the Prize Giving Dinner would be at the boys school right across the street from our guest house.  All dressed we started walking just again to find out that the only open gate would also be about 2 blocks away.

All was forgiven when we stepped inside the hall to be greeted by these.  In the foyer the coffee table for after dinner drinks.

 The Festival Theme was ‘Alive with Color’ and this could be seen in the decorations up on the walls.

 Before entering these lovely ladies gave my kind of ‘handouts’ and they didn't even mind when I left the room and came back in again and took yet another freebie.

 Upon entering the dining area we were greeted to soft background music by this trio.

The tables were perfectly laid to perfection with quilts up against the side walls.  Here the one and only Karin can be seen seated at our table.

The rest of the dining and food area were equally colorful and smart.

          

We had a couple and their young son from Denmark sharing our table – not to mention multiple prize-winner, Annelize van Niekerk , from Hopetown and her friend Herle.  I got to meet both of them at our local mini Festival a couple of years ago and it was good to see them again.  Back to the couple from Denmark, he must be some unique human being, bringing his wife all the way over here to attend our festival and getting their student son to come along.  He however showed me a rather funny label on the wine bottle and asked if it was traditionally printed on our bottles as the slogan ‘don’t drink and drive’ was internationally known but not what we had on this bottle!!

Don't drink and walk on the road, you may be killed.

This was foreign to us as well and there and then Karin and I tried to hitch a ride from fellow quilter, Christelle Myburgh, but after she apparently had a couple of glasses, she ever so quietly forgot all about us and we had to walk back home again.

O yes and on any formal dinner if you want to seek out the best party goers, do sneak outside and find the hidden spot where the smokers gather.  Lots of stories and usually heaps of giggles.

As the evening came to an end we had a quick photo reunion when we discovered that most of our friends we met at the Yzerfontein PFAFF sew-away, were at the dinner as well.  Take note of the lady on the back right hand side of this photo, Adrienne Brown, whose quilt won the first prize in the same challenge I entered my peacock quilt.

Back at the guest house we tried to dilute the wine with a last cup of coffee in Karin’s room and inspected the contents of our lovely goodie bags.

I just realized that I've done 3 posts just covering day one and to us it was only half a day as we only landed late afternoon.  No wonder we were so dead tired with this much we had to experience and take in.