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.

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.

National Quilt Festival: My trip and accommodation in Stellenbosch

You know the saying ‘life happens while you’re making other plans’?  It happened over here yesterday.  Adamant to get my house work up to date, wanting to sort my blog photos and continue doing my daily chores, the trip switch on our electrical box decided it is about time to die on us.  Sat without electricity in the plugs (lights worked) from about 11am until 4pm when the electrician finally could come to fix the problem.  Almost froze to death without heating unable to do anything plug related which is most everything!!  So suddenly all my positive plans were moved from morning to late afternoon and evening.  But now on to my trip and stay in Stellenbosch.

Needless to say my best half went along.  No not my husband, he is only the better half but going on any quilting related trip without dear friend Karin is like going without your rotary cutter – in fact I’d rather leave the latter at home.

Much to the disgust of the men in our lives, we (actually Karin) made them take a photo of us before departing from the airport in Bloemfontein.  Here we are still all chirpy and excited, looking forward to our time.

After taking the photo they couldn’t get away from us fast enough, just to be greeted out loudly by Karin as they were about to leave the airport building’s doors.  They did not find us funny with Karin’s husband actually wanting to know when Karin would find a new friend.  I used to like this guy but it seems our relationship is ruined now – darn!!  Unfortunately no photo of the two of them.

Wonderful flight and after 2 bottles of wine in a one-and-a-half hour flight we arrived on Cape Town airport even more chirpy than what we were on departure.  Best surprise ever on the other side when my ‘non-quilting’ best half, Celdri, were there to meet us.  One of the most amazing people I’ve ever met and in no specific area……….. amazing in all areas (okay, leave out cooking and kitchens).

Got our luggage, waited for our Shuttle and after an hour had to phone to find out what happened to the guy.  There we were reading all the banners for our names and our driver decided he’ll just sit and wait in his car as if we knew him, the company or the fact that he’ll be waiting outside.  Not too pleased; that I can assure you.

Our guesthouse however did not disappoint and we were taken to two separate (in fact on the opposite sides of the house) very spacious rooms.  Karin obviously bribed the hosts as she got a room with double glass doors going out to the garden with a nice bench just as she goes outdoors.  Mine, on the other hand, was a room with the entrance inside the house, down a couple of steps (it felt like they were taking me to the dungeon) and I had to walk through the house to get outside.  I think they’ll ask the next guest how much they sleep at night before putting anyone else in there ever again.  If you treat me that way you’ll have to deal with me unlocking the front door at 2am, 4 am and again when I wake up at 6 am.  The staff arriving at 06:30 in the morning were rather shocked the first day to find the front door wide open upon their arrival but soon got used to the ‘sleepless’ person.  These photos show my room.  Until I went shopping I didn’t know why anyone would need this much space in one single room.

After unpacking Karin and I met halfway on the front porch (the name of our planned reality show but more about that later) before we had to get dressed for the prize giving dinner later the evening.  Look when we sit I am taller than Karin!

Peacock entry for our National Quilt Festival

I returned from a couple of days at our National Quilt Festival in Stellenbosch yesterday evening and am still in the process of catching up with the housework but with the dishwasher unpacked and the second laundry load (not just my own; that of the rest of the family too) in the washing machine, I thought to start sorting my blog’s (own and that of our guild) photos.

I’ve decided to enter a quilt for this festival’s challenge. The challenge theme was “Showtime” and we had to use this particular fabric in the quilt.

Unfortunately not having blogged the process as I went along, I've misplaced plenty of photos between my laptop and main PC and now have to struggle to make sense of what I have. Anyway the name “Showtime” to me (in my little messed up head) spelled colorful and boy did I search for images on the internet that would be colorful, represent ‘Showtime’ and furthermore where I could make use of the challenge fabric which I should add I thought was the absolute most horrible piece of fabric I've ever laid eyes on. That should say a lot as I am a firm believer that there just is no such thing as ugly fabric.

Then finally one evening I came across a photo of a peacock and in this I saw color, an image that could represent ‘Showtime’ and I could use the prescribed fabric too. I was so excited but not being artistic there was no way that I could even try to recreate or copy this.

Fortunately my daughter’s latest boyfriend is extremely creative with sketching being his favorite hobby so I summoned him to draw me a ‘ quilt-able’ peacock and the kid did not disappoint when he brought me this sketch.

Then I had to find pictures with slightly more close-up detail of peacock feathers, the placement of these and just in general check a peacock out decently for once and again I searched the internet high and low to try and find pictures or photos with plenty of detail, such as these.

The fun part of selecting and purchasing fabric started but then the big work of trying to have at least a couple of techniques and deciding on which to do first started and unfortunately here I’ve misfiled many photos that I simply cannot find. I did however find 2, one showing the shapes still pinned in place and another of the back trying to show how I did trapunto in some areas.

These next photos show the base layers down onto the fabric and the feathers coming along.












With the front done, I could put the quilt up the spray basting wall to sandwich the layers.

Finally the finished quilt being aired before I packed it to be couriered to the Festival organizers.

Even though I worked my butt off on this it didn't win any prizes but when I saw the quilts in the same challenge I knew exactly why – they were absolutely brilliant but I will have another post showing the comparison. In fact once up the wall my poor entry simply disappeared next to the other most stunning, colorful entries. Keeping you in suspense for a little while more but now I have to attend to some more housework.