Quilt tour highlights, peek look at goodies bought.

I thought that I would share a few favourite photos and what goodies made it home with me, here I am thinking that I was good, but after unpacking it appears that I was not, but fun was had!

Some great fabric, moda, Tokyo milk etc

I picked up this yard of Henry Miller fabric, circa 2002 from an antique shop.

More goodies, cotton and Steel, charm packs, Milfore and Cardinal fabric.

Kaffe also made it home with me.

A little bit of Amish that I could not resist, a log cabin pattern will happen here.

Some echino and reproduction fabric.

Wool, sloth and owls

Tula Pink new fabric line, "Spirit animals had to show up, also some mesh fabric for bags.

Flannel and bunny fabric from Denmark, also some cork to make bags.

Frida also had to make an appearance, with some Frida fabric all the way from Brazil.

Other bits and pieces.

I might add, there was no excess luggage, DH suitcase on departure from Australia was 11kg due to having an extra bag inside and mine was 10kg. 

 On return home, a different story, mine was just under 23kg and DH was also about that with 7 kg in extra case. 

Our allowance was two suitcases each, but we managed again to get away with what is our standard, one each with an extra duffel bag. 

DH always worries about excess luggage, never happens, because we pack light before we leave for our trip.

This was just one of the many quilt shops in Hamilton, owned by Missouri Star.

On this trip we visited Kansas City, Cameron, Hamilton, Chillicothe, Indendence, St Joseph, Kokomo, St Louis, Shipshewana, Chicago and Houston. This tour has added to our states that we have covered in the USA, over 42 states, only eight to go!

Until our next adventure, keep safe.

Paducah quilt Festival

After Cancun we flew to Chicago for an overnight stopover, then next morning caught one of the two flights a day to Paducah.

The flight took only 59mins, on our arrival, we had a pleasant surprise, as our house hosts, Tony and Elva were at the airport to greet us. The airport in Paducah reminds me a lot like Dubbo. There were
quilts hanging all over the airport.

Tony (our host) was very gracious and asked me is there somewhere I would like to go to....yes Hexie House, paper pieces as I knew Katja Marek was giving a talk, perfect opportunity to buy her book and have it signed.

Hexi House

It is nice to go inside a building, where you get to know where you have ordered your EPP from.

I was lucky enough to also buy MSG new book that has just been released in Nantes.

The next stop was a bright sign, beckoning me.... "FABRIC Sale"

Inside was a very large space and so much fabric, at $3 a yard, what could one do, but buy, buy, buy, I had not even been in Paducah for an hour before I had several yards of fabric.

Hancocks was also mentioned, we drove past...and the line was long. DH looked at a graph on the Hancocks web page and the best time to go was early morning, so that will be tackled on Thursday before I venture into the quilt show at the Convention centre.

We all went to dinner in Calvert City at a place called Crackerbarrel, this restaurant is dry, so DH settled for earl grey tea.

Onto our home for the next 4 days where we will be staying with Tony and Elva.

A double wedding ring quilt graced our bed, how welcoming!

After a comfortable nights sleep, up had breakfast then off to Hancocks, the line was no better and all the coaches were lined up....oh well now or never....

Inside was just as busy, but very organised and I did not have to wait long for my metres of fabric to be cut

Aisle and aisle's of fabric and the crowd.

I had a good 45 mins inside and managed to grab some great fabrics, nice to see the building, this is my favourite place to order fabric from when at home.

After my visit to Hancocks, Elva and DH dropped me off at the convention centre, DH will have some well deserved R & R

The crowds were no better at the quilt show, the quilt show was spread over 3 locations and one was in a big pavilion which took a good 5 mins to walk too, with more vendors inside.

Lunch time was standing room only.

The food area was outside under tents.

I will share a few of the quilts that I really liked as well as the grand prize winner.

These 3 quilts were prize winners

A whole cloth quilted.

One of the first prize winners by Colette Dumont from Canada, aptly named "Victory",this quilt was home machined quilted.

2nd prize winner, home machined quilted, "Why Not " this quilt was amazing and what made it most special, It is Angela  Petrocelli first attempt at making a quilt as well as machine quilted at home, on a domestic machine, she was quite young and as you can see quite talented.

Always nice to run into a fellow Aussie, Karen Styles from Sommerset Cottage, and in the background, is her gorgeous new quilt.

This quilt was creative and appealed to my quirky side.

Great theardwork as well

More thread work

This quilt is another Trispective quilt, similar to the one I saw in Houston in 2014, sign above of what it is called and who made it. Looks like it is the same quilter, great work.

This was s the one from Houston 2014

There was also a double one

One angle, Statue of Liberty

New York Beauty.

To finish off this was my viewers choice, the detail and imagination that went into this quilt was absolutely amazing and so creative.

Some close ups

To sum it all up, there were many amazing quilts and very well displayed. 

I will continue in a later blog about my adventures in Paducah.

London, Liberty and The Cotswold.

We travelled from France, Monday morning on the Eurostar, arrived mid morning, checked into our hotel, then used the underground like real pro's to get to Regent street, off Oxford circuit. I was asked by my friend Viv to go and have a good look around Libertys for her, when she was in London a few years ago, she did not get the chance to visit. I promised that when we got to London that is what I will do. On my trips to Japan I had purchased a lot of Liberty fabrics and used the fabric in a quilt that I had paper pieced. So with this in mind I was not going to buy anything unless it really shook my world. And shook my world it did, such array of fabrics and sooooo....expensive. I am having trouble with the British pound being two of our dollars. The liberty fabrics was £32 a metre ($64 ) in our dollar, but can one resist, minimum cut was half metre, Fabrics other than the Libertys were £17.50 ($35), which we can buy at home for $20, so of to the bargain bin for me 1 1/2 metres later, I am happy with my purchase.

First glimpse of Liberty

Window display

Window display, monkeys were very detailed in this design.

Liberty stationery

Liberty fabrics, quilts with Rowan fabrics.

Kaffe Fassat fabrics

Other fabrics than Liberty

Displays and decorations throughout Liberty

Some bird houses as a display.

Vintage Liberty, just loved this jacket, at £875 I made the decision to leave it where it was.

Loved all the levels and enjoyed my Liberty visit.

Walked down Carbaby Rd, to view some Levels neon fashion.

Tuesday we took a tour to The Cotswolds, it was a great day, we visited Bibury, Burford, Bourton on the Water and Stow on Wold. I managed to find a haberdashery in Bourton on the water and bought some fabric. I am at present collecting novelties for a quilt that I have in mind, I feel we are so lucky in Australia with our talented quilters and fabric selection, fabric and quilt shops are difficult to stumble across in the UK.

I will share some photos of the Cotswold with you.

Beautiful church in Burford.

Arlington Row cottages in Bibury

Bibury is the birth place of William Morris, no fabric, but cushion covers, tea towels and curtains available to buy, loved the one below.

The Black Swan where we had lunch.

Bibury is famous for fresh trout and has a trout farm, a very enjoyable meal was had by all.

Stow on the Wold, stumbled on a thrift stall, bought a couple of brass bells.

This concludes our tour of the day. Wednesday we head to Leeds and on the way will visit Coventry and Stratford-upon-Avon.