Stitch and Craft Show

On Saturday 17th March, I spent the day at the Stitch and Craft Show at Olympia II, in Knightsbridge, London. I went along with a group of local quilters, and made some new friends along the way, (hello Janet and Louise) which is always nice. The coach journey went by quickly, especially as there was a fair bit of chatting to do, and we also did a bit of sightseeing as we travelled through London.....

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.....anyway, back to the show. There were several zones to browse with stalls and displays and practical demonstrations. There was a Stitching Zone and a Craft Zone,  a Knitting Zone and a Quilting Zone. There was a special exhibit by Quilts 4 London of a selection of the quilts and pennants made to present to Olympic athletes at London 2012. Many of these had been created by groups and represented themes from their local area and several were patriotically red, white and blue.
I must admit I was rather disappointed with the array of quilts that was on display. These had been made by groups and individuals to be donated to countries represented at the olympics - "A Gift of Quilts" - although if I'm really honest, I thought the standard was going to be much higher, especially compared to the beautiful quilt that was donated to Great Britain by America when the Olympics were held in Atlanta. Maybe I'm just too fussy.....

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.....here are my favourites from "A Gift of Quilts". Firstly a superb quilt made up of flying geese, "Circles Around The World" by the Test Valley Quilters, quilted by Izzy Hall, and will be donated to Cape Verde.....

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.....a mass of stars, "Shipton All Stars" by the Shipton Quilters for Mauritania.....

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.....more stars, "Union Stars" made by the Pumpkin Patchers, for the Bahamas.....

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.....and then this quilt for Montegro, called "Shining Through", by Margaret Hearn. Yes, there does seem to be a star theme here. There was another section of quilts by Janice Gunner, that were really stunning, that I'll show you later, and a fabulous quilted yurt - again, I'm saving that for later!!

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