QUILT EXHIBITION

There is a Quilt Exhibition/market on today through to Sunday.
I'm going today, so I can browse to me heart's content and not bore the family silly.

I don't expect to be buying anything... but ya never know.

It's over in Albany, so I shall be leaving fairly early this morning, so I can spend some time there.

The last time I went to this Exhibition, it was purely to track down the Husqvarna man and give him a piece of my mind re Lemony!  This time I am going to enjoy it.

What else for the day?  Not much.  I'm going to keep looking for a new home for Teddy.  I seriously doubt we could ever do the Vet thing!
Steve is pretty upset about it all... blames himself for us wanting to re-home Teddy, as it's his child that caused us to do this.  If it wasn't Dante though, it could/would have been another child.  So I hope he gets over it fast.

Right, I'm off to get ready to hit the road...
Catch ya later.

ONWARD...

WHERE to start?
I had an email first thing this morning from a fellow blogger and quilter (Marlene), and she suggested we meet for a coffee at the show, as she was going too.  So, I was looking forward to that.  I had never met her in person before.

I arrived at the show at around 10.20 am, made good time on the motorway.
Marlene arrived around the same time apparently.

I had started to browse the stalls when I noticed a lady sitting down texting, she looked vaguely familiar, and I thought she MIGHT be Marlene.
Next thing she finished texting and stands up and heads towards the cafe.  I got a text immediately ... and thought... "Ahh haaa, I bet that IS Marlene", so I walk up behind her and tap her on the back.

It was Marlene!  I hadn't even read her text!  LOL
So, we go up to the cafe where Marlene had a coffee and I had me diet coke. 

Then we spent the next 2.5 hours wandering around looking at all the quilts and checking out what was for sale.

I got the few things I really wanted (thread, snips and yellow batik fabric for my Mariner's Star), and Marlene got a few things too.

 ABOVE:  My purchases, not very exciting, but I am happy.

I hadn't taken my good camera, as I thought there was no way we would be allowed to take photos!  
Seems we were allowed, so I had to make do with my phone camera!  Gutted.

 ABOVE:  very funny, and why I went today instead of dragging Stew and the kids to the show with me on the weekend.

 ABOVE:  Marlene taking a photo of a quilt she liked.  We have fairly different tastes in style/colour, but we agreed on some mutually.  *smiles*

ABOVE: I thought these were gorgeous, so very pretty.  I love brights of course!

 ABOVE:  One of the big winners in the show.  First prize of 'Open' section.  Done by a mother/daughter duo.  The Mum does the quilt tops and her daughter does the quilting.  And what AMAZING quilting!  She does it all 'free handed'... no computer used at all, she just dreams it up!!!  

The mother takes applique classes in Gordonton, just outside Hamilton and I'm going to look at attending some of her weekend classes next year.

ABOVE:  Some more of the quilts that caught my eye.  The large section is an up-close look at a part of the quilt on the top right.

ABOVE:  I couldn't resist taking this one!  It won a Merit in the Challenge it was entered in.  There were lots of different interpretations of 'The Space Between' ... and the only 'space between' I could see in this quilt was between her thighs!!!
I said that to Marlene and she was gobsmacked I think.  hee hee.

So, that's it for now!  I've had an excellent day, it's so much nicer going around a show with company I must say.

THANK YOU MARLENE for your lovely company today, I really appreciated it.

ABOVE: ME in PINK!  Marlene was 100% sure I would be dressed in blue, so was very surprised to see me in PINK!  ha ha!  I really like this new shirt too, I think I look nice in pink.  And YES, that is a small smile!

End of Day: Yep, a lovely day, one that made me smile more than I have for the past few days I must say.  Hopefully the weekend is nice too.
nite nite