Friday 4 November 2016

a spot of retail therapy

I popped out to the Auckland Festival of Quilts show today and enjoyed a lovely couple of hours looking at all the quilts. A spectacular exhibition of work, large & small quilts, mixed media and recycled quilts. I met up with Julie from justjulielou, it was lovely to finally met her in person after all this time of commenting on each others blogs.





And of course after looking at the quilts, we strolled through the merchant's mall together.
My fabric enhancer {aka Julie} proved to be excellent company!
Want to see what I bought?


- really couldn't resist a few Liberties from florence and mary






- a yummy b&w and a small selection of low volume fabrics




- and another little floral Liberty snuck into the mix too!


One thing I did notice
was that there was a marked increase in the use of Batiks in this years selection of quilts.
It's been a while since I used a batik, but I can see the possibilites here
- just had to get me a little bit too!




 - and my treat to myself was Brigitte Giblin's latest book FEATHERING THE NEST 2
Looking forward to opening this on Xmas day!




My pick of the day was this amazing quilt
- Dinner Party by Mary Metcalf



- close up of her amazing quilting


The show is on all weekend, well worth a visit.
I did take a few pics on my phone, but most of them weren't all that good so for a great selection of many more quilt pics,
pop on over to Julie's here
oh, and there's heaps more pics here on instagram too



12 comments:

Julie said...

Your retail therapy was obviously much more therapeutic than mine. I am thinking I may need to get that book though ...... Thanks for being great company, always nice to have someone to chat to about the quilts we see.

Linda said...

Glad you met up with Julie at the Show. Isn't it fun to finally meet someone you "know" through blogging? Last year I met up with Linda (Razzle Dazzle) and her sister at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham. You picked some lovely new fabrics to add to your stash.

Raewyn said...

Glad you enjoyed the show Linda...I approve of your wee shopping spree....it was lovely to see you :-) I get to look around tomorrow, I'm looking forward to that.

Cynthia Brunz Designs said...

You always pick the prettiest fabrics. I want to go shopping with you :)

gayle said...

I wish I could have gone for that day out, too - it sounds perfect! I'm glad you got to spend a day with such a wonderful enabler!
The book, the quilts, and those fabulous fabrics have me drooling here...

pandchintz said...

Ooh - nice buys! Always fun to have an enabler with you. Amazing quilt.

Mystic Quilter said...

How can a visit to a quilt show not involve retail therapy!! I like what you bought there, especially the Liberty fabrics. I bought Feathering the Nest 2 around three weeks ago but in all honesty there is a lot of appliqué and I'm not sure there would be more than a couple of projects I should like to make, but it's a beautiful book to sit and look at with a cup of tea and a chocolate biscuit!

Kate @ Smiles From Kate said...

Lovely eye candy Linda, sound like you had a great time. I love the Dinner Party quilt with the amazing quilting, thank you for sharing. I love seeing what others choose when shopping, I especially love batiks and it's interesting to read your comments on them.

Linda @ kokaquilts said...

Glad you enjoyed the pics Kate.
Yes, it’s been years since I used batiks, but relooking at them again now! They seem to blend well, like a tone-on-tone effect, which could be very useful.

And Julie was a big help... she had compared prices between the different stalls selling those pretty Liberties before I arrived, and so she knew which was the cheaper option! And then, she took me over to a stall that had a huge bin of fabric cut offs, all $1 each! Lots of fun rummaging through that lot, I came away with quite a bit in the end!

Linda @ kokaquilts said...

I’m not that into appliqué either, but I do love the way Brigitte combines her fabrics, she seems to mix everything up across the years, which is just perfect for me too!

Wendy @ Wendysquiltsandmore said...

I resisted buying any more Liberty because I bought a lot from Florence and May at the Embroidery Conference in July (and I haven't used them yet). I did buy from at least 4 different stalls though, so boosted the quilted economy. I enjoyed looking at the quilts too.

Kate said...

You picked up some beautiful fabrics and the book looks like a lot of fun. Both of those would be dangers to my UFO list!