Great Northern Quilt & Needlecraft Show, Harrogate 2018

The Solway Quilters had an enjoyable day out at the Quilt Show in Harrogate yesterday. A whole coach load of us went, so it was a jolly party that arrived just before lunchtime.

My friend, Margaret, and I started with the exhibition in the atrium, which included some beautiful work by a number of individual makers and groups. The following pieces really stood out for me:-

Summer Garden by Jane Rollason, sun printing and flower hammering on cotton

The flowered section is coloured by literally bashing the colour from flower heads directly onto the fabric. The sun printing, I was not familiar with, so, as a group, we may explore that in future tutorials. Apparently, as well as using pre-prepared fabrics, you can buy liquids to paint onto any fabric, which will 'bleach' where they are masked by a leaf, for example.

Elizabethan Flowers by Jane Rollason, silk patchwork, appliqué and painted

I really liked the bright, painted flowers 'popping' off the cream and gold background. The beaded border was a nice touch, and suggested the clothing worn by Elizabeth I.

Coastal Walks by Christine Vlietstra. "Inspired by images of the coastline". Strip pieced and raw-edge piecing. Cotton fabrics, hand and machine quilted.

This lovely abstract art quilt appealed to my love of the sea, lines and hand stitch. It had the lot! With a lot of contrasts in the colour palette of blues and yellows with a touch of red.

Scandinavian Jumpers 2 by Gillian Travis "This quilt won 2nd prize at FOQ in the Art Quilt category...".

This was one of my absolute favourites: the artist has used machine embroidery and freehand machine embroidery on felt. The shapes are cut out from the background so that the contrasting jumper shape is recessed to be even with the background, when slotted in and hand stitched in place. The background squares were printed with a lacy pattern. There was also a Breton jumper variation, with stripes. Too cute!

Silver Darlings by Lizzie Wall

This beautiful cushion had won the 1st prize in the cushions category, and you can see why! The technique is appliqué with broderie perse elements, used to great effect.

Flower Garden by Anne Senior

A charming hexagons quilt. I think this was made with the English Paper Piecing technique.

Postcard From Sweden by Liz Merckel. Designed by Jeli Quilts and based on a postcard from IKEA by Tom Frazier. 36 colours of Kona cotton with a half-square triangle block.

This really shows what you can do with plain colours and a single shape. There is a great deal of movement and interest in the layout of the colours: love it!

Homecoming: Return of the White Rabbit by Lizzie Wall. The White Rabbit returns home after his adventures in Alice in Wonderland.

See 'work in progress' images on Lizzie's Instagram account. Another very imaginative and beautifully-realised art quilt. I love the red squirrels along the top border. There is so much detail to see in this quilt that you could study it for hours.

There were so many beautiful quilts to see, but I can only show a fraction of them here.

After a tasty lunch in the cafe, it was on to the trade stands. There were thousands of different fabrics on offer, but I resisted most of them, buying some vintage and antique kimono fabric pieces from Susan Briscoe's stand. This talented author and teacher is holding courses in Edinburgh and Hartburn in the next few months. Details can be found on her website.

I also bought bronze-coloured charms to use on some 'Prayer Flag Brooches' that I am planning to make. Very sweet, miniature keys, a feather, a wolf, a spider, some bells and beads etc.

A fun - if tiring - day out was had by all :o)

Holiday in Yorkshire - September 2017 - Days 3 - 4

Rob and I went to Sutton Bank to walk Brock on Sunday, while Mum and Dad decided to explore the village at Askham Bryan.

The views range over the Vale of Mowbray and the Vale of York. There is a visitor centre, cafe and bike hire available near the car park.

Afterwards we drove to nearby Thirsk, where we had lunch in The Lord Nelson pub, and bought delicious yellow plums from an excellent greengrocers, and some food for dinner. The pub did not have any vegetarian choices on the menu, but the helpful landlady arranged for a plate of 'Sunday Lunch' vegetables with vegetarian gravy for both, and a Yorkshire Pudding for Rob. The bar area is dog-friendly.

On Monday we took my parents to Harrogate, parking in the multi-story car park next to the green - an ideal area to walk Brock. We had a look around the shops, buying postcards and food for dinner from M&S, and had a very good coffee and cake in the independent Starling Coffee Shop. Mum and Dad treated us to lunch in Wagamama's. The restaurant now has a separate gluten free menu, which made ordering much easier for me. We all enjoyed our food, which was brimming with fresh vegetables, spices and flavour - Thai fusion-style - with noodles or rice. Mum and Rob had the fresh juices, which were delicious. It was fairly quiet and we had a window seat, so it was a relaxing atmosphere with a good view of the busy street.

We drove on to Knaresborough next, parking up near the castle. The view is quite breathtaking with the Victorian viaduct, River Nidd and black and white checked building housing Mother Shipton's Cave ("England's oldest visitor attraction" - opened in 1630!).

 

After a look around the town and an ice cream, it was a leisurely drive back to Askham Bryan to eat our MandS curries with rice, and desserts for dinner! 

Holiday In Yorkshire - Day 6 - Knaresborough and Harrogate

We had a very pleasant walk along Abbey Road in Knaresborough, along by the River Nidd.

Some of the lovely riverside houses in Knaresborough.

There were three carved tree stumps along the route of the walk; the work of chainsaw sculptor Tommy Craggs of Consett, County Durham. A kingfisher (above) ...

 a green man...

an owl eyeing a mouse.

The walk reaches a medieval hermit's (Saint Robert's) cave, then doubles back through woodland and so back to the town centre.

We had a walk around the ruined castle, then stopped for very good coffees and cake at The Moat Buttery, a cafe overlooking the castle. We were able to sit outside for the first time this year - it was almost too hot.

A view of the Victorian railway viaduct, seen from near the castle. A history of Knaresborough by Alyson Jackson can be found here.

It was a downhill trek to the car park, and then we drove on to Harrogate. Having covered 3.5 miles in the morning, Brock had a little 'rest' in the car while Rob and I went off to Wagamama for lunch.
I had their new warm salad with tofu, little gem lettuce, roasted vegetables and nuts. The dressing was replaced with Tamari to make it GF. Rob had the Yasai Chilli Men with noodles and a side order of Japanese pickles. We both had a vegetable juice: Rob's had tomato, carrot, orange and apple in it; mine was apple, mint, celery and lime. They were both delicious, as was the food.

We sidled straight off to Hoxton North for excellent coffees, and Rob had a flapjack. We bought a big bag of coffee beans of the same blend to enjoy at home, then had a happy hour looking round the many interesting shops.

Much later that evening, my brother Philip came back to the cottage at Askham Bryan to join us for dinner at the Nag's Head. Philip had scampi and chips, I had cheese and onion omelet and chips and Rob had lentil and mash pie. Philip and Rob had lemon cheesecake for pudding, and I had banana split. The food was superb once again - everything homemade and locally sourced, where possible. Highly recommended! The only way it could be improved, as far as we are concerned, is to serve more vegetarian food, with gluten free options.