Trip to Calico Christmas Quilt Show.

This is not the post I intended to do next, but as things property wise have been time consuming and moving so slowly, that can wait. Heartfelt Thanks to all of you who sent me messages to ease my "transition of thought" about moving.

As I knew I had paid my money some time ago, to go on our club's bus trip yesterday I worked extra hours to get the 2nd round of Kiwifruit crush tipping finished last week.

Yesterday I got up at sparrow's fart to be at my collection point along the way to join 43 other women hell bent of having a great day out! It was 3 and3/4 hours travel each way as we had a coffee and comfort stop included. That left just over 4 hours to see it all. See what you ask. Calico Christmas is the Auckland Patchwork and Quilters Guild Inc. Annual Show held this time north of Auckland at the Harbour Function Centre at Albany. Just so much to see and not enough time. I realised later I missed one whole floor of display, but went around as much as I could. I think there was nearly 1000 quilts in all the displays and then of course the merchants, were all there; 44 I see when I re read my catalogue this morning. That's a lot of looking and jostling. After lunchtime the crowd thinned for a while and things were easier. Taking photos was really tricky as folk walked in front or knocked my arm so I actually didn't take the usual number. Well how do you decide out of all those quilts. In the end I have some photos of ideas that I might take further or really caught my eye for what ever reason. Many of the quilt displays were in amongst or right beside the shops and that was a bit tricky. ( there is one photo here of the general crowd, no one I know but it shows that girls of all ages were doing the rounds)

The other photos show a 3 panel ( triptych ) hanging by Chizuko Hoy( I think ) of New Zealand Coastal Fish, which were really identifiable. Slice of Heaven - 747 by Marie Harrison shows an imaginative use of tumbling blocks. I'm not sure who made the very simple Japanese style quilt which I loved for it's simplicity, colour use and horizontal and vertical short rows of hand quilting.( I may show some more quilts in a future post )

As well as many nibbles and spot prizes( I won a tube of Frangipani hand cream ) on the bus we had show and tell. Shelley knelt in the aisle and quizzed everyone and held purchases up and some were passed around. We all bought totally different things, nobody had to be thrown off the bus for not buying anything; and the prize went to a lady( not from our club - but a friend and quilter), who bought a new Janome sewing machine and a swift quilter! The sewing machine was not pre meditated . We all laughed when we asked, "How will you break that to your husband?" "Oh I don't have one of those any more, " she said...."But I did just spend some of the money I was saving for a new kitchen!"
I think you can tell this outing did me a power of good. That shot of some lovely purple and black and gold fat quarters are mine along with a couple of magazines and some beads ( a really good buy ) for a gift. We were also delighted to be able to get really lovely reasonably priced food for a quick lunch.
For part of the journey I sat beside an older member of our group who I don't know well at all and we were very compatible and now know lots about each other. Some folk will only sit with friends but I think it is great to move and spend time with different folk, especially some of the quieter ones. I arrived home tired so some of the senior members would have been exhausted I imagine but a good day was had by all. No mishaps of any sort! We were all very mindful of some awful news we had just learnt. The lady who owns my local ( quilt shop ) was on a short holiday with her husband in Paris to see the All Blacks, and she stepped off the metro and collapsed on the platform having had a massive bleed in her brain. After 3 ops she is now in an induced coma to try and keep her head from moving to stop any more bleeds. She is only 40 something. She is getting wonderful care; but so far from home. So ladies try and enjoy every moment you have.( and always take Travel Insurance )