Pussy cat, pussy cat where have you been?

I have been to London to visit...the V&A Quilts 1700-2010. And to Nantes for Pour l'Amour du Fil and to Veldhoven for the Open European Quilt Championships. Oh it was wonderful! A feast for the eyes and lots of stunning quilts.

Before starting to describe my adventures and the wonders I saw in the V&A I would like to say to my 'almost' fellow travellers from the Quilts Down Under's "Quilts & Flowers" Tour - I am so sad that you missed out on a truly delightful trip. Of the 16 booked for the holiday, 13 were stranded in Australia due to a little volcano in Iceland that decided to erupt and fill the northern hemisphere with volcanic ash that subsequently shut down air traffic. However there were 3 lucky souls (Bev, Irene and myself) who had travelled to London in advance for personal reasons and so the tour was on! All 3 of us became Tour Director as well as Tourist. The next 14 days were to prove to be full of fun and challenges as we arranged and booked alternative transportation to France and connected with our guides and drivers at the various locations on the trip.

I am going to divide the trip into 3 separate posts, the first stop the V&A.

The V&A exhibition was everything I expected and more. Beautiful quilts, and related items such as needle cases, pin cushions and installations that included audio extracts from recorded oral histories of women employed to make quilts by the Women's Institution and Rural Industries Board in the early 20th century.

Sadly, there are no photos to post as photography was not permitted. However I am sure many of you have read Janet's many posts at http://aquiltersjournal.blogspot.com/ where she was one of the very lucky ones to attend the press preview and allowed to take photos. I also thoroughly recommend the book that accompanied the exhibition - Quilts 1700-2010: Hidden Histories, Untold Stories. My personal favourite of all of the wonderful exhibits, the 17th century bed hangings made from chintzs and ribbon in an all-over clam shell design. I spent ages looking at each shell, the fabrics used and the quality of the workmanship. The fabrics are still as bright today as when first sewn together; the ribbon used to divide the clam shells into sections retains its vibrant poison green. Just stunning!

The V&A, as ever when holding special exhibitions, produced a raft of products (this time with a quilting theme) for sale in the museum shop. These included a series of limited edition fabrics. Sadly there was not enough room in my suitcase for all of them so I limited my purchase to just a few. Aren't they rather lovely?


After London, it was off to France via the Eurostar to Paris and then a local train to Nantes. Nantes was the location of Pour l'Amour du Fil, an exhibition organised by the Sisterhood's favourite magazine, Quiltmania.

Just a little to tease you about what we saw, a photo of Di's Morrell Quilt on its European holiday. As you can see it was not really a holiday for the quilt, lots of hard work hanging up there for all to see.


Until next time,

Meghan