Oh Happy Days......

A couple of weeks or so ago, I was lucky enough to win a ticket to The Festival of Quilts, when the lovely Janet ( janetclare.co.uk )was hosting a giveaway. I was so excited, as I NEVER win anything, and had also resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn't be able to attend the festival this year.
Then reality hit The Soon To Be Husband, that he'd be car-less for the day.....followed swiftly by reality hitting The Son, that he'd be stuck in for the day....I'll pause for a moment while you imagine the mithering......
It was at this moment that I had one of my moments of Sheer Genius (I don't get them very often, so I DO try to make the most of them). Football! The Festival is held at the NEC in Birmingham.....throw a stick from there, and you'll be bound to hit a football club or two. A quick search on the internet, showed that Aston Villa were at home to Malaga for a friendly match. Hooray for there being a match nearby. Double Hooray for it being The Soon To Be Husband's national team. Serendipity!
Fast forward a couple of weeks, and yesterday was The Day. I was dropped off and left to my own devices, to browse and linger to my heart's delight, for 6 1/2 hours. And browse and linger I did. To Olympic Gold Medallist Standard.
I made my way straight away to Stand G4, where Janet Clare had her stand, as I was keen to buy her latest book, and to see her before she went off to teach......

If you don't know Janet's work, pop over to her site, and take a look.....it's so PEACEFUL, and VERY pretty. Her work "in the flesh" is SSSOOOO neat......I'm wittering....
Book safely bagged, it was time to look at some quilts.....
This next photo shows a big winner. It won Best Amateur AND Best in Show. It's called "Thank You Father", and was HANDSTITCHED by a Japanese lady, Kyoko Yamauchi. The photos do it NO justice whatsoever.....the craftsmanship is EXQUISITE....

And look at this one, called "Little Stars" by Jean Ball. She absolutely deserved the Highly Commended award beside it....

There was also one that made me think of Loved Ones, not a million miles away, enjoying an entirely different day........

"Football Crazy" was stitched by Kathleen Moore...and made me smile.
By now, I'd walked up and down aisles for AGES and was reaching Awestruck Overload, so lunch was next on the agenda. At this point, I was feeling a teensy bit disgruntled. I follow a lovely blog called Fabadashery ( fabadashery.blogspot.com ) by Frances Meredith, and had watched her progress on a quilt called "Red and White Pinwheels". I knew from her blog, that she'd entered it into the Festival, and was really keen to see it. But I hadn't been able to find it.
I finished lunch, and trundled off again. And walked straight into this......

Yippee! And it was truly lovely.
There was a lot on offer, and I have to admit to more than my fair share of retail therapy (well, it would have been RUDE not to....)...but I think I'll save those photos for another day. This post is already quite long, and I've spotted a couple of you about to fall off your chairs in boredom. Plus the fact that we're going camping in the morning, and the packing needs to be done....back to earth with a bump.
Thanks for popping by. See you soon. Hi De Hi and all that..... xx