Well, what a wonderful weekend it was. Fantastic. Exciting.
As we turned up the drive I squealed like a dolphin on acid … (to be honest I think I started squealing just outside Brighton all the way to Milton Keynes!)
Over 1500 people visited the Bletchley Park Quilt Exhibition on the Saturday and several hundred more on the Sunday. It was packed! We had to queue to get in to Bletchley … and then we had to queue to get into the house! That queue pretty much continued all day …
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There were two main exhibitions and over 100 quilts! … The Open Category (where my baby was) which was judged with a people's choice each day, and the Secret Messages category which was judged by proper pukka Quilt Guild judges.
Any quilts in the Open Category had to have a general theme of Bletchley Park (house, buildings, history, gardens etc.) Unfortunately there were no names with any of these quilts (because of the people's vote) but I did manage to get a couple on the Sunday when I was in my stewarding role and had the white gloves on!
So, apologies if your quilt is here with no credit. Personally, I think it would have been nice to have a sheet of paper with a list of exhibitors on it, but when I brought this up with the ladies of the Quilt Guild they were not impressed. More of that another day.
For today I just want to show you the quilts that I really really loved …
Open Category
This won the people's vote on Saturday - an amazing computerised embroidery of various fab nerdy Bletchley machines …. It was absolutely stunning …
I loved this quilt to bits … I would have loved to have made it. I wanted to take it home. The detail was astounding; applique, printing, dyeing … you name it.
There were a few chenille cut quilts but this one was totally stunning.
This was my absolute favourite - hand dyed, screen printed with QR and bar codes and amazingly quilted … the back was stunning! (I can't believe I didn't get a pic of the back or the label, so I don't know who to gush at … grrr …)
This wonderful bicycles quilt won the people's vote on Sunday .. I think - it might have had a commendation, I'm so sorry, I can't remember, and it was only yesterday! (Bikes were a really important part of life at Bletchley during the war). The stitching on this was absolutely brilliant …
Oh hello … what's this ??
Yes … it's my baby … huzzah! I thought it stood up pretty well … I was just so proud that it was hanging at Bletchley. Still makes me a bit weepy!
The Secret Messages Category
Yes! From a Primary School! Really, I thought it knocked the socks off the rest of the competition!
There are more pics for another day (or maybe I'll just upload them to Flickr). But for today I'll just leave you with this piece of wonderment …
I thought it should have won outright … These teeny tiny tiny Liberty postage stamp squares had a Haiku encoded in the red and blue solid squares … Genius!
I spent hours working it out … love love love … just wonderful …
I'm half way through a process post on my quilt … and I have other things to say about my experiences at the exhibition … but that's all for another day …
My Bletchley quilt and I are curled up on the sofa … thoroughly pooped but very very happy to have taken part …
