Wrexham Quilting Circle and Gresford Craft Group exhibitions - this week

I spent yesterday with friends from Wrexham Quilting Circle and Gresford Craft Group at their annual exhibitions, which run in Gresford at the same time.  The quilting exhibition is in the Memorial Hall while the craft group exhibition is in All Saints Church. The hall was completed around 1999 while the church is over 500 years old, so as two venues there couldn't be a greater contrast.

 

I joined the craft group in 1996 - the quilt group didn't start until after the new hall was built.  We used to meet in this room in Church House, an eighteenth century school building opposite the church.  This has been renovated in recent years and the room where we used to meet has quite a different feeling, although the original wall panelling has been preserved.  It feels so much lighter and brighter than I remember it.  The room through the double doors used to be the kitchen, but there's a modern kitchen on the other side of the building.  During the exhibition, it is set up as a temporary cafe.

 

The church looked wonderful full of quilts and other crafts - many craft group members are quilters, as well as the members of Quilting Circle and there's some overlap between the two groups.  It is easier to display larger quilts in the church.

 

Every year, there are guest exhibitions too.  Here's beadwork by Broughton Beaders, a group set up by one of Gresford Craft Group's members Jill, who is totally hooked on beads.

 

Another guest exhibition features the beadwork and needlepoint made by Daphne Ashby.

One ticket gets you into both exhibitions for just £2.50 (under 15s are free) and there's ample parking at the Memorial Hall.  The exhibition runs daily from 10 till 8 and finishes at 6p.m. on Friday.  We usually suggest parking at the Memorial Hall and walking up to the church.  If you enter the church grounds near the fish and chip shop, you will see the most famous of Gresford's yew trees, 1600 years old.

It was the first time in several years that I've been at the exhibition, because it overlaps with the National Quilt Champsionships at Sandown Park.  I could only stay for one day as it is World Textile Day at Bridge of Allan, Stirling, on Saturday, so I'm going home for that.  But it was lovely to see all my crafting friends again.  I can't believe it is eighteen years since I joined the craft group - where does the time go?

Wrexham Quilting Circle and Gresford Craft Group's annual shows - this week

The annual exhibition runs from Tuesday to Friday this week, inclusive.  I won't be there, as we are travelling down south for the National Quilt Championships at Sandown Park (Friday to Sunday), and have to set up there on Thursday.  But my red and white quilt shown above will be, and you can have a chance to win it as we are raffling it to raise funds for the Quilt Museum at York.  The raffle will be drawn on the second Wednesday in December 2012, so there's plenty of time to get tickets if you can't get to the exhibition in Gresford - I'll have them at Festival of Quilts and (perhaps!) at Sandown Park next weekend. Here's the info about the Gresford exhibition, quoted from Val Shields on the QGBI Yahoo! group chat list -

I have had a number of phonecalls querying the opening hours published in
the recent NW Newsletter! An unfortunate typo says we do not open until
the afternoons - quite wrong! The more computer savvy have checked with
the Guild website and others have seen the correct details in various
magazines where we have Diary entries. The church closes at 8pm, WQC
remains open until 8.30 but both will shut at 6pm on Friday. Both venues
open each day at 10.30am

The weather forecast is not good but we hope lots of you will be able to
visit our two exhibitions: a wide variety of crafts (including quilts,
incluing the Meercats) in church, across the road in Church House we have
refreshments, tombola and plants. A few hundred yards away (but with much
better parking), in the Memorial Hall you will find Dot and her goodies, a
stand selling goods made by Gresford members and further along the corridor
the Wrexham Quilting Circle Display. Don't miss Jenny Hewer's delightful
bed with three mattresses, countless quilts, princess and faithful hound. I
am not sure about the pea! Her grand-daughter is a very lucky little
girl. 

We shall also be selling tickets there for the quilt, Fanoe, which
Susan Briscoe has donated to raise funds for the Quilt Museum in York. It
was on the front cover of a recent issue of Fabrications. We shall have it
on display.

We also have a quilt made for Lady Baden-Powell, then Chief Guide, in the
thirties and embroidered in Morse code.

If you have never visited Gresford before, we live in a charming village
with a beautiful ancient church. A daring vicar, new to the village in
1987, broke new ground by inviting us to show our work in the mediaeval
church in 1988 and we have exhibited there every June since then. The
Memorial Hall and Wrexham Quilting Circle are both younger.

Val Shields.

Gresford Craft Group and Wrexham Quilting Circle Exhibition

A message from Val Shields of Gresford Craft Group -

Gresford Summer Shows will be happening - our 30th year! - in the usual two venues of the Parish Church and the Memorial Hall from Tuesday 15th - Friday 18th June - LL12 8PS.

Check out the website here.

I won't be at the exhibition (it clashes with the National Quilt Championships) but some of my quilts will be. I am planning to enter "Butterfly Dance" in the Craft Group exhibition in the church (as it is rather large for the lower ceiling in the Memorial Hall), plus other quilts that were at the Great Northern Quilt Show last September (excluding my "Lulea Blockhus"quilt, unless I can collect it from Teesside) . Debbie Gordon is going to show her lovely version of the "Masu" quilt in the autumn colours (photo in the previous link), probably in the Quilting Circle part of the exhibition. I should also enter the pinwheel quilt I made last year, that was featured in Popular Patchwork, as it hasn't appeared at Gresford yet.

Gresford Craft Group & Wrexham Quilting Circle's 2009 exhibition

Gresford Craft Group and Wrexham Quilting Circle's annual exhibition will be open from Tuesday 16th - Friday 19th June 2009 (the photo above shows part of the 2005 exhibition in the church). I asked organiser Val Shields for up to date info re visiting and she writes -

"Opening is 10.30 - 8.30, Tues - Thurs, 10.30 - 6 on Friday. Admission is £2.50 which covers both venues and the programme is 50p for those who want one. Parking is better at the Memorial Hall and the walk is pretty level along the High Street to the Church. There are fewer car parking spaces this year around the church due to some 'improvements' and a partial one-way system past the school. "

This year, Dot Sherlock's Quilters Needs shop will be at the Memorial Hall, which is where the Wrexham Quilting Circle part of the exhibition is held. In previous years, many people have parked here and started with the quilting exhibition, as parking facilities are definitely better. It also makes sense to start there if you are coming by bus, as it is only a few hundred yards from the middle of the village. Church House has been renovated and it sounds pretty amazing, with lots of changes, but you'll have to see it for yourself!

My Kamon Sampler quilt and the Kasuri Sampler, both from "Japanese Quilt Blocks to Mix and Match", will be on display in the church. I have also promised them my Sakiori bolster cushion from "Japanese Sashiko Inspirations".


"Kyoto Dreams" and "O-neesan" will be in the Wrexham Quilting Circle exhibition. These were finished last year but haven't been exhibited at Gresford before, as they both went straight out to Peaceful Heart Quilt Group's exhibition in Japan.


The workshop samples for my two Summer Sunday workshops will also be with the Wrexham Quilting Circle exhibition and there will be booking information available.

Unfortunately, this is the third year that our exhibition has clashed with the National Quilting Championships at Sandown Park, Esher, Surrey. Although it doesn't clash for anyone wanting to visit both exhibitions (the only day they are both open is the Friday), I need to deliver quilts in Surrey on the Tuesday afternoon and set my display up on the Thursday, so I can't be at Gresford as well...

"Quilts in Common" and "Patchwork in the Parlour" at the Quilt Museum, York

Today we visited the Quilt Museum, York, to see the two new exhibitions - sorry there aren't photos of these, but there are lots of clickable links below! Thanks very much to Val Shields of Gresford Craft Group for organising the coach - also for the photo above.


"Quilts in Common" is a touring exhibition from the International Quilt Study Centre, Lincoln, Nebraska, and "Patchwork in the Parlour" from the Quilters' Guild of the British Isles' own collection.

The Nine Patch Strippie quilt was probably my favourite from "Quilts in Common".

The IQSC Object Number is 1997.007.0752 - use this link to go to the search page http://www.quiltstudy.org/discover/search.html and enter the object number (with the full stops/points in the right places) in the correct box at the bottom of the "advanced search" section. That will find it! (I tried putting a normal link straight to the results page here, but it stopped working.) It seems more indigo in real life - the online photo looks more brown. The slightly misaligned blocks gave it a great charm.

There is a free colour guide for the exhibition available at the museum shop, which was very useful, and a catalogue to buy. Not all the quilts in the catalogue are featured in the current exhibition (antique quilts can only be hung for so long at a time before needing a rest) so it is a bonus to see other quilts included in this - plus, turn it over for the catalogue for Nancy Crow's "Cloth, Culture and Context" (not shown at York, but here is Nancy Crow's website for you to browse). And of course, it is possible to view the exhibition quilts again once you get home via the "search" function on the IQSC website.

Both exhibitions are well worth a visit. No photography for these antique textiles is as would be expected, so remember to pack some graph paper, both square and isometric (and hexagon paper, downloadable here from the wonderful Lizard of Oz (mostly) English Paper Piecing website) for taking notes! Plenty of inspiration for both the traditional and contemporary quilter.

We also visited The Miniature Scene, a fantastic dollshouse shop in the city, where I bought some a brick-effect stencil and materials for some of my miniature projects (like the 1/12th scale quilt shop that I've been working on for a couple of years - more about that another time!)