Visit to North Kyme

[Hannelore N.]

The weather here is the UK was glorious today - brilliant sunshine. Weather like that is perfect for the bi-annual quilt exhibition at North Kyme, because the quilts are in the church and refreshments are in the village hall, so it's great if you don't get wet walking between the two locations. I love the show in North Kyme, together with the Moulton one (also in Lincolnshire, also in a very small village), they are my favourite small quilt exhibitions. There is always a super variety of quilts and other textile pieces, and the ladies who run these events make everybody very welcome.

At least two of the North Kyme Quilters are also members of TQS, Joan and Mary. I ran into Joan before I even got out of the car, and I managed to have a really long chat with Mary (thanks for the coffee and biscuit!).

The church is tiny and very beautiful.


The entrance door had a gorgeous arrangement of real twigs and branches with beautiful fabric flowers on each side, a great way to make you want to go inside and look at more.





More pictures tomorrow. It's getting late, so I better get some sleep.

Lorchen

[Hannelore N.]

Thanks for sharing Lorchen. I would love to visit England some day. My ancestors are from Bardwell, Suffolk. Need to save my pennies. We also want to go to Ireland and hope to make one big trip. Your photos look beautiful.

[Margo C.]

What fun "flowers"!!

[Rita C.]

Those flowers look great Lorchen. The church is so cute and a rare blue sky behind it. More photos please!

[Hannelore N.]

Rita, your wish is my command!

The little church was so full of beautiful quilts and other textile pieces that it was impossible to get a good overall picture.


Here in the UK we have the same controversy between traditional quilts and art quilts as you have in the US. Some of the bigger shows have more and more textile art these days, and traditional quilting is in decline..... Until you look at the grass roots. In the small local quilt groups traditional quilting is very much alive, as you can see in the next two pictures. I had a chat with one of the ladies who said: 'I learned making traditional quilts first and loved it. I then tried more artistic designs. I don't think I could have succeeded without the skills and the disciplin of the traditional quilt designs. Now I happily hop from one to the other, enjoying both.' (All I can say to that: 'Amen!')





Part three will come soon, Rita!

[Hannelore N.]

The bright sunlight streaming in through the church windows made this crazy quilt really sparkle.


The owner of this little (about 6x6) thread-painted bird is lucky that I was able to restrain myself. I would have looooved to take him/her/it home with me.


A very attractive cover for an A4 size folder.

[Hannelore N.]

Liz Hands's response to 9/11


The face is constructed from layers of sheer fabrics. Click on the picture to see more detail.


A very cheerful Christmas table.

[Hannelore N.]

For all you doll lovers! I spotted this little lady sitting very prettily on top of the fond. I guess she would be about 14 inches high when standing up. The red cross stitch is beautiful and reminds me very much of the embroidered household linen I grew up with when visiting my maternal grandmother (East-German by borth, but with Polish, Czech, and Hungarian ancestry).





Mmmmhhh.... I bet at least one cat lives at this quilter's home!

[Hannelore N.]

And finally.... I know most of us complain about the weather, but yesterday it was sooooo bright and sunny that even inside the church it was impossible to take decent pictures of some of the quilts. But if you were there in person the light was wonderful.

So this it it till 2014. I hope that the lovely quilters of "A Stitch in Kyme" will send me an email again before the big event so that I can go and have another wonderful day.

[Norma H.]

Lorchen, thank you so much for sharing all these beautiful quilts.

[Beverly C.]

What wonderful pictures! I love small shows too, because you don't get overwhelmed with huge selections to view. I'd love to meet the owner of the thread painted bird - a fun person, I bet! And I'd hope she'd do one for me too!

[Margo C.]

Lorchen, thank you so much for sharing this delightful show with us! Such variety! Love the bird, and the 9-11 quilt is amazing and the applique quilt just sings to me! THANKS!

[Lorna B.]

I did make it to North Kyme Saturday afternoon to see the quilt show in the lovely little church. On the fence in front of the church they hung a strings of quilt blocks. It was easy to know that I was in the right place. That and it was the only steeple in this little town. The quilts were all wonderful as Lorchen's pictures show. My favorite piece was actually cross stitched. The center was a Kingfisher bird and around that were other birds and flowers from the UK. It is such a pretty bird with it's blue back and red breast. Just a couple weeks ago, I had finally spied one on the river behind my house. Over at the Village Hall I bought a fat quarter. My goal is to collect a green fat quarter from each shop and show I attend here in the UK and in the end will make a quilt to mark my time here. It was a perfect sunny day for a drive through the very green country side. It is so different than the drought stricken brown of south central Texas where I came from.

[Margo C.]

Lorna, I love the idea of a fat quarter odyssey!

[karen f.]

Oh the pictures are wonderful Lorchen! I like seeing the church as much as the quilts. What a unique and lovely quilt show. Thanks for sharing it.