Quilt shows - one event and one non-event!

Weird, huh?  Well, it's like this.  Earlier this year I made a list of all the craft, sewing, quilt, etc. shows that are scheduled to happen this year.  I Googled all the regular shows and found the dates for those, then looked for anything else that was happening.  One of the events I found was a 'Quilt In' at a suburb near me.    The write-up made it sound like a quilt show, with an admission charge, afternoon tea, and so on.  I drove over there in pouring rain yesterday, only to find that it was a gathering of the ladies of a local quilt club, who sat around and worked on their quilting projects.  I wasn't allowed in, but I could see (and hear) them all in the hall around the tables.  At a guess I would say there were about 50 people; the noise was deafening, but they all looked to be enjoying themselves.  In a side room there were two trading tables where local shops had some wares set up, so I took advantage of that and bought a cute panel with cats on it, and some machine sewing cotton.  Then I went home.

Today, the MOTH wanted to attend a chook show at the Melbourne Showgrounds on the other side of town, and as friends of ours were taking some chooks along to show, I decided it sounded like fun.  Not only that, the female partner of said friends told me there was a quilt show at the Showgrounds too, so we took off on our own as soon as the blokes got busy with the chooks!  This event wasn't actually a show of quilts, but a gathering of businesses who are in the patchwork and quilting trade, so there were a lot of quilts on display, but they were to show what the traders were selling.  The event is called Mad Quilters Gathering, and if you click on that link it will explain better than I can!  Sadly for the organisers, it was not very well advertised, so they didn't have big crowds there.  The weather was against them too - it was bitterly cold  with heavy rain most of the day, and the Showgrounds are not a good place to be when it is like that, as the Pavilions, despite having been re-built in recent years, are mostly used for livestock shows, and are huge and unheated.  But the traders' misfortune was our good luck, as it was great to be able to browse through the hall without being pushed and shoved by crowds, the way one is with the big craft events at the Exhibition Buildings in Melbourne.
I did a little shopping: five rolls of sewing machine cotton,

 A metre of fabric with vintage trains - one for the boys in my life!

 This was a freebie.  We were watching the lady make these on her stand - she was gluing little squares of fabric or paper on to a grid, then placing a template over the grid and cutting out the shape so it turned out like this.  There is more to it than that, but I was quite intrigued, so she presented me with one that she'd finished.  Her website is http://www.paperquiltcreations.com/ - do have a look, as she has some fabulous designs.

 I saw this magazine on another stand, and pounced on it, as I'd been trying to obtain a copy for some time.  I'd been told that there was a write up in this issue, about my linen display at Bundoora Homestead next month.  When I picked it up and started looking through it the lady manning the stand (Deborah) asked what I was looking for, and I told her.  "You must be Gina! Did you get my email?" she asked.  I'd emailed them to ask if I could buy a copy of the magazine direct from the publisher, but didn't get a reply.   Deborah was upset to hear that I didn't get any response, as she says she did reply to me.  So she told me to take a copy with me today - how nice was that! 

 There are TWO write ups in it about my display!