Just over a year ago I moved to Kent from County Durham and over these months, I have been getting to know my new county, including (this weekend), Lullingstone Castle.
This is the venue for Lullingstone Quilt & Craft Festival. The ‘Quilt’ part is The Quilters’ Guild Region 2 quilt show. Above is the gatehouse, which was built, along with the house (pictured below) in 1497. The house has been inhabited by the same family since that time. The current owners, Sarah and Tom Hart Dyke give permission of the event to take place at their home and garden. It’s a spectacular venue. You can see the marquees which housed the crafts event and the quilt show in the photo below.
Beautiful quilts for sale (for charitable purposes) were hung outside the marquee on the left, providing a colourful welcome.
Having explored the craft and the fabric traders area, I made for the competition quilts. These were all hung on large wooden quilt stands, in bays of quilts, so there was colour on every side.
At the end of the tent was a splendid charity quilt ‘The Housing for Women Quilt’ consisting of 85 ten inch blocks made by many contributors during the Covid period 2020-21, the whole project coordinated by Alison Scrimshaw. You can learn more about the charity, which is based in Brixton, London using this link: https://www.hfw.org.uk There is a link on the front page of the website to find out more about the quilt.
I am a member of the Contemporary Quilt Group (one of the specialist groups within The Quilters’ Guild) so of course I was particularly interested in the displays by the Contemporary Quilt Kent group members. Below are some of the quilts submitted with the theme ‘Uncharted’. (Each measured 150-200cm long by 30cm wide at the top)
I loved the colours in Janine Pound’s quilt:
Lullingstone Castle is surrounded by lovely gardens. This topiary avenue led me down towards the gateway to the World Garden.
Through the gate, pictured below, are astonishing areas of planting, each with its own sculpture, representing different parts of the world, The UK and Ireland, The Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australasia. This was literally a garden of delights.
I will include just one gem – this is a miniature (bonsai) Japanese crab-apple tree in a glazed pot on a wooden stand, in the ‘Japan’ section of the garden.
This was a good visit! For more information about Lullingstone Castle and the World Garden go to:
https://www.lullingstonecastle.co.uk/
For information about The Quilters’ Guild, go to:
https://www.quiltersguild.org.uk/
The next Lullingstone Quilt & Craft Festival will be held on 14-16 July 2023.
Amanda Jane Textiles offers unique fabrics for sale here, quilt patterns here, classes here and quilts for sale here
Here’s a summery fabric from my design collection on Spoonflower – buy it here
