Having a great show so far!

Yesterday was just about the busiest day we've ever had since we started DesignMatters ten years ago. After setting up the stand at Festival of Quilts on Wednesday we went home really weary but we returned bright and early on Thursday morning to check if all our goodies looked as tempting as we remembered from the night before! It's always amazing to see how you can transform an empty space with a van load of fabrics, threads, books and quilts! Here you can see Laura and I putting a few finishing touches to the stand before the doors were opened.

We were soon surrounded by eager visitors to the show. Laura was booked to deliver the first teaching session of the day and so she disappeared off to the Husqvarna stand. Her class was sold out and we heard everyone enjoyed themselves. After the class finished she had hardly been back on our stand for any time at all when the two of us had to run up to the first floor where the seminar suites are. We gave a lecture called With Hand and Heart to a pleasingly large and attentive audience. As soon as that was over there was no time to relax because we needed to rush over to the Hilton Hotel for rehearsals for the evening fashion show.

The hair and make up ladies worked tirelessly to make us look our best! Here I am having major work including false eyelashes complete with feathered tips. You can see a glimpse of my Daywear dress and waistcoat with quilted collar and a feathered pin.

Laura's makeover was even more dramatic - I'm used to seeing her in jeans, T-shirts and trainers so I scarcely recognised this vision of glamour!

From the expressions on her face it seems my sister Maureen was also surprised by Laura's new hairdo!

We'd been working in isolation for weeks so we were understandably curious to see what the rest of the designers had created for the show. We weren't disappointed. There were some extraordinary garments!

Teams from three countries were involved in the competition, Russia, Ireland and the UK. Some were having a wonderful time getting dressed and made up whilst others were as nervous as I was but Laura rose to the occasion and loved the atmosphere, the lights, the music and the big screens!

This was our outfit for the evening dress category - a full length dress with five layers of airbrushed organza and chiffon topped with a quilted boddice and cropped, quilted jacket. She's carrying the accessory, a quilted and digitally embroidered bag made from the same old quilt as the dress and jacket.

We have lots of pictures of the other outfits we made but it's been a long day and since tomorrow promises to be just as busy I'm off to bed now. It's been great to meet so many of you at festival this year but if you can't get there to see us in person I'll make sure to post more pictures very soon!

Thanks for visiting - Linda