Festival of Quilts
Showing posts with label Festival of Quilts. Show all posts
🎟 ticket giveaway 🎟 (& a bit of a catch up...)
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You of course know that The Festival of Quilts is Europe’s leading patchwork and quilting event, and this year’s event offers some spectacular highlights, including work by internationally-acclaimed artists Michael A. Cummings and Danny Amazonas, African-American Quilts from the Cargo Collection at the International Quilt Museum, and quilts from the Roderick Kiracofe Collection. There will be 700 competition quilts, an extensive programme of workshops, Academy classes, talks and lectures, 200+ specialist craft retailers, and a Product Stage offering top tips and advice from brand ambassadors, experts and quilting VIPs.
Last time I visited was in 2019 and it's always so fun, meeting up with friends, viewing the quilts and of course shopping ;)
If you've never been, I highly recommend it. Wear comfy shoes, take some bags with you for purchases and, if you can, visit for more than just one day.
festival of quilts 2019
I spent two days at the Festival of Quilts this year and it was fully all about friends for me. It's like a quilty friend reunion and this post is going to be unashamedly about the people I met and the friends I saw... with quilts and cool finds interspersed throughout. If you are looking for a blog post featuring all the beautiful quilts that were on display, this isn't it (sorry). You will certainly find pictures of all the quilts on social media, like here.
Friday
After a fun road trip down with my friends Michelle and Rachel we arrived in Birmingham (a bit later than expected thanks to traffic) on Friday and I went straight to find my friend Nicky. She made this amazing Expanding Universe Quilt with signature blocks from quilters that have contributed to Siblings Together.
My block is a cornerstone in the top right of the quilt but I'm too short to properly point at it. Cue the first of many friend selfies...
Next on my to do was visit my colleagues and friends at the Janome stand and of course to see the awesomeness that is this quilted jacket made by talented Lucy Engels.
I am madly in love with every aspect of this, the colours, the collar and cuffs, the log cabins and the texture of the quilting. It's the only quilted garment I've ever truly wanted to wear!
I also had to visit my friend Charlotte, we have known each other since we were in an online quilting bee ages ago and it's always nice to catch up. We also compared bee tattoos and I admired her beautiful bee dress!
festival of quilts 2018
Festival of Quilts is probably the highlight of the year for quilters in the UK. It's a chance to showcase talent and be inspired by the amazing display of quilts, an opportunity to meet up with friends and of course shop all the wonderful stalls and stands.
I have to admit I wasn't going to attend this year. I hadn't arranged to go with anyone, I was working Friday-Sunday and I've been so busy that it seemed almost impossible to take time off. And then there's my anxiety, no small thing but it makes it very easy to convince myself to stay at home. Later on I will explain why I chose to go but I am SO glad that I did. In fact next year I might try and attend every day if I can find a way to wangle it! (Shout if anyone needs me to work a stand!).
Last year I was in full blogger mode, taking pictures of lots of quilts and my very important reason for going was to meet my quilting guru and friend Clare. Read about that here.
This year was very different and I'm going to share what made it great for me. Firstly I ran into Di on the long walk to the festival hall, it was awesome to see someone I love and be able walk and talk together, she even treated me to a coffee before we went in!
Next I made a decision just to experience the day, only photographing things if I really felt like it, rather than trying to capture everything. I'm so glad I did that. Phone down, eyes up.
Festival of Quilts 2016
What a day!! I had so much fun, meeting up with lovely quilty friends and pottering around the Festival of Quilts. It's such a huge exhibition, I really wish I could spend more than one day there but I packed in as much as possible!
There was SO many quilts on display - if you can I would encourage you to visit the show or at least check out social media or other blogs so you can see more! Here are just a few of the beautiful quilts that caught my eye:
The Talent Show by Jane Hill
Colour: An Exploded View by Jennifer Letchet
Abacus by Hannah Gravett
details of Atom by Brenda Sanders
Warholian Cabbages by Nicholas Ball
Needles and Thread by Mary Mayne
detail of Needles and Thread by Mary Mayne
Development Opportunity by Chris English
Off-centre Medallion by Jo Avery
X Doesn't Mark the Spot by Nicholas Ball and Trudi Wood
Yellow Signs by Ramona Conconi
Antique quilt - part of the Kaffe Fassett gallery
Crepuscular by Lynn Carson Harris
Beautiful printed fabric and art work by Penelope Jeffries
La Passacaglia by Nicola Howard Hobbs
Map Wilanow (District of Warsaw) by Anna Slawinska
A Beach Story by Tatyana Duffie
Forget-me-not by Amanda Ogden
detail of Forget-me-not by Amanda Ogden
Carousel by Clare O'Rourke
detail of Carousel by Clare O'Rourke
Priory Squared by Trudi Wood and Trudi herself!
detail of Priory Squared by Trudi Wood
detail of Penny My Daughter by Belinda Jeffries
detail of Penny My Daughter by Belinda Jeffries
And some funny pictures of these crazy ladies!!
Helen @indiannadreams, Trudi @trudi_wood, Angela @heartofcharnwood, Nicky @nickyeglinton and me @charmaboutyou!
(next time we need to get a selfie Moira!!)
(next time we need to get a selfie Moira!!)
I will be back to show you what I got (only a couple of bits, but they are good!) and the most wonderful gift from my friend Nicky... as soon as I have recovered!
**If I have included your work and you would prefer me to remove it please let me know! I did ask permission from artists when I could.
FoQ, friends and a Japanese scrap giveaway!
** THE GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED**
I think there's nothing better than meeting blog friends in real life... unless maybe you meet them at the Festival of Quilts and you get on with them even more than you thought.
I was lucky enough to meet up with the lovely Nat on Saturday in Birmingham. We literally spent so much time talking that we didn't see everything at the festival and I VERY nearly missed my train home - I had to rudely jump up and rush off - sorry Nat!! She was so wonderful and easy to talk to it was great fun.
We agreed to make our unborn babies little gifts and I was thrilled when I saw the beautiful owl hat she crocheted for me. Truly adorable!
For the pattern details and even better pictures, see Nat's post.
I made her a Buddy Rabbit from the book Dare to be Square by Boo Davis. I love this little guy and thanks to my friend Michala for suggesting it when I was thinking about what to make.
I used a cute, soft green gingham flannel for the main body and scraps for the tummy. I am so pleased she liked it :)
I have no pictures from the festival (so sorry Hadley!). I was enjoying the company of Susan, Nicky, Laura, Katy (Laura and Katy were both working super hard on the stands but it was nice to chat briefly) and Nat too much :)
I suggest looking at Susan's post for a glimpse at some of the quilts and a funny picture of Nicky and me and Nat with our bumps.
I did of course make some purchases...
I got a couple of lovely Liberty fat quarters - I have plans to make a red quilt and very little red fabrics!! So this is a good start:
A handy triangle ruler from Creative Grids:
And a two scrap bags of Japanese fabrics from The Eternal Maker. In fact there were so many in there that I thought I'd share and have a little giveaway:
You get all this! A couple are quite small scraps but great for paper piecing or little crafting accents, most of them are bigger than you see in this overlapping picture.
You get two chances to win:
**SORRY THE GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED**
- leave a comment telling me your favourite thing to do with scraps
- followers of Charm About You get a second entry, use the buttons on the left to subscribe by email/RSS/GFC and just leave a comment telling me you have or do already!
**If you are a no reply blogger please include your email address in the comment - if there is no way to contact you the entry will not count**
The winner will be chosen on Friday 24th August by Mr random.org
Also make sure you stop by on Saturday because I'll be having yet another giveaway as part of the Quilter's Gallery Blog Hop!
Linking up:
I think there's nothing better than meeting blog friends in real life... unless maybe you meet them at the Festival of Quilts and you get on with them even more than you thought.
I was lucky enough to meet up with the lovely Nat on Saturday in Birmingham. We literally spent so much time talking that we didn't see everything at the festival and I VERY nearly missed my train home - I had to rudely jump up and rush off - sorry Nat!! She was so wonderful and easy to talk to it was great fun.
We agreed to make our unborn babies little gifts and I was thrilled when I saw the beautiful owl hat she crocheted for me. Truly adorable!
For the pattern details and even better pictures, see Nat's post.
I made her a Buddy Rabbit from the book Dare to be Square by Boo Davis. I love this little guy and thanks to my friend Michala for suggesting it when I was thinking about what to make.
I used a cute, soft green gingham flannel for the main body and scraps for the tummy. I am so pleased she liked it :)
I have no pictures from the festival (so sorry Hadley!). I was enjoying the company of Susan, Nicky, Laura, Katy (Laura and Katy were both working super hard on the stands but it was nice to chat briefly) and Nat too much :)
I suggest looking at Susan's post for a glimpse at some of the quilts and a funny picture of Nicky and me and Nat with our bumps.
I did of course make some purchases...
I got a couple of lovely Liberty fat quarters - I have plans to make a red quilt and very little red fabrics!! So this is a good start:
A handy triangle ruler from Creative Grids:
And a two scrap bags of Japanese fabrics from The Eternal Maker. In fact there were so many in there that I thought I'd share and have a little giveaway:
You get all this! A couple are quite small scraps but great for paper piecing or little crafting accents, most of them are bigger than you see in this overlapping picture.
You get two chances to win:
**SORRY THE GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED**
**If you are a no reply blogger please include your email address in the comment - if there is no way to contact you the entry will not count**
The winner will be chosen on Friday 24th August by Mr random.org
Also make sure you stop by on Saturday because I'll be having yet another giveaway as part of the Quilter's Gallery Blog Hop!
Linking up:
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