The Festival of Quilts 2014

My goodness, how I love the Festival of Quilts!

Quilting is a crafty universe that I know very little about. I started a hand-sewn quilt when I was a student (over a decade ago) which is still a work in progress, and I've done the occasional patchwork project... but that's about it. So, why would I want to go to an event that's all about Quilts???

1. It's nice to step outside my own crafty bubble to see new and different crafty things. For me, going to the Festival of Quilts is the creative equivalent of going abroad on holiday, as the world of quilting feels like a different crafty "country" to the one I live in. It's fun to be a creative tourist and see lots of new-to-me things!

2. Not knowing much about quilts doesn't stop me from admiring ones people have made - just like how you can enjoy an art exhibition without knowing much about the history of painting or being able to paint a picture yourself. I love seeing all the different quilt styles on display and the creative textile art too. There's so much to look at and to oooh over.

3. Looking at all this amazing work by other people is very inspiring. Visiting the Festival has definitely inspired me to try more quilting (and I've even bought the fabric for a specific project which I'll hopefully be starting and blogging about soon) but I also get a lot of inspiration for non-quilty projects too. It's often the small details that I find most inspiring, like particular colour combinations and stitches.

4. The sheer enthusiasm for making things that radiates from everyone at the event is wonderful. Each time I visit I come away every year feeling like sewing is completely awesome and wanting to make lots of things.

Here are some of the quilts that caught my eye this year (and their makers).

Clockwise from top left: Judith Dahmen, Christine Mignot, Alicia Merrett & Janet Raine

Clockwise from top left: Laura Armiraglio, Anita Gogerty, Tracy Aplin & (not sure who this is by - if you know, please leave a comment!)

Left: Sylvester, Right: Ruth Parker

Left: Judith Mundwiler, Right: Chloe Redfern

Clockwise from top left: Gillian Theokritoff, Kellie Sweeney, Lesley Illingworth & Joanna Hobson

My favourite piece in this year's Festival had to be this amazing working grandfather clock. I love the whole idea of this and the details were just wonderful.

Kate Crossley

5. You can do lots of shopping! Obviously, you don't have to be a quilter to enjoy a nice bit of fabric shopping. Buying craft supplies online is great, but there's nothing quite like being able to browse in person - especially if you're trying to match particular colours.

The stalls at the Festival of Quilts don't just sell fabric and quilting supplies but lots of other things too.  Among the many supplies on offer I spotted felt, beads, buttons, cross stitch patterns and kits, yarn, handmade scissors, embroidery threads, bag making supplies, decoupage papers, carved wooden stamps, and much more. This year I did quite a bit of shopping (click to see what I bought!), but "window shopping" is fun too and you can pick up business cards along the way for shops you'd like to visit online in future.

Here are some snaps of just a teeny selection of the stalls...

Yummy fabric and other supplies at the Eternal Maker stand.

 

Pretty Liberty prints at Alice Caroline.

 

Lots of crochet goodness at TOFT Alpaca (remember I reviewed the TOFT book earlier this year? It includes the patterns for all those crocheted animals), plus textile loveliness at the Selvedge stand.

More yummy fabric at Needle & Thread, crochet & linen goodness from Namolio whose shop I've admire on Etsy for years, and quilty inspiration at the Vilene stand where I said hi to Laura of Made Peachy (who guest posted for me earlier this year).

6. And - last but by no means least - you get to meet lots of lovely, crafty people!

I had a lovely long chat with a lady on the (totally jam packed!) train to Birmingham on Saturday morning, all about how she got into quilting and what projects she'd working on at the moment, and chatted with lots of other people during the two days at the Festival as we sighed over lovely supplies we were tempted to buy and oohed over quilts.

It was great to be able to say hi to makers and sellers I know through my blog and lovely to be able to say to people making awesome things: "your work is awesome" - to actually, in person, compliment someone on their work instead of the usual slightly impersonal routine of "liking" stuff on Facebook and so on. 

I didn't recognise most of the quilt designers doing book signings, etc, but was totally thrilled to meet mega-talented fabric designer Amy Butler. She was very nice - not only sweetly answering my questions about how she got started designing fabric and how she gets the inspiration for her collections, but also asking me about my own designing and making. Lovely lady!

Amy Butler

I met up with Bridgeen (of Cherry & Cinnamon) and Chiaki (of Chiaki Creates) for a natter about making and blogging and lots of other stuff. Bridgeen had a quilt in the exhibition, which was made with fabrics she'd designed.

Bridgeen & her quilt

I also bumped into Julie from Button Button, Emma from Sew Sweet (who, like me, used to sell felt and other crafty supplies... so we had lots to chat about!) and the lovely Jen, the editor of Love Patchwork & Quilting.

Me & Jen

Aaah... so much crafty goodness. Next year's Festival is already in my diary :)

Fabric Shopping at the Festival of Quilts

On my two previous visits to the Festival of Quilts I'd just been for the day. This was lots of fun, but totally exhausting and each time I left realising that there was still a ton of stuff I'd not had a chance to see. So this year I decided to treat myself to a two day visit... which was lovely, and a lot more relaxing than the previous years, but not good news for my bank balance as I had lots more time to shop!

Here are the goodies I came home with...

 

... a roll of freezer paper, a stack of fat quarters, a mini roll of wool felt (because it's always nice to try a different range of felt), some buttons and bits, and a free copy of Love Patchwork & Quilting which made for a lovely read on my train journey home.

The roll of freezer paper is a new-to-me craft supply - it's often used by crafters when cutting out fabric and felt pieces, but I've never tried it myself. It's widely available in US grocery stores but here in the UK I've only ever seen it in online sewing shops and at quilting shows. I'm nerdishly excited about trying it out for the first time!

I also bought a few mini wooden spools, an adorable bear button and some teeny tiny acorn buttons which were part of a wonderful range of wooden buttons all the way from Hungary.

To give you an idea of scale, those mini spools are just half an inch (13 mm) high. I'm planning on using the spools to make a sewing-themed necklace and the mini acorns will probably end up as part of a woodland-themed brooch. I have no idea what I'm going to use the bear for but he was too lovely to resist (I also almost bought one of these bunny buttons - so cute!).

I don't have any specific projects in mind for any of the fabric I bought, but I've got lots of little sewing projects I want to try out so these will all be very useful additions to my currently-not-very-big fabric stash.

A pretty mini floral print by Tea & Sympathy, plus the super-cute "ABC Menagerie" from Moda.

 

A couple of stylish Cotton & Steel fabrics, plus a scrap of my favourite Liberty print.

 

Eggs and feathers from Makower's "Chicken & Egg" collection

Some kitties! Cute "Dashwood Novelties" cats and adorable little cats in jumpers, playing with balls of yarn ("Knitty Kitty" by Greta Lynn).

A couple of cotton/linen blends from Kokka - I especially love those insects!

A pair of cute Christmas designs (Makower "Christmas 2014 Mini Novelties").

 

And - last but by no means least - two yummy festive prints from Moda's Folk Holiday collection. Aren't those birds just so lovely?

I can't wait to start stitching with all these pretties... but maybe I ought to go to the Festival for just one day next year for the sake of my bank balance??

P.S. I'll be blogging about the stuff I saw at the Festival and the people I met later this week :)

Festival of Quilts: Shopping!

Of course, it is impossible to visit the Festival of Quilts and not do some shopping! I am operating on a strict "no fabric buying" policy at the moment as I need to use up my fabric stash not add to it... but I couldn't resist buying a few pretty, crafty things.

Here's me (in the turquoise blue) doing some shopping...

(Photo taken by the lovely Kirsty of LovePaperFish while she was patiently waiting for me to finish buying things!)

I bought some cute mini ric rac from The Button Company whose stall (pictured above) was so deliciously colourful...

... I've included a spool of thread in the photo so you can see just how tiny this stuff is!

I bought some on my last visit to FoQ and have really enjoyed crafting with it, it's just so cute (you can spot some on this Christmas Stocking, these Owl Ornaments & this Ribbon Card)... so I was glad to have an opportunity to stock up on some more colours.

I can't see any on their website at the moment, but you can also find lots of mini ric rac over at Paper & String (who also sells fun felt ric rac!).

I also bought some nice buttons from Textile Garden...

 ... an adorable little sheep, a tiny fish, a sweet donkey, a shiny turquoise button, and a rather cool button printed with a vintage needlework design.

I don't have a specific project in mind for any of these yet but they all simply had to come home with me! Mmm.... yummy buttons....

The Festival of Quilts 2013

I had a fun day out at The Festival of Quilts in Birmingham yesterday. I went to the festival for the first time a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it but I sadly couldn't go last year as without booking in advance the train fare was just too pricey (£60-£100 for a return from my new hometown depending on the route! Eek!). But this year I discovered that if I blagged a lift to a nearby station on a different line I could get a much more affordable ticket (just £28, hurrah!).

So, I got up early yesterday and headed for Birmingham. I met some lovely ladies who were getting the same train to the Festival which made for a very nice journey, despite a half hour wait for our connecting train :)

Then I met up with the lovely Lucie Summers & my fellow felt-obsessive Kirsty of LovePaperFish and spent the day nattering & looking at all the awesome quilty goodness (I also bumped into Charlotte at the station on the way home which was a nice surprise!).

I know next to nothing about quilting (though I am currently working on a very simple quilt that I started sewing way back when I was a student) but it's always nice to spend a day looking at pretty fabric and other crafty things. Here are a few of the quilts that caught my eye...

This quilt was so pretty, I love this mix of colours and shapes. There are a couple of great posts about the process of making of this quilt over at Little Island Quilting - HERE & HERE - with lots of yummy photos.

A fun "snail mail" -themed quilt:

Rows and rows of triangles:

 

Lots of butterflies! Did you know the collective noun for butterflies is a "kaleidoscope"? I think this quilt looks rather like a kaleidoscope:

 

A tree & a flock of birds:

A colourful dragonfly - I thought I'd leave this photo uncropped so you can see how some of the quilts were being displayed. 

A very detailed quilt made up of lots of small squares, each with a little illustration & a bit of text about what the maker did that day, like a little embroidered diary entry. I love this idea!

 

 

A cool quilt where the white stitching marks out a blueprint design:

 

Pretty quilted paper panels:

 

A fancy all-white quilt:

Lots of yummy greens - I love all these shades of green together & the organic feel of this design:

A collection of designs with a London-theme:

Cute mini quilts - a nautical quilt (love the tiny bunting!) by Jane Wheble and a quilt with pretty embroidered birds, by Judith Beevor:

 

 

It was also great to see the two quilts Lucie had on display. I love the colours & shapes in this one...

... and all those horizontal rows of stitching:

I'm really looking forward to Lucie's book, Quilt Improv, coming out next month!

Oh, and last but by no means least I was also delighted to see Kristy Daum's  fun Doctor Who "pixel" quilt on display:

 

I loved reading about the construction of this quilt (which is called "The Tenth") over on Kristy's blog this spring, it was great being able to see it "in real life" after admiring it (and all the work that went into it!) through the magic of the internet :)

All in all, a very nice day out! I haven't booked a day to "take the day off work to go look at interesting things" in my diary for ages and I really should do that more often.

(PS The Amazon link in this post is an affiliate link)

Festival of Quilts 2011

As promised, here's a (much longer!) post about the Festival of Quilts.

I have to admit to knowing very little about quilts and the wonderful world of quilting (I have never made a quilt in my life) but after seeing so many fab quilting projects on other peoples blogs lately I've been very tempted by it.

Then I heard people mentioning this mysterious thing called "FoQ", found out more about it and could not resist buying a ticket. I'm very glad I did, because it was quite wonderful!


If you've never been before, The Festival of Quilts is a mix of exhibition spaces (displaying quilts and other textile pieces) and retail spaces (selling fabric, thread, buttons, felt, embroidery patterns, books, magazines, stitched wares by an array of designer/makers and all manner of other crafty goodness). Oh, and there are classes and talks too though I didn't go to any of those.

Here are just a few of the quilts which caught my eye...

Stars and hexagons quilt by Lu Summers of Summersville (made using her own screenprinted fabrics)
Huge quilted flowers:


Teacups quilt! Complete with panels made from old tablecloths, 3D teacups, ring marks and (if you look closely at the bottom there) brown seed beads spilling out of a torn "teabag".


One of the competition winners. The detail and bright colours in this = amazing.


A lovely traditional quilt - I loved the pattern and fabrics used in this.


A knitted quilt! Knitted pieces, stitched together in the log cabin style and quilted. So many hours must have gone into this...


Black and white quilt with circles of richly textured & incredibly detailed colour embroidery. Gorgeous.


A detail from a quilt made as a series of panels. This quilt makes me want to make an embroidery sampler RIGHT NOW.

A memory quilt about the quilter's teenage son's travels in his gap year. There was a map of his journey in the centre and then the rest of the quilt was covered in extracts from his emails home during the year. (Apologies for the very blurry photo - my camera is rubbish!)

I was also very pleased to get a chance to see Lu Summers' Portholes quilt (which won its category at last year's Festival) as it was displayed on the Fat Quarterly stand...


... and I got to meet lots of lovely crafty people, including Lu (Summersville) and Kirsty (Love PaperFish)...


... plus Katy (I'm a Ginger Monkey) and Ruth Singer.

I was also delighted to discover the work of Janet Clare...


... who sells gorgeous embroidery and applique patterns over in her Etsy shop including (be still my beating heart!) two sets of patterns for making quilts appliqued with British birds.

I didn't do much shopping - though I wrote down a lot of shop names to visit later when I've got the funds and/or a specific sewing project in mind - but I did treat myself to some wooden flower buttons and some super cute mini ric rac.


I've included some standard sized ric rac in the photo so you can see just how tiny the mini ric rac is. I bought the buttons & ric rac from different stands, but I was clearly in the mood for those colours that day, huh?

All in all: total textile overload! I'm already planning to go back again next year, maybe for two days as there was just so much to see.