It’s time for my annual report about Festival of Quilts. This year I spent two days there (Thursday and Friday) as there were two lectures I wanted to hear on the Friday afternoon and I thought just half a day would not be sufficient to see the quilts and do some shopping.
Train strikes were planned on the Thursday and Saturday which affected many people’s plans. I had to travel to Birmingham a day early, but had no problems getting trains to/from Birmingham New Street and Birmingham International on the Thursday. It was difficult to judge the crowds, but Friday was busier than Thursday, probably due to the train strike. As with last year, the show was spread over 4 halls which makes comparison with pre-Covid years tricky but I got the impression it was still not back to pre-COVID numbers, however, it was nice to hear some international voices again.
This year the workshops, galleries and VIP lounge were in Hall 6, the traders were in Halls 7 and 8, and the quilts were displayed in part of Hall 9. There were more traders than last year and the space between the stalls was maintained at last year’s level. Some of the bigger names returned this year, but there were still a few notable absences which is perhaps why there was plenty of seating scattered around the halls.
I was quite focussed with my shopping* and even though I was unlucky in my quest to get some background fabric for the Cats in Space quilt, I did get some metallic fabrics for the space suits and helmets and some suitable fabric for ginger cats. I picked up some useful things at the Project Linus stand including a couple of fabric marking pens, some vintage Sylko reels for display and an odd shaped remnant of a low volume fabric which is the equivalent to 3 FQs and I think it is Moda Grunge. I also picked up a few bits as prizes in the Quilts for Care Leavers raffle – a magnetic telescopic pick up stick, a FQ and a bobbin keeper. My best bargains were two packs of Warm & Natural twin sized quilt wadding which were £5 each on the P&Q magazine stand which I think must have been subscription gifts at some point. Even allowing for the 59p large carrier bag I had to get to carry them home in, it is still a saving of ~£20 per pack! I also picked up a few pieces of red and cream fabrics with a hint of Christmas from there and it was quite sad to see all the clearance items and back issues on the stand and everyone was saying that the magazine will be missed. I didn’t buy any Liberty fabric this year, but I did get some free quilt patterns from the Liberty stand which may help me use my stash.
The display of the quilts was a bit more irregular than previously with the wooden display frames arranged in short zig-zag formations at various angles which, for me, made it more difficult to view them in a methodical manner. All of the quilts can be viewed on the FoQ website and you have until Friday 9th September to vote for the Visitors’ Choice. As the quilts can be viewed online, rather than include lots of photos of quilts in this post, I will show a few of the competition quilts caught my eye and gave me ideas that I might like to try.
MD41, Sampling Modernity, Linda Chevell
TD33, Japanese Log Cabin, Chris Harvey
MD22, Airspace, Kathleen Anderson
The two lectures were both excellent - one was about the Liberty archive by Anna Buruma, Head Archivist at Liberty and the other was about the shoddy trade and was by Jo Andrews of Haptic and Hue. Another excellent attraction was the gallery of quilts by Sarah Hibbert (@quiltscornerstone on Instagram). I liked her use of neutral linen fabrics and as I have quite a lot of "linen type" fabric I got from Abakhan's ages ago I might be tempted to use more of it.
Unlike many previous years, I came away from this year’s trip with some inspiration and some ideas to try. I’m still not tempted to make a show quilt and a story to go with it, and instead will stick to making quilts for family, friends and charity.
* All purchases had to pass feline inspection while I was trying to take a photo.
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