(A WordPress version of this post is available here as it may be more mobile-friendly for viewing and commenting.)
Festival of Quilts this year was spread across the end of July and the beginning of August and I was there for the first two days. After a couple of years with no train problems, I had hoped that the uncertainty of getting there (and back) due to possible train strikes had passed, but industrial action was announced less than two weeks before I was due to travel. Fortunately, this was cancelled in time for normal timetables to be reinstated and my journeys went as planned.
I had four “quick and easy” workshops/talks booked and unlike last year, none of them required an early start. First was an interactive hands-on session on exploring patchwork and quilting history in which we learnt about some of the quilts in the Quilters Guild collection. Some of these were over 200 years old and the session gave us the opportunity to view them close up. Next was an informative and entertaining talk on Sylko threads, which looked at the stories behind some of the names used by Sylko to describe their thread colours. My last two workshops were both practical sessions learning new-to-me techniques - quilt as you go and hand quilting. I thoroughly enjoyed all the workshops and I managed to spread them across the days which gave me breaks from shopping and looking at the quilts.
Given the number of quilts entered into the show, I’ve learnt now to focus my attention on certain categories rather than trying to see everything. I did get a sense of déjà vu at times when seeing quilts that had been entered into other shows and seeing familiar names from previous years in the winners’ gallery. My shopping was completed on the first day and I kept pretty much to my list. The Project Linus stand was again a source of some bargains - wooden cotton reels and scissors this year! I took advantage of a service offered by some stand holders to order items for collection at the show and it worked very well with me being able to get a book that was not available at the show. I’ll certainly consider it again, especially if there is something specific I need.
I’ve been going to Festival of Quilts for over 10 years now and now know what works best for me. I no longer plan to arrive for when the doors open and I don’t feel I have to see all the quilts. Time-wise and money-wise the “quick and easy” workshops are better for me than half-day or full-day academy classes. Shopping is less of a necessity than it used to be and I think the duration of future visits will be driven by the workshops available when booking opens to the general public. I won’t go as far as saying I won’t attend if there are no workshops of interest, but it would make it harder to justify the ticket and travel costs.
