Festival of Quilts 2026

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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.

More teeny hexagons, sofa sewing station and preparing for Festival of Quilts

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This month has been quite productive for making teeny hexagons. After trying various options to use as a stamp, I found a thimble that was just the right size and have been using this to stamp the circles for the hexagons. It is much quicker and easier than trying to draw round a coin.

One problem with hexagons this small is that they are very easy to lose on the sofa. Fortunately I found a child’s lap tray reduced in the supermarket that could become an ideal sofa sewing station. Unlike some adult lap trays, this did not have a rim around the edge making it easier to repurpose it.

I removed the plastic insert by sliding a craft knife under the edge and removed some of the stuffing to make it more squishy. I then glued a layer of quilting batting to the top so that the original design wouldn’t show through the top fabric which I stitched to the cushion in a similar way binding is hand stitched to a quilt. Finally , I made some modular accessories for the plastic insert - a small tray for threads, two spool pins made from screws set in a foam block and covered with unshrunk heat-shrink tubing, and a small pin cushion with an elongated edge for fabric clips. I also added a fixed needle minder beneath the pin cushion.

Preparations for my trip to Festival of Quilts have also included some teeny hexagons with me making a pair of earrings using some scraps of Liberty lawn.

Something that will probably be more useful for Festival of Quilts is the new app launched this year and available for Apple and Android devices. Features include a list of exhibitors, timetable of workshops/talks (including ticket availability) and perhaps most useful for me - a floor plan.

I’ll be there for Thursday and Friday and have three workshops/talks booked for Thursday and one for Friday, but should still have plenty of time for admiring the quilts and shopping. If you spot the earrings, do say hello.

If it’s August, it must be Festival of Quilts

This month started with a trip to Festival of Quilts in Birmingham. Unlike last year when none of the workshops or talks appealed to me, this year I booked two quick and easy workshops (one at 8.30 am!) and one talk which meant a two day trip and an overnight stay in Birmingham.

My first workshop was a no-sew introduction to Bargello in which double-sided fusible stabilizer was used to create strip set and arrange them into a panel. Making a Bargello quilt is on my wish list and this was a great way of understanding the process and seeing how the patterns can develop.

The second workshop was early morning which meant an early departure from the hotel in central Birmingham, but had the advantage of being able to go straight from the workshop to the exhibition halls for the start of the show. This workshop was for making earrings from Dorset buttons and we were able to complete one earring during the workshop. I now need to make another earring while I can remember how.

My final activity was a talk on the history of Sylko threads and how they now have collectable status. This was interesting and amusing (how many shades of pink can there be?) and, after hearing how much some of the rarer colours can fetch, I should really check my few Sylko reels to see if any could fund next year’s trip!

I get the feeling I only took in a fraction of the quilts on display. After many years of going, I still find the quantity of quilts overwhelming, though one quilt in the 5-9 age group in particular did make me smile. The theme was “My Hero” and from a distance it made sense, but then I saw the title - the hero is not Godzilla!

Fortunately someone with a show guide was able to share the description which explains the link between Godzilla and Grandma.

As usual, I didn’t come away empty handed and my purchases this year saw bargains from the Project Linus stand (including So Fine Thread for just £1 per reel); 3m of interfacing to give a tana lawn quilt some oomph if needed (from Lady Sew and Sew) and some rings for Dorset buttons; an ombré remnant and a cat panel from Allison’s craft emporium; a free bag and some other goodies from Aurifil.

The rest of the August had been mostly sorting and preparing fabrics for my Wonderland Sampler quilt, though sewing has yet to start on it. I did manage a bit of sewing at Waterloo Quilters where we tried the Accuquilt Qube system to make some 12”blocks. It was great for cutting half square triangles as no trimming was required, though cutting squares is probably just as easy with a ruler and rotary cutter.

Trying the Accuquilt system reminded me to check my Sizzix dies and it looks as though I have the correct size dies for half square triangles and quarter square triangles that might be suitable for a few of the blocks in the Wonderland Sampler. Hopefully this weekend will see the last of the preparation and next month sewing can start.

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Summer sporting sewing (and a trip to Festival of Quilts)

This month has seen a couple of projects completed for an informal challenge on a online sewing forum. The challenge was to sew a garment or accessory which relates to any sport or the country of France and I took inspiration from the Tour de France and the 2024 Olympics.

My first entry was a set of four mug rugs inspired by the Tour de France which was taking place during the early weeks of the challenge. In the race, cyclists are awarded different coloured jerseys for four different classifications. The most famous is the yellow for the overall leader, but there are three other jerseys - green for points, polka dot for mountains and white for young rider.

I found a line drawing of a cycling jersey via Google and adapted it to make more suitable for a machine appliqué shape. The jerseys were machine appliqued and a "zip" added using a narrow zig-zag. Once layered with backing and wading, I echo-quilted around each jersey using red, white and blue threads. If you look closely, you'll see I had to go over the white quilting a second time so that it had the similar prominence as the red and blue quilting. The backing was the nearest I could find to bikes and I like to think it suggests bicycle wheels.

The second project was a mini quilt inspired by the design on the hoardings at some Olympic venues. I tracked down the official “Paris 2024 look” and reduced four of the elements to basic outlines for English paper piecing (EPP).

Preparing and stitching the pieces was a bit more challenging than my usual EPP projects as there were several curved pieces, but tacking through the papers helped to make these manageable.

Each of the four elements were ~4” square so I added sashing and borders to make a mini quilt that finishes at ~10.5” square.

Seeing as some of the fabrics included gold or silver highlights, I quilted in the ditch within the four elements and around each of them using a bronze metallic thread so that the quilt reflected all three Olympic medals.

As it is August, this month’s post wouldn’t be complete without mention of Festival of Quilts. There were no workshops or talks that caught my attention this year, so I only went for the day and accepted that I wouldn’t see everything. While changing trains at Wolverhampton, I unexpectedly met someone from Waterloo Quilters and we decided that we would look at the quilts together before parting ways at lunchtime. It has been a while since I wandered round the quilts with someone and it was nice to be able to see what caught their eye and to look at quilts that I may have walked past. This year I had some shopping that I needed to do for the sporting challenge and I was able to find the fabrics I needed, along with a few extra items as well.

(A new cutting mat from Siesta Frames, two spotty half metres from The Fabric Townhouse, two FQs from Shoppers Planet, Aso Oke fabric and a Noodlehead pattern from Urbanstax, a half metre of ombré fabric from The Crafty Quilter, and an impulse purchase of a FQ bundle of Tilda chambray from Kaleidoscope.)

I’ve tried various options for visiting Festival of Quilts over the last few years – overnight stays, two day trips and now visiting for just a single day and I’m still not sure what works best for me. Given the price of train tickets, show tickets and workshop/talk tickets, and that images of the quilts are now available online, it can be an expensive outing and I am finding it difficult to justify the cost on the basis of shopping opportunities alone.

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Finishing the tiny sewing and visiting Festival of Quilts

All my sewing and sewing-related activity seems to have taken place at the beginning of this month.

The tiny sewing has been completed, but as this is for a secret project that won’t be revealed until October, all I can show you for now is the back of the completed block before the FPP papers were removed.

My sewing-related activity for this month was a two-day visit to Festival of Quilts. To be accurate, it was two one-day trips to Festival of Quilts as this year I didn’t stay over, but returned home each day. By the time I was sure the trains would not be affected by strikes, it was cheaper to book two return train tickets than one return ticket and a hotel. This did mean I only had ~4 hours at the show each day, but it was long enough and it was quite nice to have time at home to reset and recharge after the first day.

As usual, even though I thought I had looked at the quilts in a logical order, there were still ones appearing on social media that I have no recollection of seeing. I took photos of only quilt and it was because it made me stop and take a closer look to see how the colour graduation had been done.

CT-04, Seaweed Sunset, Daisy Dodge

On very close inspection, it turns out the quilt is combination of squares and nine-patch blocks set on point.

It wouldn’t be Festival of Quilts without a bit of shopping and I think what I bought could be describe as “a bit”. From Crafty Quilter, I got a quilt pattern and some ombre fabric for it. The Millefiori book was from Kaleidoscope Books and doesn’t really count as it has been squirrelled away to reappear at Christmas as a present from my husband. From Lisa at Modern Quilt Club, I got some Flatter pressing spray and a selection of Aurifil 28wt thread. A couple of reels of Invisifil 100wt thread was purchased from Wonderfil and some bargains were found on the Project Linus stand – a pattern notching punch for 50p and two books at a £1 each.

After two years of my trips to Festival of Quilts being disrupted/governed by train strikes, it would be nice to hope that that things could be resolved in time for next year’s show.

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Festival of Quilts 2022

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 9^th 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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Festival of Quilts 2021

I didn’t expect to be writing this, but I went to Festival of Quilts on Saturday! Given all the uncertainty this year I’d not taken the risk and bought a ticket, but then I won one in a giveaway last week and decided to take the plunge and venture out. Knowing that this year’s show would be “different”, I wanted flexible train tickets so I wasn’t tied to a return train time. As usual, the simple option for tickets was not the cheapest but I managed to save ~£10 by splitting my journey into three.

The first sign that this year was going to different was that with the earlier opening time and staggered admissions, I wasn’t able to play the usual “spot the quilter” on the train or at the stations. My free ticket was valid for entry after 11am and train times meant I got to the NEC about 10.15am which gave me time to get a coffee beforehand. I’d finished my coffee by 10.45am and there was no problem in getting in to the Halls early. The organisers had taken on extra hall space and going by the list on the website, exhibitor numbers seemed reduced by about 50%. With the extra space it was difficult to gauge how visitor numbers compared to previous years, but one thing that was noticeable was the lack of a “hubbub” about the place.

There was lots of space to view the competition quilts, but I got the impression there were fewer entries than in previous years. Rather the usual photos of the quilts that caught my eye, I decided just to take some photos of quilts with cats on them.

It was much easier to move around the trading stands and many of the traders had time to answer questions about their products and chat about the show in general. One of the smaller traders mentioned that the lack of some of the “big names” had been beneficial as people who would normally head to the names were buying from them instead.

I didn’t particularly “need” anything, but there were a few things that were on my “would be useful or nice to have” list. Unfortunately, with the reduced retail offering, I didn’t spot any of them. However, I didn’t come away empty handed and came home with an eclectic mix of shopping - F8 bundles and a half metre from Oakshott Fabrics; low volume FQs from White Gecko; Dutch heritage prints from The Crafty Quilter; elastic for skirt and legging making (from a stand whose name escapes me); bargain jersey fabric from Project Linus (£5 for 2.5m!); ribbon for Christmas cakes (also found at Project Linus); two hair ornaments from Aid for Burma, one of which might be repurposed as a point turner for corners.

It was a different, but enjoyable experience this year, but I kept waiting for the crowds to appear - all day it had the feeling of being the last hour of the show when everyone starts heading home.

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Festival of Quilts 2019

If everything had kept to the usual schedule, I would be at Festival of Quilts now, but it was moved forward a week this year and so I was at Festival of Quilts last week. This also meant that it coincided with the Ashes cricket at Edgbaston and so it was more “spot the cricket fan” in Birmingham than the usual “spot the quilter” (but the less said about the cricket the better).

My trip this year was spread over two days with the usual mix of workshops, shopping and looking at quilts. I had two workshops booked – a full day on the Thursday and a 90 minute twilight one on the Friday evening. After making sure the essentials were packed (rulers, mat, etc for the workshop and supplies for the hotel room), I travelled to Birmingham on the Wednesday afternoon to minimise the chance of train delays and cancelations preventing me getting to the workshop on Thursday. In the first workshop (Precision Piecing with Philippa Naylor) we got to sew on a Bernina machine (which I was surprised to find retails at ~£1000!) while learning how not to lose points on HSTs and flying geese. There also just about enough time to have a go at a mitred border sample, something I’ve not tried before. The second workshop was Designing Grid Quilting with Carolyn Gibbs which I chose to give me more ideas for straight line quilting. This was a low tech workshop (pencils, rulers and tracing paper) but nevertheless I came away with a much better understanding of how to plan quilting patterns rather than my usual way of starting to stitch and hoping it works out.

I didn’t have a shopping list as such this year and though I had wondered about finding some novelty prints for Project Linus quilts, I wasn’t really in the mood to browse given the overwhelming choice and number of stands. I picked up some finer machine needles than I usually use as these were recommended in the first workshop and I had ordered some Flatter for collection, which will also come in useful as in the first workshop we were advised to press with steam or a spritz of water. I also noticed in the first workshop that my cutting mat had lost its self-healing properties and crumbs of it were sticking to my rotary cutter, so it was the ideal time to buy a new mat. My other purchases were a silver marking pencil, a needle threader with thread cutter, an embroidery kit, a couple of back issues of magazines chosen for their free gifts, and a box of acrylic EPP templates. As you can see, all these had to be inspected and then ignored by “Not-Our-Cat”.

When it came to looking at the quilts, I was disappointed to find that the modern quilt section had been banished to the furthest corner away from the main entrance. I don’t know if the layout of the show is planned by the Quilters Guild or Twisted Thread, but perhaps they should consider what message it sends by always having the same quilt categories in the prime spots. Anyway, once I found the modern section, I was delighted to spot several quilts by people I know either in real life or via social media. I didn’t take many photos of quilts, just a few of ones that inspired me with their piecing and/or quilting, or ones that used blocks I’d like to try. If I had to pick one quilt as favourite I think it would be Red Light by Anette Sundberg (E108 in the guide). I loved the use of different sizes of the same block, the colour paletteand fabrics, and the black background.

Red Light by Anette Sundberg (Festival of Quilts 2019, E108)

As usual, after looking at Instagram posts back at home, I realised that there were sections that I had not found and not had time to see. Perhaps next year I should go on the last day when I have had chance to see what everyone else has spotted.

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It's Festival of Quilts time again

It’s August (but not for much longer) and so it must be time for a report about my trip to Festival of Quilts. After last year’s whirlwind one day visit, this year I went back to a two day visit, mainly because I had the chance to meet up with some friends from an online sewing community.

 

We had been running a little challenge to make quilts for Project Linus using only two colours and neutrals, with the colours having to be complementary on the colour wheel. There was also going to be a competition element to the challenge with the finished quilts being put to a vote.

I had seen a quilt in Lynne Goldsworthy’s book “Quick and Easy Quilts” which had a red balloon appliqued to a neutral log cabin background. By adding a second balloon I was able to meet the two colour requirement, though I knew that this design would be regarded as stretching the rules and wouldn’t do me any favours when it came to the voting. Adding the second balloon meant I could make a larger quilt as these tend to be in short supply for Project Linus.

To avoid any raw edges on the balloons, I used an interfacing technique to enclose the raw edges and then used a blanket stitch on my machine to attach the balloon to the quilt top. The strings were made from a tube of fabric and applied to the quilt top with a straight stitch.

I did echo quilting around the balloons and the strings and then quilted in the ditch for the body of the balloons. The rest of the quilting was just diagonal straight lines. The backing was a cotton lawn from Standfast and Barracks which picked up the neutral theme from the front and went well with the dark binding.

It was lovely to meet up with friends from the forum and to see all the quilts being handed over to Project Linus. As expected, mine was not a winning quilt, but my priority was to make a quilt suitable for an older child and not the competition side of things.

No trip to Festival of Quilts would be complete without a little bit of shopping and I actually managed to come back with some money left in my purse this year.

With visiting for two days, I had time to attend a lecture about geometric design in Islamic art by Eric Broug. I found the way the designs can be created fascinating and I will have to try to make time to try this for some EPP designs.

 

As usual I had mixed feelings about the quilts and I am thinking now that this down to the competition element. Looking at some of the quilts hanging side by side in the same category, I felt uncomfortable that they were being judged against each other. Even though I have been going to Festival of Quilts for a few years, I found it more difficult to find my way around this year and probably missed quite a few exhibits. Galleries seemed to be more in the midst of trading stands than previously and the miniature quilts and modern quilts were over in a far corner of one of the halls away from the other categories of quilts. Perhaps it is time for the organisers to rethink the layout and to have more distinct areas for trading, quilts, galleries and catering.