The Festival of Quilts 2018

The Festival of Quilts (or simply FoQ) happened last week at the NEC in Birmingham. It lasted four days from Thursday 9th August until Sunday 12th August. This was my third FoQ and I attended two days, Friday and Sunday. One day is definitely not enough to see all beautiful quilt exhibitions, to chat to lots of quilty Instagram friends and to browse abundance of amazing shops. I didn’t even plan to attend any classes, lectures or events. I prefer lots of socialising, quilt viewing and relatively moderate shopping. The latter one is not always possible oopsie daisy 😉

I want to dedicate this blog to lots of quilt photos from the exhibitions. I’ll try to divide them all in categories they were presented in, mentioning and tagging/linking the makers.

You won’t see here all quilts that were hanging there of course, but mostly made by people I know from Instagram and quilts I liked or found interesting from my own point of view.

There we go!

Group Quilts

I didn’t enter any of my quilts this year (I have never done it yet). However I still kind of took part in the exhibition. My London Modern Quilt Guild ran an ugly fabric block challenge earlier this year. We were given a few scraps of unwanted “ugly” fabrics donated by the guild’s members and we had to make an improv block out of it. I made three blocks and two of them found their place in a Group Quilt called The Power Of More. This quilt will be donated to the amazing Siblings Together Quilts Project.

Our Group quilt was put together by Marianne Ten Kate.

Some more Group Quilts below:

You Cannot Have Too Many Handbags. A Portrait Of My Favourite Bag.

Liberty Stamp Swap. Rosemary Turns 90.

This quilt was put together by Dorothy A Hill for her mother’s 90’s birthday.

The Thread House Retreat Quilt

Fussy Cutting Sewalong Community Quilt. It was put together by Naomi Clarke.

Young Quilter 14-18 Category

Abigail Fossey. White Rabbit Pocket Watch Bag.

Fine Art Quilt Masters

Domestic by Linzi Upton

Captivated by Nature by Olga Gonzales-Angulo

Close up

Street Shadows by Jane Ashe

Confetti by Cindy Grisdela

Modern Quilts

Modern Modernism and Point by Isabel Munoz

Retro by Sophie Zaugg

Regulus by Emily Davis

Falling Away by Jill Dawson

Alternative Route Required? by Ann Beare

Under the Thumb by Melanie Turbitt

Tricia Takes Manhattan by Marianne Ten Kate

Mini to Maxi – Churn Dash by Abigail Sheridan de Graaff

Tessellations IV by Wendy Kennard

Winter Forest Trees by Kym Armstrong

My HST Quilt by Lou Orth

Rays of Sunlight by Jennifer Letchet

Circle Me Round by Lisa Hofmann-Maurer

Red Coral Reef by Ursula Becker

Shot on an iPhone 6 by Chris Webb

The Road rises up to meet you by Sheena Stone

Eye Candy by Naomi Clarke

Mapache Tale by Paula Steel

White Noise by Grace Jay

Quilt No.12 by Elinor Beaven

Sister Of The Other One – No2 by Jenny Haynes

Brexit? by Tatyana Duffie

IGUALDAD (EQUALITY) by Carolina Oneto

Spot on by Marion Goodrich

Solid Crumb Block Large by Chris English

Snowing at Eggesford by Sarah Humphreys

Giant Rainbow Button Card by Jo Avery

Denim Wordsearch by Linzi Upton

Can you see me now? by Rebecca Bell

Curled by Charlie Mankin

Miniature Quilts

Mini Tula Flowers by Naomi Clarke

Little Dream by Sarah Hartley

Mini Windows by Caroline Aspin

Graffiti my way by Lisa Hofmann-Maurer

Don’t Read the Comments by Chris Webb

Pictorial Quilts

I See You by Elita Sharpe

Get up and fight sucker by Chris English

Where’s Dave by Deborah Lobban

Close up

Two Person Quilts

Rainbow Chocolatier by Vivien Poon and Trudi Wood

Modern Love by Jo Avery and Tatyana Duffie

Labour of Love! by Jenny Otto and Frances Meredith

Millefiore by Sue Hicks and Telene Jeffrey

Sunflower Quilt by Jenny Haynes and Abigail Sheridan de Graaff

Colours of India by Teresa Summerfield and Paulines Patchwork

Tabbitha by Valerie Clabburn and Georgina Clabburn

Hoopla by Nicky Eglinton and Trudi Wood

Macaroons No 57 by Sarah Hibbert and Christine Perrigo

Seascope by Jenny Jackson and Carolyn Clark

Rainbow Bargello by Karen Llewellyn-Parsons and MaryJane Hutchinson

Art Quilts

Simply Spring by Christine Seager (top) and Smoke and Mirrors 2 by Elaine Quehl (bottom)

It might be the other way round but it’s how the quilts were labelled.

Sister Act by Alex O’Hara

Deep Blue by Paola Zanda

Fabric Collage, Left Side by Steven McVay

The Pattern Must Be Made by Kate Aimson

Traditional Quilts

Sister Of The Other One – No1 by Jenny Haynes

Twinkling by Regina Maier

Hundred & Thousands of Scraps by Ann Pill

Queen Tracy’s Cross! by Tracy Aplin

Along The Fancy Forest by Sharon Appleton

Contemporary Quilts

Iconoclast by Linzi Upton

Proud by Anne Marshall

Pearl Bracelet by Lisa Hofmann-Maurer

Jazzy Hexies by Naomi Clarke

Seed Packets by Alison Davies

Rainbow Rings by Louisa Goult

Tumbling Spools by Joanna Westfoot

Aslan by Gail Bisatt

Crumb Blocks by Chris English

Those were the days! by Sarah Jane White

The 14th Quilt Nihon Exhibition

“The Quilt Nihon Exhibition has 25 years history as one of the most prestigious international quilt contests in Japan. It is organized by Japan Handicraft Instructors’ Association, the largest organization of handcraft instructors in Japan”. – thefestivalofquilt.co.uk

Card magic by Etuko Hino