As promised, here are my selected highlights of this year’s Festival of Quilts – both from the talks I listened to and the quilts I particularly enjoyed seeing.
Elizabeth Brimelow and Sandra Meech had a shared exhibition gallery at the Festival and also delivered a most interesting lecture about how they met, their artistic interests and their respective methods of working.
They took turns to speak which made for an interesting flow of ideas and images from one to the other. They generously shared images of their sketchbooks and of their work (as seen in the image above).
In the gallery itself, was the quilt below ‘Melt Marks’ by Sandra Meech, using imagery from Greenland glaciers.
Also in the gallery, was this large quilted hanging ‘Flight’ by Elizabeth Brimelow, which was made in lockdown.
‘Gathering Threads’ was a three-way talk in which Jo Avery, Karen Lewis and Lynne Goldsworthy also talked about how they met and began to work together, before going on to outline the current offering of their company ‘The Thread House’. An interesting part of their talk was seeing how each of the three interpreted differently a particular quilt pattern produced by the company.
Jo Avery’s trademark bright colours and skill with appliqué were in evidence in her entry ‘Poplars’ in the Contemporary Quilt category.
It was also enjoyable to hear Chris English talk on The Quilters’ Guild stand about his quilt-making methods, which include using a wide variety of types of fabric (many of them upcycled) and using plenty of hand-stitching. His unconventional approach extends to improvisational piecing and uneven edges, creating a bold, interesting finished quilt as seen below.
This striking semi-abstract piece by Amanda Duke ‘The Harbour floats’ was inspired by Newhaven harbour. It appeared in the gallery of the zero3 group whose members have been exhibiting together for 20 years.
Visiting artist L’Merchie Frazier had a gallery of compelling work which ‘explores themes of Black identity in the Americas and beyond’. The quilt below is titled ‘Slavery by Another Name’.
The quilt below is ‘In Search of my Mother’s Garden’. The maker rightly anticipates that the artworks will promote dialogue but I feel sure they will also draw viewers in by their beauty.
A traditional quilt in red and white also stops me in my tracks. I love this one, made in about 1880-1920 in Ohio, USA. This was exhibited by the International Quilt Museum. Sadly, the maker’s name is unknown…
The eye-catching quilt below (‘Hug 4650 for a Careleaver’), with its bright ‘wonky stars’ was made by a group from the excellent Quilts for Care Leavers (Q4QL) charity.
(I am something of a fan of yellow stars on a dark blue background – see here).
As is often the case, quilts made by children and young people were lively and full of colour. This charming piece by nine-year-old Eliza Watson is called ‘My Future’.
Below are images of the front and the back of a beautiful indigo-dyed kimono-style garment. I was delighted to see it as a prize-winner at the Festival as I had already seen and admired it at the Region 2 show last month at Lullingstone Castle (see the post here).
The piece is called Indigo Yogi and the maker, Jenny Pudney is seen in both photos explaining some of the techniques used in the making of the garment.
Finally, the ‘Antics at the Quilt Show’, entered in the Group Quilts category by ‘Nine to Five’ (Dilys Fronks, Sue Horder, Jenny Mann, Barbara Harrison and Marion Barlow) was hilarious. A series of miniature quilts formed a quilt show at which Sunbonnet Sue behaved very badly. Do enlarge the photo of the picture on your screen to get all the jokes!
Thank you for reading my blog. Quilt Patterns are here, Fabrics are here, Classes are here
At about this time of year, my best-selling pattern starts to go out from the shop. If you too, like starting to sew for Christmas in August, you can find the ‘Christmas Tree Skirt’ pattern here
Amanda Jane Textiles 