Two days at the NEC is barely enough to grasp the entirety of the Festival of Quilts, so this year’s account of my time there includes a selection of things that caught my eye. ( Put ‘Festival of Quilts’ in the SEARCH box to see posts about previous years’ shows.) Here are some of the delights.
Exhibited at the stand of Textile Artist Renee Fleuranges-Valdes was this lively and engaging portrait. I loved the strong sense of movement in the piece and also the small details of the bow and buttons.
Amy Pabst was exhibiting her miniature quilts made from exceptionally tiny fabric pieces. They all, like the quilt shown below (‘Ruffled’), feature pineapple blocks in which each block is less than an inch (2.5cm). The quilt below measures 31 x 31cm and contains an astonishing 4,134 pieces!
Sarah Hibbert and Jaeyoung Eom each exhibited quilts on their joint stand which were inspired by the other quilter, like a fabric conversation. Yet the two artists had not met until this year’s Festival! Most interesting. Here is one of Sarah’s quilts ‘Painter’:
..and here is one of Jaeyoung’s quilts ‘Save Myself’:
There was a wonderful ‘inspiration board’ on their stand, too:
The Modern Quilt Group of The Quilters’ Guild is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. On their stand there were eight display stands each containing up to sixteen small quilts made by members of the group who were each given a tin-coloured fabric to include. Here are four of the display stands.
On the right-hand stand, bottom left side is a piece made by my friend Alison Moore, featuring reverse appliqué, hand embroidered lettering and hand-quilting:
One gallery featured work by Janice Gunner from across her entire career. I particularly liked the subtle dyeing and piecing in ‘Watery Worlds’ (64 x 107cm) made in 2017:
Textile Artist Sidnee Snell’s stand featured quilts based on photos which are made with layers of small fabric pieces machined stitched in place onto a background to form the image. Close to, you could see the detail of the stitching running across from one area of colour to another but when you stepped back you could begin to see – or guess at – images contained in the piece. Here is a detail of ‘Call Me’ (33 x 79cm)
and here is the whole piece.
Judith E Martin’s stand (titled ‘Softer and Dreamier’) featured large hand-stitched art quilts which I would describe as delicate, sensitive and moving. I stayed a long time looking at them, using the artist’s helpful notes as an aid to understanding the sentiments explored and evoked in these lovely works. This is ‘Stardust’
There was just time for one lecture, so I chose to hear Sheena Norquay talk about her recent work.She documents her design inspiration, sampling and finished pieces so carefully – and in such a generous way – that it is always a pleasure to listen to her.
Next week on the blog, I’ll share with you some of the quilts in the competition that I particularly enjoyed seeing and I’ll also show you the two quilts I entered this year. See you next week!
‘Caught Napping’ was a pattern originally written as a baby quilt but it also works as a throw and could even be made into a wall-hanging. Buy the pattern here
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Amanda Jane Textiles 