This is my second post about my visit to the Festival of Quilts at the NEC in Birmingham this year (the first is here. As before, I’m sharing quilts that caught my eye this year, plus today I’ll show you the three quilts I put in to the competition.
I loved the vibrant colours and bold, graphic images in this group quilt by British Sew-a-Row. It’s also a good sentiment! The blocks work really well together to make a cohesive whole.
I also enjoyed the graphic shapes of these attractive birds (designed by Nicky Lintott) in a quilt made by Shelley-Louisa Colton and long-arm quilted by Graham Farrar in the ‘My First Quilt’ category.
In the Art Quilts section, I found Annie Folkard’s dramatic piece, entitled ‘Dyptic: study exploring value and colour’ – so eye-catching.
On the display of work by the students who have just completed the Master Quilter course, I saw this subtly-coloured A3-sized piece designed and made by John Miller, entitled ‘Belizean Sunset’.
In the ‘Pictorial’ section, I appreciated the clever perspective in this quilt by Greta Fitchett, inspired by the groins at Southwold on the East Anglian coast.
The Quilters’ Guild of the British Isles showed items from its collection at the Festival, concentrating on the years before, during and after the Second World War. The quilt below (‘Small Squares Top’, 1930-39, maker unknown) demonstrates a delightful version of ‘Trip around the World’ block. The quilt top is all hand-stitched and remains just a single layer it has not been layered up into a quilt.
Speaking of old quilts, I enjoyed spending time in the stand presented by The International Quilt Museum, Nebraska, USA, who were displaying quilts made from patterns offered free to customers with a purchase of ‘Mountain Mist’ wadding from 1929 onwards. On each wall, hung beautifully hand-stitched and quilted pieces which used traditional motifs and patterns. I loved them. The following three photographs are included by kind permission of The International Quilt Museum. (You can find out more about the Museum here.)
Finally, here are the three quilts I entered. First up is ‘Bright Morning Star’ a miniature quilt, measuring 22cm (eight and five-eighths inches) square:
In the Contemporary Quilts category, I entered a wall-hanging (78 x 100cm) called ‘Blue Moon’, inspired by the moon shining on the waves in my home town, one autumn evening:
I also entered the ‘Seaside Album’ quilt (from last year’s quilt project on the blog) in the Traditional Quilts section:
All three of my quilts are available to purchase in my Etsy shop ‘Amanda Handmade Quilts‘. Click here to go to the shop.
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