Festival of Quilts 2018 – Part 3 – The Winners Quilts

Picture the scene. It’s mid afternoon on day one of The Festival of Quilts. Visitors are gathering and waiting in eager anticipation for the unveiling of the winning quilts. A large cloth has been carefully draped over each piece hiding it from view. Eventually the cloths are removed, the cameras appear and there is a frenzy of quilters and photography.

Winner Quilts

Once the hustle and bustle of the day had died down, I popped back to see these beautiful quilts and started taking some photos.

I found the standard of work was very high this year; I particularly loved the pieces featuring hand quilting and applique.

Festival of Quilts 2018 - Winners Quilt - The Quilter's Guild Challenge - Mary Mayne — Winners Quilt – The Quilter’s Guild Challenge – Mary Mayne

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31st August 201828th September 2018

Festival of Quilts 2018 – Part 2 – Contemporary Needlework

My annual visit to The Festival of Quilts is a day full of complete and utter textiles indulgence. I wander up and down the rows of fabulous quilts taking in all the colours & patterns and chat to the international artists in their galleries.

This year I was impressed with the Contemporary Needlework hidden between the larger quilts.

Here is some beautiful work that caught my eye this year made by Vanessa Marr, Sara Heatherly, Lesley Bell, Ruth Singer, Cas Holmes, Maria Thomas and Christine Chester.

Hexagons and Stitchery

In recent years I’ve noticed more and more embroidery and mixed media pieces on show. This year there were some real beauties featuring hand stitching, free motion embroidery, surface design and hexagons.

Festival of Quilts 2018 - Kate Aimson — Kate Aimson

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26th August 20181st September 2018

Festival of Quilts 2018 – Part 1 – My Favourite Quilts

The Festival of Quilts is the highlight of my quilting year. It’s an annual event where I feed my mind with colour & pattern and catch up with Stitchery friends from across the UK.

This year’s show felt even bigger and better than in previous years – more quilts, more amazing exhibitions and way more visitors. In fact, there were so many quilters arriving at the opening of day one that the organisers had to open up three entrances in order to get us all in!

I find my tastes in quilts changes from year to year. I wander around and only photograph work which I love or pieces that ‘speak’ to me. After a quick browse through this year’s snaps I discovered a beautiful collection of traditional quilts and contemporary needlework which I will share with you over the next few posts.

My Favourite Quilts from The Festival of Quilts

These are my favourite quilts from the show – all are double or king size bed quilts apart from one very tiny, blue miniature quilt.

Some are competition quilts and some are exhibition quilts.

Festival of Quilts 2018 - Traditional Quilt - Ann Pill — Traditional Quilt – Ann Pill

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