Festival of Quilts

Last week I spent 3 busy days in Birmingham at the Festival of Quilts.  As ever it was a really enjoyable time spent walking miles (exhausting!), meeting lots of friends from far and near (lovely) and viewing all the beautiful quilts and artwork on show (inspiring and tiring).  Unsurprisingly there was some shopping too.

So what did I see?  Lots of photos following.

 My very dear friend Carolyn Saxby's beautiful work, "Watching The Dark Sky".  Carolyn will be blogging about this quilt soon.  It was lovely to meet up with Carolyn and Margaret Garrood who had travelled up to the Show from Cornwall.

 Annabel Rainbow was on her Through Our Hands stand painting her latest quilt during the Show.  It was interesting to stand for a while and watch her process.

These beautiful and enigmatic portraits of her mother were also part of the Through Our Hands display and are so poignant.  These were only two of a much larger collection.  If you click on the detail you will be able to see that they are made with wool sewn onto net/tulle.

This is Susan Lenz's Wall of Keys and it took her 9 hours to assemble on site.  She brought it across from America in two suitcases.  She gave a very enjoyable and thought provoking lecture on how a series of work might develop with regular references to The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron.  If nothing else it made me realise how many ideas for potential work pass in and out of my head while I'm working without ever being captured. 
 

I was on the lookout for different ways to display your work and this nifty sletchbook hanging caught my eye.

There was a huge amount of work in this beautiful piece by Lin Crompton called Shallow Waters.  The individual pieces were all hand cut (I was told) and I love the flow of colour throughout.  The quilt had been juried into the Fine Art Quilt Masters section.

 I loved this piece by Australian quilter Cathy Jack Coupland entitled "Australia My Way".

 Another Fine Art Quilt Master "Sharon & Co" by Ann Smith.

My Facebook and blogging friend Amo House made this wonderful quilt called "Dragons Ho" and won her a Highly Commended!  Well done Amo on your first outing at Festival!

These wonderful creatures are by Vladimir Telnykh who had his own gallery.  Some of the works, like the fish, were mounted on wood.

I love this fabulous Fish Monster by Daisy May Collingridge.  "This is the fish monster that wished for legs and walked himself out of the water evolution complete".  You can see more Quilt Creations behind him.

Mavis Walker made this wonderful Chess Set and it won her First Prize in Quilt Creations.  It was almost impossible to photograph it for all the people admiring it.

As my mum remarked this morning when I described it to her, you need to see it in real life to appreciate this superb coat by Marijke Van Welzen, who you can find on Facebook.

Equally popular was this winning quilt in the Pictorial Category.  It is by Claudia Pfeil and is called Turtle Bay.  The photos don't show up the crystals that cover it and give it flecks of light.

Don't give up, we're nearly through it all.

 Another blogging friend, Frauke Schramm, entered this quilt titled "Passion Always Wins" into the guild Challenge category.  

Finally a little shopping including an apron I bought from Alison Hulme.

Yes, I could have made myself an apron but I liked the screen printing on this one and you have to support fellow artists, don't you?

Well done if you've got this far.  I think you deserve a drop of your favourite tipple.  I did take even more photos but I'll spare you them.  

PS Here's mine on display

That's yer lot!