Festival of Quilts

A surreal day was to be had yesterday at the Festival of Quilts at the NEC. I have never visited this show before as a punter as am usually there selling hard! This year I am reserving all my energies for the Knitting and Stitching Shows at Alexandra Palace and Harrogate where my work is featuring in the Graduate Showcase. I also have a stand at Alexandra Palace but it will be radically different to previous years but more about that in a later post. Back to the quilting show… One of the main reasons for going was to see the work of our former tutors, Susan Chapman and Terrie Hitchcock. Although obviously biased this exhibition entitled ‘Evidence of Bodies’,was a favourite

Sorry Sue and Terrie about the quality of my pics and they looked much better in the flesh
I was also extremely impressed to learn that one of our number, Lynne Onions is considered to be a ‘rising star’and was selected by the Quilters Guild to make a piece for their ‘In the Spotlight’ exhibition. Brilliant and well done!
The theme for this year is ‘Underground’
I was also very taken with the work of Mandy Patullo, whose exhibition entitled ‘Thread and Thrift’ was right up my street. She reuses old fabrics and quilts, remaking them into new collages and then embellishes them with stitch.

The last noteworthy item was a quilt to be found in an exhibition curated by Jan Petranik an expert in Banjara or historic Indian textiles. This quilt was extremely won with many layers worn away exposing the fabrics underneath. I was not able to resist taking numerous photos since each square inch was a gem in its own right