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Monday 15 August 2011

Festival of Quilts 2011



Yesterday was a glorious late summer day and I was lucky enough to make the final day of the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham. Just one and a half hours drive along the motorway and I was there! I'm not keen on large, crowded spaces and I knew the last day would be relatively quiet. My patience was rewarded and I had plenty of space to enjoy the wonderful quilts. You can click on any of the photos to see the full size image.


Probably one of my favourites was the winner of the traditional quilts, beautifully worked by hand in stunning colours.


and a closer look!


The best in show was a bit angsty for me, but the beauty was again in the detail!



Gillian Cooper's Unsung Muses was quite a moving experience to walk through.

She says, "Flat and empty figures, left with only traces of past human experience, washed out by the waves of time lapping and crashing over them.

People from the past lose definition and personality and merge together. With the world changing so fast it is difficult to understand someone from 50 years ago, let alone 4,000, particularly with the changing role of women. However these people are our past, they are part of us; their lives led the way for us coming into being in our full 21st century understanding."




The Tentmakers of Cairo had a huge display of their amazing applique quilts. This blue and green bird themed quilt was probably my favourite and I would have enjoyed taking it home with me as they were for sale, but the price tag was beyond my reach!


One of the Egyptian craftsmen was working on a cushion cover - the technique he used was totally different to anything I expected. The backing fabric was thick and very loosely woven, the needle was pretty big and the scissors were huge! No thimbles either just the pattern roughly inked onto the fabric and speedily sewn.


A quilt celebrating the work of the Foundling Hospital was something which took my breath away. Using vintage items, and each square representing an abandoned child. The Foundling Museum in London is now on my list of places to visit!






This stunning quilt was made with . . .


hexagons!


Liberty print dresses.


(I'm not sure if they were vintage or just made to look so).



A group quilt from 178 ladies in the Czech Republic made its way into the Guiness Book of Records.


Clearly a quilter lives in this wonky house.


I loved the international dimension to the show.


This stunning quilt was from Russia and close up you can see the applique


is raw edged with two layers, the bottom layer being gold lame.


Some of the quilts in the minature section were very tiny indeed! This quilter has my admiration for those tiny triangles.



And I would love to visit this coastal landscape.



The winner of the minatures was this heavily quilted beauty.


the detail!


Another stunning hexagon quilt.








And lastly I loved this pretty blue and white quilt from Hungary.




Thank you Quilters Guild of the British Isles for organising such a wonderful show and an amazing day out!


Ros


12 comments:

  1. Sorry to have missed you Ros. I was being a couch potato on Sunday. Glad that you had a good time. I loved Gillian's gallery too, such a feeling of calm in there.

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  2. Hi Ros, beautiful pictures. seeing the quilts at the FoQ are even more stunning. Im sorry I missed you. I would have loved to meet up with you.

    hugs Kerstin

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  3. Hi Ros,
    I cannot believe you were there on Sunday. Annette, Reb and myself were there too. How the heck did we miss you, there weren't many people there either. I had a great chat with the Egyptian Tent maker, he was making me laugh, and I him. Lovely man. I was unable to view the quilts myself due to my neck problem, but am seeing them on others blogs. So thanks Ros for the photo's, appreciate them.
    jan

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  4. Ros,Thank you for sharing what you saw with those of us that were not there. Looking at them though almost puts us there! Luv Lizx

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  5. I'm so happy that you were able to attend this amazing Festival. And thank you for sharing insights and photos. Love them all.

    SewCalGal
    www.sewcalgal.blogspot.com

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  6. The quilts were amazing were they not - I agree with your comments on the winners. All so much to take in, but loved EVERY minute! Lots of inspiration.

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  7. I saw the foundling exhibition of tokens last winter - it was absolutely amazing, and really poignant to see.

    Pomona x

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  8. thanks for sharing these are breathtakingly BEAUTIFUL! To have such talent!

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  9. Thanks for including my pieces amongst such illustrious company!
    Gillian

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  10. What a beautiful post! Thank you so much for sharing all those wonderful Pictures with those of us that couldn't attend! :)

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  11. You have captured a fantastic selection of quilts from the festival. I went for a day and loved to be there (my first time), next time I would like at least two days there is so much to see and do. A brilliant experience and I will definitely return next year!

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  12. Beautiful art work. Nice blog work also. I came across your blog while “blog surfing” using the Next Blog button on the Nav Bar located at the top of my blogger.com site. I frequently just travel around looking for other blogs which exist on the Internet, and the various, creative ways in which people express themselves. Thanks for sharing.

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