Festival of Quilts 2012 - the photos!

OK, now that my feet have recovered from all the walking, my arms are back to normal length after all the carrying,and  my credit card is getting used to being firmly back in my wallet, here are the photos of my wonderfully exciting day at the Festival of Quilts, NEC, Birmingham UK, yesterday.
I got there well before opening time....... but so did everbody else!!! I have never ever seen such a long queue to gain entry in all my years of visiting the show. The queue went right from the entrance at Hall 7 to the end of the exhibition centre at Hall 12 before the doors opened, and the horrific length of the queue was the sole topic of conversation that I heard whilst waiting to go in. Despite everyone's fears however, once the queue started moving, it moved quickly and when inside we all seemed to disperse enough to be able to get good views of the quilts and to shop without too much pushing and shoving.
So, if you are not able to go in person, here is my little take on the highlights of the show.
First there was the quirky... a patchwork cat from Nel Whatmore's new Cat-Club

the Jennie Rayment workshop that is on Friday and Sunday (wish I could have attended this)

some English Paper Piecing.....

which is just a close up of this full size quilt !!!! -

There was the traditional.....





 the modern.....



the humorous take on the Olympics....



a close up of a small part of a romantic.....

a clever combination of piecing and texture....

a great modern graphic....

which had some lovely hand embroidery.....

a miniature (I guess about 12 inches (30 cm) square.......

another miniature (I wish I had hands nimble enough to do this)....

and finally a couple more of my favourites......

There seemed to be fewer mixed media quilts this year (I always love the paper ones) and I didn't see any journal quilts, but I know there was a bit I didn't get to because it was nearly closing and I was just too tired, so maybe I just didn't see them.

Oh, there is one final picture to show you.... the stash that I bought! I couldn't find everything on my list, but I did pretty well.

I got my Sketch, my Summersville (see those cute houses and flowers just waiting to have some random embroidery added) and a bundle of Klona solids all from Backstitch on Stand G6. I got one of the Jelly rolls I wanted (not on my list, but I knew I wanted it as soon as I saw it!!!) I got some Liberty Tana lawns, and I pre-ordered some of the Liberty Lifestyle (Fabrics Galore, Stand A28 actually had it in stock, but I only found that afterwards). I also got a chalk pouncer for marking designs - I've never used one before so I thought I'd give it a go. I was also very tempted by a Sewezi table - a smallish portable table on which your sewing machine sits flush with the table top.

My machine just has to sit on an ordinary table at the moment, and it does cause problems when I'm quilting a large quilt, as it keeps getting caugth on the machine.

Has anyone got one of these tables? Are they any good, or are they too small? I would really love to know what you think.

If you are going to the show, have a wonderful time.

Julie







Festival of Quilts 2012

Yay! It's now less than a week until the Festival of Quilts at the NEC Birmingham UK. This is the largest quilt show that we have in the UK and I'm incredibly fortunate to live just 15-20  minutes away from the venue! Yep, I could spend all day every day for the 4 days it's open cruising those aisles and still be home in time for dinner each day! Only problem with doing that is I'd be flat broke and have enough fabric to open a shop!
I shall definately go for opening day though, and maybe another one as well - just depends how much dithering I do on the first day!
I always have the same dilemma - do I admire all the quilts first (and you could spend a whole day at least doing just that!) or do I shop first? Or maybe half and half? No, I get seriously lost in the shopping aisles as it is - I'd end up doing the same section twice!
I shall be very good- take a shopping list and stick to it buy what's on the list and a load more as well.
So far my list looks like this:
1. New fabrics to look out for:
   a) The Sew Stitchy line by Aneela Hoey - a UK designer

This have sewing related images printed on them, and I think the pins or spools of thread or a patchwork of both would make a lovely journal cover for sewing notes. Can you see those tiny cute stitched birds in blue and grey? They are awesome!

b) The second item on my list is probably on everyone else's too!

It's the Bloomsbury Garden Range from Liberty Lifestyle. This is a quilting weight cotton from the renowned Liberty Fabrics, but at a normal fabric price (Liberty fabrics, probably best known for their Tana Lawns are absolutely gorgeous, but very expensive!).

This is just one of the colourways due to arrive shortly and apparently Backstitch who will be on stand G6 have sample swatches and we can pre-order at the show :) They had better keep those swatches on a very strong chain!

2. Fabrics I have been craving for a while:

a) Summersville by Lucie Summers - another  UK designer - Yay!

I'm amazed I haven't succumbed and bought some of this before now. I just love those quirky houses, and I've seen some of this randomly embroidered on Pinterest - it looks wonderful and I can think of so many uses for it (that's me justifying the whole range to myself!)

b) Sketch by Timeless Treasures

This has only just arrived in this country I believe. It's a solid with a grainy, linen-like look. I want to get using more solids in my quilts and sewing generally, so some of this is a must. I hope that is a nice grey at the bottom. I'm very into greys at the moment - as you'll see by the next item on my list.

c) A range of greys

Now scouring the internet, I've come up with two pretty appealing ranges

Curious Nature by Parson Gray (hubby of Amy Butler)

Little Black Dress by Basic Grey

I think I've said before I love all things Basic Grey, but I'm really not sure which of these ranges I prefer - that's why I need to see them first hand, which I hope to do at the show.

Anyway I think that list is long enough by now. It will be very amising to see what I actually come back with, and how  much it deviates from this list!

I promise to post photos of my favourite quilts and arty items and anything else that takes my fancy.

I also promise that there is a knitting related post coming soon - it's long overdue!

Till next week..... Julie