Festival of Quilts

 This will be picture heavy.  Here are just some of my favourites from the Festival of Quilts. Near the entrance in Hall 6 was the Quilter’s Guild stand, around which are the specialist groups- Quilt History, Traditional, Contemporary, Modern and Miniature. Behind this there is a Gallery from the Guild’s museum collection, called Text and Context and these are some of the quilts.  I really liked the paper pieced ones that showed the papers still in them.  Paper was an expensive commodity so instead of throwing away they were used to cut shapes for patchwork.  

I saw this dress quilt, more modern, made in 2014, which depicts the role of women in the 1950’s.  The maker is Val Jackson.

More quilt tops with theirs papers in, fascinating to see this history hidden by the prettier front.

Another gallery I enjoyed was the Contemporary Quilt Group’s called Uncharted.  This group explores art quilting and it was a beautifully curated collection of skinny quilts on this theme.  There were sample books with the quilters’ ideas which were good to look through.  I have bought a catalogue of the collection to read through the stories.

Another gallery I really enjoyed was the works of Danny Amazonas. These pictorial quilts were big and the use of fabrics to create the pictures was amazing. I concentrated on 2 of the quilts and took from a distance and close up.  You may be able to expand the close up photos to see more detail, it was brilliant.

Another American gallery was the Quiltfolk one of old American quilts.  There age may be unknown but they were ver traditional.

This quilt was a one patch variation. The quilt below is a Rattlesnake quilt (with close up below that).

Another gallery I looked at was that of Vendulka and Olivier Battais, whose intricate designs are emphasised by the use paint.  I only took one picture which didn’t do any justice to the work.

So this is just the start.  I think this may run into a few posts. I will go onto the competition quilts in another post.