Out and About - Festival of Quilts

 

I loved the badge and it’s was the first thing I bought at the Festival of Quilts this year.  I haven’t been for 3 years due to you-know-what and was looking forward to going this year.  As a Quilter’s Guild member I could book earlier and I also paid in advance for a catalogue, which can a few days before David and I went away. I was there on the Friday and Saturday and maybe because it’s held over 4 halls at the NEC instead of 3 pre-Covid it seemed quiet-ish and easy to get around.  The exhibitors had changed too, with some well known names not attending.

I had in mind a budget for spending and although I took cash, quite a few vendors and all the caterers took cards so it was difficult to keep up with the spending but think I pretty much stayed around my budget.

I took two classes, one pre booked on the Saturday and the Friday one I booked at the show which gave me a rest from achy feet. I was prepared with my little Moda sewing book, which came in handy.

The Friday class tutor was Helen Moyes, who gave us pieces of painted Tyvek paper, which could be cut into strips, rolled and heated with soldering irons and heat guns to create beads, which you can see in the bottom of the above pic.  I quite enjoyed this and I already have a sheet of Tyvek in my stash, so watch out there may be more of these.  Two ladies in the class made bracelets out of their beads, threaded through metallic thread. 

Saturday’s class was to make a Dorset Button flower bouquet brooch, which you can see attached to my Moda sewing book.  This might seem like ‘coals to Newcastle’ as I can make Dorset buttons, but the tutor, Gini, who comes from West Yorkshire was taught by a Dorset woman to make buttons.  She was a lovely tutor, explaining things thoroughly to ensure that everyone finished the project.  

As for shopping there wasn’t masses of things that I need and surprisingly I buy a lot and it all fitted in a small paper carrier bag!  

There were some small pieces of Liberty Tana lawn from Alice Caroline fabrics and some Liberty cotton from the Bramble Patch (the striped fabric and those underneath with instructions for and iPad case along with the blue fabric on the left. A kit to make a miniature quilt with wild flowers from Julia Gahaghan. Spectacle fabric from Helen Steele in purple, a hank of sari ribbon from the Silk Route. Perle threads from Little L’s (they have a myriad of colours in different weights of Finca perle threads) and variegated dyed perle thread from Paint-Box threads, which really really lush and wished I bought more.  

I also bought next year’s Quilter’s Guild calendar (just right for our kitchen and it has tear off quilt postcards, a book from the Contemporary Quilt group of their exhibition ‘Uncharted’, as I loved the quilts in that section and wanted to know more of the stories. Picked up free patterns from the Liberty stand and other leaflets along the way,

I will post another post with photos of the quilts that I liked.  I enjoyed the show and I think but I think that times have changed and it’s not quite the vibrant show that it once was, that was my view. Maybe things will get better in the future.  I will be going (with friends this time) to a more general craft show in Farnborough in a couple of weeks and see how things are there,