I don’t really consider myself a quilter.
I’ve dabbled. But really, when it comes to proper quilting, I’m just a spectator. I love to see other people’s quilting, and to admire other people’s quilts.
Which is exactly what I did on Friday last week, at the Festival of Quilts, in Birmingham.
There were certainly plenty of quilts to admire.
Here are some of my personal favourites…
Amazing, aren’t they? And there were so many more.
Many were intimidating in their perfection. Some were breathtaking in the sheer hours of labour they represented. Some were teeny-tiny. Many were beautiful – and most were impossible to capture in the (frankly rather dim and disappointing) lighting of the exhibition hall.
Call me old fashioned, but some, to my mind at least, kind of pushed the boundaries of the definition of the term “quilt” way beyond my comfort zone.
There was one, admired by all who saw it, which was actually a whole chess set of large, three dimensional dolls standing on a monochrome quilted chessboard…
But was it a quilt?
As well as the exhibition there was an enormous marketplace of stalls selling all kinds of quilting, sewing and crafting supplies.
And fabric. Oodles and oodles of fabric.
Nearly all of it new, and 99% of it not really to my taste…
But then I found some that was.
I’ll tell you about that tomorrow. ♥
Events like that nearly always have far too much to look at, and you end up tired, footsore, grumpy and a whole lot poorer, without a very clear idea of what you’ve seen. I think you’re fortunate to find most of the fabric not to your taste – I’d be spinning dizzily trying to decide which I simply couldn’t live without, and would probably go home regretting the choices I did make!
You have just managed to put into words how I felt after my visit to FoQ. I was hoping to come back full of inspiration but “intimidated by perfection” is exactly how I feel too. As to some of the items on display, I’m not sure how I would describe them, but “quilt” was certainly not the first word to spring to my mind.
Yes, I share your feelings. For me there is something missing from the event… it has too much of a feeling of “preaching to the converted” and not enough encouragement or ways in for dabblers such as myself (although admittedly, I didn’t do any workshops).
I like the fact that boundaries are pushed, but I think “textile art” is a more fitting description for some of the exhibits, because they really aren’t quilts. And some of the technically superb efforts actually left me cold, because they were either very old fashioned-looking, or just not my taste.
But I guess the beauty of a large show like this is that if you are prepared to give it enough time, you will find something you like as there’s just SO much there.
My main issue was that there was nowhere except an overcrowded snack bar to sit down or have a meeting (the reason I was there) – surely a nice seating area isn’t too much to ask? Especially when many (if not most) of the attending public was made up of elderly ladies who must’ve been desperate to rest their feet and eat something decent, neither of which were on offer – dry bread sandwiches, dull food offerings, not enough chairs were the order of the day.
If you go again next year, it is worthwhile getting a hand stamp and leaving the halls for a break. If you head towards the empty hall 12 there is a small seating area. If the weather is good, there are some benches outside hall 12 and various grassy bits by the disabled parking. Unfortunately, bringing your own food is the only way around the lack-lustre catering offerings.
Thanks for the tip! I only found out about the hand stamp quite late in the day – as I went in they just took my ticket off me and didn’t mention that you could go out and come back in again.