FESTIVAL OF QUILTS 2011

Still tired from yesterday and all the efforts with tidying the studio and store room, still a bit more to do but am fed up with it at the moment so the last few boxes will have to remain unsorted!
Lovely trip to Birmingham yesterday, so funny riding alongside the coach of people that we know and Carolyn waving , I was driving so didint see anyone as you would expect at 70 mph in the central lane of the M6.  Whizzed there with no hold ups.

I never know if to go see the quilts or shops first.  Ended up going to see Stephanie Redfern who we found out had won one of the categories with Stone Bird.  We are booked into a workshop with her next week and had a fabulous chat.  On the way to view Stone Bird we got side tracked by 20th Century yarns. Oooh we were so lucky to get there really early as they had a few bargain bags of scrims, velvet & wool felt, most of which went home with one of us, so much for not buying anything.  The book was outstanding

We looked for a quilt angel to turn the pages and a tall gruff bloke let us see about 4 of about 20 pages, he was not your usual happy angel, everything that I returned there was a huge crowd so not many pictures but you can buy her book, which we both did.  Its not a how to do but an eye candy book which is high quality printing, visit her site HERE

Lucky me to do a 2 day workshop, I feel really fired up as I have admired her work for 2 years

Also in the same area were the art clothes and 3D items and this:

Astonishing

Left hand side

By KATE CROSSLEY of Oxford

Called A BOX OF DELIGHTS

(thank you Julie)

Part of the right hand side

I am so sorry but I dont know the name of the maker.  The labels dont put the names WHY? If they print a number they must be able to print the name as well, it is so very annoying to have to buy the brochure and look up the names, its archaic in this computer age.  If anyone knows then please would they leave a comment or email me

Whilst we are on comments - is it easy or hard to leave comments on my blog?  Does anyone know how to improve it?  I do so love to see you comments

Back to FOQ

From this area I wandered around, along the demonstrators which I found quite disappointing as most of them were demo -ing the same stuff as last year.  Some had books out showing the stuff they demoed last year, some had the exact same stuff as for many years.  I didnt think it was as busy as last year

There were many more seats, nice seats and table and a really strange bright pink carpet, only slightly better than the awful orange carpet, that of migraines

Walking around I spied Sandra Meech & one of the groups she is part of Studio21

Wonderful group of ladies.

Their exhibition was all connected textiles. All with a tiny red bird and in a little area they had made metres of cloth with printing on, on tables they had laid out bits of fabrics and fibres left from their exhibits and asked if anyone wanted to stitch on the cloth which they are going to display on a blank wall opposite their booth.

I jumped at the chance

This is what I stitched, the theme was to do with CONTINUUM - a sense of place - and as I have been working with Dale on the brain edges blog on teapots & my teapots are actually houses I chose that theme.  I must have been there half an hour, then Carolyn walked by and joined in and did X marks the spot

We were asked to sign it also

I suggested that they displayed each days efforts on the wall and we were thrilled to see at the end of the show that they did this

Sandra Meech & Jill Flower

The white area is where my stitching is, so I am being exhibited at FOQ lol

Here is a tired Jill Flower writing on the wall & here is her outstanding piece

Home Sweet Home

Papers & stitch

It was terrific, magazine papers, scrim, machine made lace and stitch and this along with Stone Bird was the show highlight - oh and a quilt from the American Museum at Bath, which I was not allowed to photograph.

Thank you ladies of studio 21 for such a fabulous time, if you are going over the weekend please call in & stitch & say Shelagh says hi

I think that it miht be exhibited in full at Alexander Palace in October.  I hope so & I hope that it is huge, it was nearly all used up, here is another section

If you did a bit or do a bit will you leave a comment or email me please

shelaghfolgate@aol.com

After this it was lunch time and then another wander around the quilts

PAM HOLLAND from Australia

The winning miniature by the artist who won the Championship quilt last year.  The quilting, by machine was so small vermechelli it was mind blowing, my only critism is that the binding was much to thick & large, it was machine stitched with little motifs so looked like a border and it was the most outstanding craftsmanship
Just a few pictures, sorry no names for the reasons stated, but they are taken with my phone and details cant be clearly seen, I am never too sure if to post them or not without names, the miniature was Kumiku ? I loved the Rhino and also a fab quilt which was huge of a Bedhouin Guide in the desert it was uplifting & the very best of Patchwork & Quilting to me

I hope you have enjoyed sharing in my day out, it was met by the usual getting lost when leaving the FOQ, which happens nearly every year due to the really stupid signposts that send you to the north & south M42 & M6, we dashed to the chippie, dashed home, stuffed our faces and went to our BOAT meeting.  More about that in another post x