The Festival Of Quilts, NEC, Birmingham, 13th August

The Festival of Quilts

Whilst I was putting up my degree show exhibition, one of the lecturers who I rarely see suggested that I submit work for the Festival of Quilts exhibition. However, when I got home and checked the internet I was too late for this year. So I decided it would be worth going along to this year’s exhibition so get a feel for the type of work submitted etc.

I went to the exhibition in 2009 after winning tickets through Embroidery magazine. I wondered what it was going to be, imagining drab, old-fashioned patchwork. However, it was quite beyond my expectations. Yes, there was plenty of traditional patchwork to be seen, but there were also more contemporary pieces, many involving fabric manipulation and folding techniques, which I thought, were lovely. It was this visit it 2009 which influenced the quilting and white-work elements of my second year work.

So off I went with a fresh head going to check out the competition so to speak. However, I was a bit disappointed to be honest. There were so many pieces that I thought, “I’ve seen that before.” There were so many pieces, which were very similar to 2009 exhibits just in slightly different colour ways. It certainly didn’t give me the inspiration that the 2009 event had which greatly disappointed me..

So who knows whether I will give the 2012 Festival of Quilts a go, maybe. I’m just not sure my quilt-works are not too contemporary – I guess my pieces are quilts in as far as I use two pieces of fabric with wadding sandwiched between…but that’s as far as it goes…

There were a few pieces which did stand out though:

‘Hot Africa’ was a winning piece, by Janneke de Vries-Bodzinga (Winner of Art Quilt, Pictorial Quilt and Best in Show). It’s not my cup of tea in terms of the style but it is beautifully done and it must take some skill to patch together shading and toning like that. I would certainly struggle! My favourite part of this quilt is the sun which I have taken a close up image of. The detail is amazing!

 I can’t remember which piece this was from and don’t seem to have a whole quilt photo either which is a pain. It’s the texture that I love, all those pleats and folds have been masterfully created; beautiful.

 Embroidered fabric envelopes – wow. What a beautiful idea. These would be wonderful for storing little bit and pieces in, jewellery perhaps. It’s a lovely eco-friendly idea, we could all re-use our birthday envelopes – obviously highly impractical if posting and it might help if cards were a generic size…  This was a project from studio 21 a co-operative of artists who create continuum pieces. They had a workshop area with huge lengths of fabric which you c thought it would be a brilliant idea for a community project particularly for children allowing everyone to make their own mark.

  ‘Heartache and Hope’ was inspired by the Threads of Feeling exhibition at the “Foundling Museum and the thought of handing your child over, hoping to be reunited in better times” (Creative Exhibitions, 2011, The Competition Catalogue) I visited this exhibition back in January. It’s a lovely piece and I thought it was nice to see something which came about through a response to such an emotive exhibition. Well done Jackie Smith!