Back from Festival of Quilts...

I got home from the NEC at 10 p.m. on Sunday (the high security and minimal loading parking places at the back make getting away difficult) and "Landscape on Kimono" finished today. I have taken lots of photos and will be loading them up here soon!

For now, here are my two quilts hanging at FoQ. Both really needed blocking, but the weather leading up to quilt delivery day didn't allow it. If I had got them damped for blocking, I couldn't have spread them out indoors (too big) and outside was too wet, plus the atmosphere felt so humid I don't think they would have dried. I must get out my professional hairdryer again (put away when I got my hair cut) as that would be able to dry them super fast.

I suspected I had entered "The Denman Kannon" in the wrong category. It probably should have been in Art Quilt (it is entered in Art Quilt for the Great Northern Quilt Show in just over a week's time), but it felt a bit too traditional for that - after all, I was using a traditional technique and traditional patterns, just bending them a bit into something new. You can see the winner of the Contemporary section to the left of my quilt, by Shena Norquay. I love her printed modern wholecloths and one of the few quilts I own by other quilters is the 24in square one she made for the Quilters' Guild's £50 fundraiser several years ago.


"Lulea Blockhus" was in the right category, although I don't think that scrap quilts are quite the sort of thing that fits at FoQ. Somehow, a bit too trad for traditional, if you get my point. It was nice to see it finished and it made a good conversation point with some of the Swedish visitors to the show that I met at my stand. I even met one quilter who was originally from Lulea, so she knew exactly where Mocktrask was (the village where our friends Algot & Thrya had their old farm, 4 mil (40 km) from Lulea).


There were a few bags I recognised....

This amazing hybrid between the Rice Sack Bag from "21 Terrific Patchwork Bags" with the takarazukushi (collection of treasures) applique blocks from "Japanese Quilt Blocks to Mix and Match" was incredible. Knowing how much work goes into hand appliqueing these blocks, I wouldn't sacrifice them to a bag! One of the German quilters had made this, and she also made a version of the Berry Bag from "21 Sensational Patchwork Bags" to go with it. I am so impressed by the lovely work on both these bags.

I saw two versions of the Typo Satchel (still need to download all the photos from my camera, so there is only one here). The touches of red with the brown on cream prints make the design lively and chic.


Favourite galleries were Ferret's (she's posting a virtual tour on her blog over the next few days - there's a link at the right), Janice Gunner's shibori inspired pieces (inc. a great wallhanging with a chunk of one of my silk tsumugi kimono fabrics in it) and Chunghie Lee's contemporary pojagi. As usual, there was so much at Festival of Quilts that I didn't have time to see. Yoshiko Jinzenji had some new works but I didn't like them as much as the pieces she showed in 2003, which were included in her book. Her earlier work used a lot of silks she had dyed with natural materials, including the amazing bamboo white dye (which seemed to glow).

Just two quilts to finish for the Great Northern Quilt Show now!