Festival of Quilts - part 1

This year's Festival of Quilts at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham has drawn to an end. I have just spent three very busy and somewhat tiring days there and I thought I would share some photographs of the winners and some of the quilts that caught my eye.

General impressions this year was that there were fewer quilts on display, particularly full bed quilts. I think this has much to do with the competition categories of which there are very few when compared to other international quilt shows, therefore not encouraging a greater breadth of entries, but I will not harp on about this...  Where possible I have added the quilter's name and title of their quilt and whilst I made sure I kept a check on this, it is apparent from my notations in the catalogue that I did not document some. My apologies therefore to the quilter. If anyone can fill the gaps for me I would be grateful!

I have started with some of the winners and will continue with some of the quilts that I enjoyed in another post (or two!). Enjoy the photographs!



"Octopussy"
Janneke de Vries-Bodzinga, Kollumerzwaag, The Netherlands

Best in Show
1st Art Quilt, Best Amateur Quilt

Close-up of Best in Show

  

"Hot Africa"
Janneke de Vries-Bodzinga, Kollumerzwaag, The Netherlands

1st Pictorial

  



"Heart's Desire"
Deborah Kemball, London

1st Traditional Quilt



Close-up of 1st Traditional

"Dear Jane, it's the 21st century"
Valerie Mullally, Kells, Ireland

1st Contemporary

"Amazed"
Margaret McDonald & Susan Campbell (Longarm), Victoria, Australia

1st  Two Person Quilts

"Blue like a Wedgwood"
Kumiko Frydl, Texas, USA

1st Miniature

"Comparethequilt.com"
Mere Kats, Chester

1st Group

This group piece caused much amusement and I would not mind betting that it may have won Viewer's Choice. We in Britain have a fascination for Meerkats - they are not native to Britain but live in the desert of Namibia and other parts of Africa and have strong family relationships. Ever since a wildlife documentary about meerkats and a couple of "soap" series called Meerkat Manor, meerkats have been appearing in many guises, including a highly successful advertising campaign for an on-line motor insurance company. As a result, there are now meerkat toys representing some of the characters and a new word has entered the English vocabulary "Simples!" Now the meerkats have been immortalised as quilters at a quilt show!

Close-up 1

Close-up 2

Close-up 3

 More photographs to come in Part 2!