Where can you find masses of mind blowing talent, all under one roof? The Festival of Quilts 2013 of course!

It's taken a week just to edit all the pictures.  There really was some serious  talent going on at this year's Festival of Quilts.  And I was lucky enough to be there for two days, sucking up all the inspiration and trying not to blow the budget on all those gorgeous fabrics, threads and notions that were surrounding me at every turn. 

 

 

 

If you couldn't make it this year, then read on, as I'd like to share just the tip of the iceberg of quilt awesomeness with you.  And if you did go, then read on anyway, as there was so much to see,  you might not have seen it all.  (I know I didn't, I'm going for 4 days next year!)

 

First up for me was meeting the wonderful, talented, Tula Pink.  I was so excited to meet and chat with her, and she signed a copy of her latest book 100 Modern Quilt Blocks.  I even had my photo taken with her.  But I look so terrible (I got up at 5 am that day) that I can't show you.  So here's one of the gorgeous City Sampler quilt instead.   Trust me it's prettier. 

 

I arranged to meet the lovely Lucie for lunch, and low and behold, our beverages were at the front of the shelf waiting for us. 

 

Ok so technically not the correct spelling of Lucie's name but we were happy ;-)

 

And talking of Lu, look at her stunning quilt that she entered into the Fine Art Quilts Category. 

 

 

You can't see all the wonderful quilted detail (sorry about that) but it really was breath-taking and so much work.  Lu you are a genius :-)

And I had the pleasure to meet the very lovely, and oh so colourful Brandon Mably, who you can see here dabbling in a spot of knitting, which just so happens to match the colour of his shirt. 

I loved Katy Jones' Dresden Quilt, isn't that shade of purple just to die for! 

 

And here's the best of the rest.  I've done my best to cite credit, when I know the maker and for the rest I've just watermarked with 'Festival of Quilts 2013' rather than my own watermark. 

 

 

This quilt was in the European quilts section, and it's hard to believe, but this is all EPP.  Just mind bogglingly beautiful. 

The miniature category defied belief.  The detail that was squeezed into such a small space was incredible.  And each mini was so unique and beautiful, not to mention cute.  Some of them were really tiny.

 

 

This below was the Miniature Category winner - even it were a full sized quilt it would be awesome, but for it to be so tiny was just breath- taking.  

 

 

Here's another winning entry - a quilted boat - I mean who has an imagination to come up with these ideas, just incredible! 

These teeny tiny log cabin cushions were all sewn together to create an impressive rainbow wall.  My goodness so very many hours must have gone into this, and such a fabulous use of colour. 

This sun quilt was amazing.

And this tiger was so lifelike, it was hard to believe it was a quilt.  And can you see the quilting?  Incredible. 

 

I was completely in love with this waistcoat.  It was only small, but I just loved the colours, the detail and the embellishments.  The steward told us that the colour was actually painted on before being quilted and then echo quilted.  This is a technique I'd love to have a go at some time.   

I loved this water lily quilt as it reminded me of Monet's impressionist paintings. 

 

I was completely taken with this hot air balloon art quilt.  The detail was incredible.  It even had a real working clock in the bottom left hand corner.  Simply stunning. 

 

And this Dr Who quilt is one I searched up and down for the aisles for. I knew it was going to be at the Festival and just had to see it for myself.  I'd read the story of it's conception through to execution here and when I heard it was coming to Birmingham I was very excited.  And here it is! 

 

I'm desperate to make a pixel quilt some time soon, perhaps not quite on this scale but I have a few ideas up my sleeve that I would love to try when I get spare (ha ha) second. 

 

Well that's pretty much it for my F of Q roundup.  I hope you've enjoyed it, and perhaps it's inspired to you go next year, if at all possible, or at the very least to push the boundaries of what you are capable of achieving.  I know for myself that I came home feeling so fired up to push myself; there are so many techniques and skills that I want to learn and develop, and one day I hope I will. 

 

Thank you so much for stopping by,

 

Sarah x

FQ Retreat - Part II (Eventually!)

Ok so it's taken about 100 years for me to get around to writing this post about my wonderful Fat Quarterly Retreat experience - who'd have thought the summer holidays would be so all consuming! 

 

But better late than never, and I wanted to share a few of the projects and very importantly, fabrics that I purchased while I was there.  My goodness it was such a treat to touch and feel the fabrics before I bought them.  (We are somewhat of a fabric dessert here in Jersey).

 

First of all, here's my little embroidery that I made a start on in John's Class.  (Check out his page, you'll see me and my work on his blog too, yay!)

 

 

 

And here's the lovely Liberty bag that we all received on arrival...

 

 

Full of wonderful goodies!

 

 

And in no particular order, here are all the fabrics that I bought on Market night. 

 

 

 

Don't you just adore the cute little mirror - my dear blogging friend and now real life friend Liz had a stall where you could turn your fabric into badges; let's just say I was there a LONG time!  Such a cool idea Liz...I might have to become an agent for the Channel Islands Franchise ;-)

These are a random bunch of fat quarters that I just had to have, and not necessarily to use all together.

 

Now things start to get exciting.  At first glance yes, Liberty.  But closer inspection reveals no less than Hello Kitty Liberty...talk about fabulous!  This print was so popular that it sold out in the blue colourway before I could get my hands on some.  But I'm a rather girly girl, so I was happy  delighted with this one.

 And talking of Liberty, here's another sneaky purchase that I picked up at the treasure trove that is the Shaukat store, just up the road.   

 

Ever since it's been released, I've had my eye on this gorgeous, organic Robot Fabric.  So I just couldn't resist a whole bundle.  One day when my 'to do' list isn't so enormous I'll get around to making a Robot quilt.  I have the design in my head and everything. 

 

And of course I had to stop by and say 'hi' and have a catch up with the wonderful Lu Summers,( who came to Jersey in March of this year to teach, read about it here) and I added to my already quite large Summersville Spring stash :-)

And finally, did I mention what fun I had in the Fabric Fantasy workshop with Kerry?

 

 

Well here's the bundle I made and subsequently purchased.  I wanted to try something different from my usual style and thought I'd go 'low volume'.  This is what I came up with.

 

 

Ideally I wouldn't have had two lots of pearl bracelets, but there wasn't another fabric in the same colourway that I wanted, so I'll live with the two.  I don't think it's the crime of the century and I do love a pearl bracelet.  Real or fabric!

 

When I purchased my bundle at the Quilt Market (care of The Village Haberdashery) no less than 2 people wanted to make up the bundle for themselves, so I was completely thrilled, as you can imagine.  I'm thinking I need my name on it somewhere ;-0

 

 

Well I think that's it for the FQ Retreat roundup. 

 

Tomorrow is the start of my next adventure...Festival of Quilts...ekk, I'm excited!  Are you going?  I'd love to hear from you! 

 

I'll be back next week with hopefully a more prompt roundup of my trip.

 

Thank you so much for stopping by,

 

Sarah x