Festival of Quilts 2017

Oh my word, I'd forgotten how much work this event is, and I wasn't even working for myself! Mind you, I was with one of the hardest working teams at Festival this year, my old employers Doughty's. This was my eighth year working for them, and with five stands, more gorgeous fabric than ever, and an amazing group of people to work with, I had a great time, though totally and utterly exhausted now. I'm planning to do Festival for Sewmotion next year, if only for an easier life!! Haha! It was lovely to see some familiar faces, especially Sewmotion customers, thank you so much for coming to say Hi! Here are just a two of the five Doughty's stands - you can read a blog from 2015 about what goes into building these mammoth stands here.

Somehow I got the chance to see some of the quilts this year, here are some that caught my eye on the way to the loos :)

The top one was one of my faves from the show, 'The Sprinter' by Birgit Schüller entered into the Quilter's Guild Challenge, just look at that quilting, such amazing movement! Bottom left is 'Rainbow Roads' by Isabel Munoz and right is 'Broken Records', though I'm afraid I didn't get the name of the quilter, both from the Modern Quilts category.

I was overjoyed to see so many modern quilts there this year, including the travelling exhibition from this year's Quilt Con, and I got to see the winning quilt in person - 'Bling' pieced and quilted by Katherine Jones.

Above are more quilts from the Quilt Con exhibit - top left 'Whatever' by Katie Larson; top right 'Die Been (Trees)' by Lindsey Neill; bottom left 'Go North' by Maritza Soto; bottom right 'Lincoln' by Kim Soper.

I'm a sucker for anything Pop Art and I loved these panels inspired by comic strip glamour girls and the work of Roy Lichtenstein.  'Cover Girls' is by Bethan Ash and is made by fusible collage and then machine quilted in parallel vertical lines.

Another exhibition that caught my eye were these amazing quilts from the UKQU 365 Challenge - the ultimate Sampler Quilt designed by Kathryne Kerr.

Any finally... the Best in Show went to an old favourite of mine, Phillippa Naylor's 'Measure for Measure' - how exquisite is that quilting? I've never seen something so tiny before, Phillippa has really taken the 'mini quilt' to a new level!

I hope you've enjoyed my mini review of this year FoQ, now back to reality and preparing for Sewmotion's show in Harrogate on the first weekend in September!

Linking up with Let's Bee Social, Midweek Makers and Needle & Thread Thursday