Festival of Quilts 2016 - Favourites

There were over 1000 quilts entered into the FoQ this year and I thought I saw them all.  Looking at other visitors' blog reports I find that either I missed many or I was at a different show from them!!  Anyway, here is a selection of quilts that just caught my eye for various reasons, and not just the blue and white ones!  It is quite interesting for me to note that many of them could be categorised in the "Modern Quilt" style, which I profess to dislike, I guess that's the difficulty with categories!

Sittin' in the Morning Sun, Burgess Hill School for Girls

On the Beach with Alice, Hazel Ryder

Starry, Starry Night, Jane Appelbee

Ebb and Flow, Roberta Le Poidevin

52 32' N, 04 03' W, Laura Kemshall

My favourite quilt in the exhibition and too long to photograph in one go, especially with the crowds of people surrounding it.  I'm sure it will be featured in the patchwork and quilting magazines' reports of the FoQ 2016.

Bubbles of Joy, Anne Lilliholm Jorgensen

Blueprint, Hilary Jackson

Background Noise, Lisbet Borggreen

Little Lollipops, Kathleen Moore

Pride, Charlotte Ward

Charming Checkmate, Sheena Norquay

Narrative: walking, Terry Donaldson

Bulrushes, Hilary Beattie

In the Fields, Linda Burgess

X Doesn't Mark the Spot, Nicholas Ball and Trudi Wood

Eccentric Crosses, Heather Hasthorpe and Mandy Parks

Life on the Reef, Rosemary Muntus

Diving Bird, Katrin Schroeder

Festival of Quilts 2016 - Concealed

Another gallery I especially enjoyed at FoQ this year was the Art Textiles:  Made in Britain exhibition called "Concealed".  In 'personal interpretations and experiences of what may be Concealed', Sandra Meech, Hilary Beattie, Edwina MacKinnon, Cas Holmes and friends created an inspiring and thought-provoking collection of quilts.

Festival of Quilts 2016 - Harmony

One of my favourite galleries at FoQ this year was on Stand L14 and was a collection of quilts from Japan and Korea, together called "Harmony".  This is the exhibition information:

I took photos of some of the quilts and some close-up pictures, I also took pictures of the quilt descriptions (not always as straight or as in focus as they could be, it was a busy gallery, sorry).  Enjoy.

Festival of Quilts 2016 - The Lincolnshire Country Roads Quilt

Let's start with some of the quilts, and with the most important quilt in this year's festival - the Country Roads Quilters' group quilt, our first group quilt and being exhibited in FoQ was a first for everyone involved.

We were all very pleased with our quilt and indebted to the project co-ordinator, Liz Lane.  We look forward to reading the judges' comments but we know we did our absolute best at this point in our group's quilting career.
It was very special for me to meet up with Janine Ibbini, one of my Indigo Sisters from our time in Fujino, Japan.  Janine was a judge at FoQ this year and, although she didn't judge our quilt, it was very lovely of her to comment on Facebook pictures of our quilt,
"I spotted this quilt while I was chatting to someone and took a photo as I think it's a beauty!! How cool is that to know it's yours!! I love the colour scheme."
Wow, thank you Janine!!

This is our "blurb" about our quilt:
The colours in each country road block represent Lincolnshire.  Our beautiful county has rolling green pastures and distinctive soils while expansive farmland gives us big skies and glorious sunsets reaching the sea.  Red represents the cross of St George in the Lincolnshire flag with the blocks separated by country roads.

Our quilt was positioned alongside the winning quilts (did they just forget to pop the rosette on ours?!!) and so we had a great opportunity to admire the most excellent work at close quarters after adoring our own efforts.  Here are a few, with some close-ups, (apologies for missing one or two names):

 Office Doodle 1 by Sarah Humphreys

Paradise in Bloom, Robyn Fahy

Dyeversity, Sussex Spectrum

New Beginning, Elfriede Grooten

Leah Higgins, Ruins 6

Infinity, Sandy Chandler

Getting Ready for Festival of Quilts

I've been a busy bunny today, getting ready for going to the Festival of Quilts next week.

I've started to make a few lists - what to see, what to buy.  Then I thought it would be nice to cover my notebook.

Next I thought I'd like to have a new bag.  I only need to buy needles and a new thimble so I thought a small bag would do! Hmm, just in case I buy a little more I made the Natsu bag from Japan Crafts.  "Natsu" means Summer and this enormous bag would hold everything necessary for a day by the sea so it should be big enough for my needles and thimble!!  The bag is an easy pattern made of 40 charm squares and a metre of fabric.  There's quite a lot of hand sewing and I used an extra strong thread, just to be on the safe side.

I've nearly finished the journal quilt for August, just some stitching to do.

Green has been the colour for these four months:

May

June

July

Right, back to those lists I think. I'm only going to FoQ for two days so I've got to be a bit organised to see everything I want to see, including, of course, the Country Roads Quilt.