Tuesday 19 August 2008

The Festiaval of Quilts



On Friday I joined the thousands of women, and half a dozen men for the annual FOQ at the NEC in Birmingham. There were so many people that the queue for the opening stretched nearly the full length of the Atrium.
The highlight of this year's show for me was meeting up with Jacqueline and Françoise. I've been blogging with them both for quite a while now, so it as a real treat to have a coffee and a chat about our creative endeavours.
We parted company to have a look round the show and the all important trade stands and then met up later in the afternoon to compare notes. It was wonderful to have the three of us together discussing the various pieces that inspired us, I really hope we get the chance to meet up like this again.
My lovely OH came into the the show with me for the first hour or so and took some lovely shots for me, just as well as mine were dreadful! The only thing is I'm afraid I didn't make a note of the makers, so I'm afraid all pics are anonymous.







I thought this quilt was amazingly powerful and certainly one that stopped me in my tracks.




This was my favourite piece in the show, the whole piece was just magical.


And the close up.


Just couldn't resist these, they were so colourful.




I think this must have been my OH's personal favourite as I don't remember seeing it!

It is a huge show and difficult to take in, on a day visit. So I think I have probably gained as much from looking at the pics when I got home as seeing the work there, but a couple of things have stuck in my mind. The first was seeing Laura Kempshall, so proficiently quilting their new family project, it was such an insight into how they produce their wonderful quilts. The second was watching the members of Committed to Cloth working in the virtual studio.

7 comments:

Julie said...

Hi Sharon. I can help you with a couple of the quilts. The third one down is by Linda Kemshall and the cows one is by Ferret and won the Pictorial Quilts category. Its title was "Herd Mentality". Guess who's got the catalogue?

It's good to "see" you and Jacqueline. Maybe next year for real?

Helen said...

Thank you for the pics Sharon. I'm with you on the 3d hanging sculpture - that's really taken my interest.

Unknown said...

Hi Sharon, it was a really nice day, but to be honest a couple of these quilts I can't remember either :-)

Joanna said...

Wow, those are some really great quilts. Really cool using traditional quilt patterns and seeing them blend into the backdrop.

hippopip said...

I t was brilliant wasn`t it and I should think half of blogland was there a couple of your quilts I had`nt even seen, so goodness knows how many more I missed

Debbi Baker said...

Wow what a brilliant day you must have had - so good to see the photo of the three of you as well!

Ro Bruhn said...

What a fabulous show. I love those shoes, I wonder why. How lovely to meet up with fellow blogger too.