The Birmingham Festival of Quilts

I arrived home last Sunday from an 11 day adventure in the United Kingdom. I’ve done quite a few “quilt” tours in Europe and discovered there were very few quilt/fabric shops, and fiber related stops in most of the countries we visited. This was not true in the UK! I have so many things to share with you and I hope you’ll find my upcoming blog posts quite interesting. Today’s post is about the quilts!

Prior to the trip my friend Cindy told me she was going to enter a quilt in the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham along with her roommate Helen. She encouraged me to join them, and even offered to ship mine with theirs. This was an offer I couldn’t refuse. So I filled out the entry and lovingly packed up my Oak Leaf and Swirl quilt to be shipped prior to the show.

When I walked in the doors I headed straight for the quilts (my favorite part of any quilt show), and they did not disappoint. The FOQ in Birmingham is not a juried show, so each quilt entered was accepted. This meant that there was great variety in skill level, pattern and technique ~ and there were over 700 quilts! It made for a fascinating exhibit. As I walked through each category I noticed that the first place winners were moved to a seperate area (which I didn’t find until much later – it was a huge show!), and the other winners had their ribbons hung next to the quilt. Plus, every so often a quilt had a black circle on the name card with the word “shortlisted”. I wondered what it meant ~ and was especially curious when one of those stickers appeared next to my quilt:

A few moments later I ran into Cindy and Helen. They were with Amber from Handi Quilter who was interviewing them for the Handi Quilter Facebook page! It was such fun, and here we are right from their page:

 That’s when I found out what “shortlisted” meant. It’s best explained in this email I recieved from Ellen at the Festival of Quilts a few days after the show.

“Dear Chris Lynn, Thank you for entering your quilt into The Festival of Quilts competition 2024! It was a pleasure to have your work displayed at our event. We thought you might like to know how much the judges admired your work, and that your quilt Oak Leaf and Swirl was shortlisted in the Contemporary sponsored by Janome category. We appreciate all the hard work that goes into creating your quilt, and although your quilt didn’t win a prize on this occasion, please be assured that it was highlighted as a top contender by the judges.”

Praise the Lord! Thanks to Cindy for encouraging me to enter! Just having a quilt in this spectacular show was a joy.

Oak Leaf and Swirl is now safely back home and I’ve been very busy going through photos of the show. I’m going to share some of my favorite quilts and I’ve grouped them to make it a bit more organized. There were so many I’d like to include, but these were some of my top picks and I’ll share some more in next week’s post. This was the first place winner in the category my quilt was in ~ Contemporary Quilts, and I can see why it won ~ beautiful! The quilting is amazing. It’s entitled “High and Deep” by Kim Aeran of Korea:

The next few were also in the Contemporary category. I so enjoyed the buildings and scenery as we drove through the UK, so I was very attracted to “Black and White” by Greta Fitchett of the United Kingdom:

The next is “Pathways” by Chris Harvey of Australia. Her use of trapunto really added to the effect.

Another quilt from Korea was “Bed of Roses” by Jingook Yang. I just love the 3-dimensionality of it!

“Sunlight Through Stain Glass” was made from layer cakes and jelly rolls by Jill Johnston of the UK.

Kathy Unwin of the UK used a Japanese style of art called Notan to make “Leaves”.

Since the previous quilts were all quite artsy, the next ones fit into the Art Quilt category. “Doing the Rounds 2” by Dilys Fronks of the UK:

“Thimble – From All Over All Over the World” by Eva Have of Denmark contains images of some of the 2557 thimbles in her collection. The words on the bag are “thimble” in 20 different languages (click here to read my past post on thimbles).

“Here Comes the Sun” by Barbara Pieczynska of Poland is made with a very unique and effective technique.

Here’s a detail view:

“Shattered Dreams” by Ekaterina Bessarabova of Spain is a fascinating way to feature a traditional quilt.

“Echoes of the Ocean” was made by Chitra Mandanna of India. I love that it has “gaps” like the quilts in my Crossings series.

Linoquilt – the Whale was made by Johannon Davis of the UK.

And “St. Martha’s Arrival to MaSilia” by Moni/Hasmik Hovsepyan of Armenia is made with cotton fabric, paint and a leather frame.

The following Modern Quilts all appealed to me. I absolutely love this Christmas quilt entitled Geometree by Jo Westfoot and Joe Bennison of the UK.

Jenny Haynes of the UK truly has an eye for color and value. Her fabric choices and quilting really make “Hexabore Quilt – Four Petals” a treat for the eyes.

The flying geese in “Necessity is the Mother of Invention” by Lynne Hanson of the UK are a delight for the eyes. It reminded me of my quilt “Silly Goose”, but with a lot more intricate piecing (click here to read about it).

And I’ll end this weeks post with a smile. “Squirrel Chip” by Vera Srodka and Agnieszka Wietczak of the UK is possibly the most unique “modern” quilt I’ve seen so far.

Are you overwhelmed? I certainly was – and very inspired. It was so nice to have two full days at the show. I divided the quilts and vendors up over both days, and I even had time to take a few classes. If you prefer traditional quilts, I’ll post some of them next week. More to come 😃!