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As I looked through the photographs of all the fun we had, the places we visited, and the people we met on our adventure in the UK, there were a few special stops that really make me smile whenever I think about them ~ and I decided to save their stories for this last post about the trip. Please note that, even though I’m sharing much about this once in a lifetime trip, the things I’m including are all the quilting/fabric related items. They don’t begin to include the castles, palaces, cathedrals, churches, historical landmarks, and much of the scenery we enjoyed.

Alas, for a quilting blog, they will need to remain in my personal album 😊. But don’t even begin to think that that’s all there is ~ because my favorites have arrived!

In last week’s post I mentioned Calico Kate’s quilt shop in Lampeter. What made it extra special was the building right next door ~ the Welsh Quilt Center!

It housed one of the best quilt exhibits I’ve seen. To help you understand the significance I need to introduce you to Jen Jones (if you don’t know about her already). This is a brief history of who she is from her own site:

“When Jen Jones first arrived in Wales in 1971, she found a land where the Welsh woollen mills no longer produced vast quantities of their remarkable narrow loom blankets for the world’s markets. Driven out of business by the soulless and ubiquitous duvet, those industrious craftswomen, the Welsh quilters, had also stopped making their practical and original quilts.

Imbued with her native New England respect for the heritage of quilt making, Jen Jones knew she couldn’t re-start these industries but she could, and did, rekindle national and international appreciation of these artefacts.

Since her creation of the shop over thirty years ago, Jen has gone on to support and manage the foundation of the Welsh Quilt Centre in Lampeter, which offers visitors a unique opportunity to see some of the world’s finest quilts, each year set into a different context. She also speaks passionately on the subject all over the world.”

The current exhibit was of red and white (and sometimes black) quilts from Jen’s collection. Some of them were arranged as part of a merry-go-round in the center of the room, with music from American musicals playing as they spun.

There were others artfully arranged throughout the gallery.

And the quilting was spectacular.

We learned that being a quilter was a profession in the 1800 and early 1900s. Women would travel from farm to farm in rural communities, and live with the families as they quilted the tops those women had made. When they were done they moved on. Think about it – there were quilters who only liked making tops back then too 😁. Along with Jen’s quilts were smaller pieces, on smaller carousels hanging throughout the gallery. They were made by a present day Welsh quilter named Mary Jenkins,

and a cozy corner was dedicated to her work.

Then, across the corridor was an exhibit of work by another talented Welsh fiber artist:

She does amazing work in so many different styles. This was her own description of her work.

Her flowers were beautiful.

And her thread work was amazing.

Just look at this detail photo.

Plus I absolutely loved her little Welsh dolls.

What a wonderful time we had at the Welsh Quilt Center. Then we got back on the bus and traveled through the Welsh countryside to Jen’s shop in her lovely farm house.

There was shelf after shelf of quilts and wool blankets. And Jen herself was there (on the right), along with Hazel (center), to help us find what we were looking for 😊.

Jen also deals in other antiques and each room in this small house was captivating.

Quiltina made herself at home and quickly made friends.

It was a lovely visit ~ and quite a few treasures were purchased there.

The next day we visited my other favorite stop ~ Cwtch and Cushions in Bridgend. Cwtch is a decidedly Welsh word that means a cuddle or embrace, with a sense of offering warmth and safety. The best way I can think of to pronounce it correctly is as the first syllable of the phrase we use when speaking to a baby: coochy-coo.

When Kristi first made contact with Jill she was concerned because the shop would only hold 6 customers at a time. This made things even more intriguing. When we arrived in our tour bus we made quite a stir in this small community. One resident remarked that she didn’t remember a bus that big ever being in town before. We spent our time visiting the shop and a charity (thrift store) just down the block, and we enjoyed ourselves immensely.

Jill was happy to be photographed with each of us, and we enjoyed reading all of her posts on Facebook about our visit. We really felt like celebrities!

I think you can see why these stops were my favorites. Thanks to Kristi, and our UK guide Claire for all the fun! It couldn’t have been a better trip!

PS The afternoon of the day I’m posting this, I will be going to our UK trip reunion. I can’t wait to get together with this delightful group once again, and I’m hoping to see some finished projects made from our signature blocks. Stay tuned!

In case you missed it, Jane commented to last week’s post concerning the question about patterns in the UK. Here is her response:

“I am in the UK, and patterns for quilts are usually in inches.  I teach patchwork and quilting in inches, however, we have to buy fabric in metres.  Inches don’t convert very well when it comes to making quilt blocks”.

Thanks so much Jane! I’m so grateful to know the answer 😊.

After our time at the Festival of Quilts our tour took us to Wales. Kristi put together such a wonderful tour, and she never wanted our bus rides to get too long without a fun stop to break up the drive. Thus she found many wonderful fabric stores for us to visit ~ like Barry’s Fabrics in Birmingham, England; where we got to shop before we even attended the Festival of Quilts:

If you were looking for variety ~ this was the place! They even had Liberty and William Morris fabrics!

And here’s a mid-post smile 😁: The morning after the show, as we left Birmingham and began our drive into Wales, the hedgerows became too tall to see over and I decided to check my emails. A friend had shared something I wanted to show my husband, and I decided to text it to him. He responded quickly and we did a bit of texting back and forth. A few hours later I realized I had sent those messages at 3am Watertown time. My husband is not a good sleeper, so I knew I had awakened him. And he didn’t mention it at all (what a sweet man). Later, I texted him with an apology. His response? “That’s okay. I realize you are not of sound mind. You’ve been thinking/living quilts for the last few days” 🤣. Then he sent me the emoji formula at the top of this post. Translation ~ “Wales time minus 6 equals Watertown time”. He’s quite a funny guy!

Now back to our fabric stops! The first one in Wales was Calico Kate’s in Lampeter.

It was filled with room after room of beautiful fabrics, and rivaled many of the shops we have here in the States! And meeting Kate was a delight.

What a great first quilt shop, and it was nextdoor to one of my favorite places, but I’m saving that story for next week’s post. On our way back to London we spent some time at Lady Sew and Sew’s in the lovely town of Henley on Thames. Their selection and helpful staff was wonderful.

And lunch along the Thames was lovely!

Shepherd’s Bush Market in London was one of our last stops before we packed up for home. It was an entire street of fabric shops – on both sides of the street!

So many wonderful opportunities to add to our stashes! And then there was the wool!

The day after the show we made our way to Wales. What a beautiful ride. We were told by our guide that Wales has about 1 million people and over 3 million sheep ~ and they were everywhere.

I loved the stone walls and hedgerows, and was so grateful to be in a tall tour bus so that we could see over the walls and rows, and take in the beauty all along the way! I was also grateful for our amazing driver Anthony, who navigated the very narrow roads all through northern Wales. On this day we visited Caernarfon Castle, among other stops. My favorite stop that day was the Trefriw Woolen Mill.

They weave traditional Welsh blankets on the original looms the old fashioned way.

And the patterns are lovely.

The history, buildings and garden were all so very fascinating. The next day the scenery changed a bit as we drove along the Irish Sea.

One of our stops on this day was the National Wool Museum in Llanybydder

Don’t you just love the spelling of Welsh words and place names! The museum was large and very interesting.

Beautiful woolen items have been made there for centuries also, but their machines were mechanized,

so the demonstration there was a bit noisier. We also got to see socks being made,

more looms and spinning wheels,

and the garden filled with the flowers used for dyes.

With these tools one man could sheer up to 40 sheep a day.

The first mechanical clippers were patented in 1868. They were the forerunners of today’s electric shears. I learned all this from the following display that ended with the fact that today, an experienced shearer can shear 250 sheep a day using electric shears. Amazing!

The last portion of our self guided tour took us to a room filled with woolen items made at the mill, along with vintage signage and stories. My favorite piece was this large wool hexagon quilt. More hexies. Wow!

At this point you may be thinking “What an amazing fiber adventure”! But I haven’t yet shared with you my favorite stops. So ~ you guessed it ~ stay tuned for my next post 😁.

I’m back to sharing more special moments from my trip to the United Kingdom. But, before I jump into that, I simply have to share a photo I just took of an Autumn conundrum. It’s been a very wierd Summer weather-wise, so much rain early with a dry and hot September. Yesterday I was admiring my lovely burning bush, when I noticed that one of our lilac bushes was blooming! This is a photo of beautiful flora you don’t often see together in nature.

Oh my – did I enjoy the fragrance!

Now on to this week’s post. It is very “freeing” because it’s about “Liberty” (bad joke – sorry about that 🤣).

Most quilters have heard of the Liberty store in London ~ and about their amazingly beautiful fabrics. Many of us on the trip were on a mission to find some. It all started at the vendor mall in the Festival of Quilts. A number of booths had Liberty fabric for sale, but the booth that intrigued me most was the actual Liberty booth.

They weren’t selling their fabrics there, but instead were asking attendees to share their Liberty story! Well, if you’ve been reading my blog for the past few months you know ~ I do have a Liberty story. Click here to read the beginnings of my story in a post from July 7th. So… with my Liberty tote over my shoulder, I sat down to write an “English Paper Piece” for their wall.

and pin it with the others:

After sharing it with the woman in the booth, she offered to take a photograph for my blog.

What a fun continuation of that story. Now you might be asking yourself “did she get any new Liberty fabric to replace the previous?” And you won’t be surprised that the answer is “yes”. But I waited until we were in London at their beautiful original store. So fast forward through Wales to our last day of the trip and our bus tour of London. We ended the tour here:

The 4 story atrium is beautiful.

And after climbing a few flights of stairs we reached the floor we were looking for.

Fabric! Across the way I saw Kay and Susan making their selections.

After a bit of petting I made my choices, and had the pieces cut by Emma ~ who was a joy.

We were a bit early for Christmas, but I enjoyed looking through the beginnings of their Christmas display with Kathy.

This inspired me to get a piece of Liberty Christmas fabric too.

Once our shopping was complete a few of us headed down to Picadilly Circus for tea and pastries, and then I made everyone pose for a very touristy photo of our last day in the UK.

Don’t miss the purple bags peeking out from amongst our treasures that declare we had a great day!

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And one more thing. Recently Sue asked a question about patterns in the UK:

“When you buy patterns in Great Britain are they metric instructions?  If so, how do you convert them to imperial measurements”.

I must admit I don’t know. I’m assuming the answer is yes. I looked through the only pattern I purchased and it was for an artsy fabric bowl which contained no measurements. Does anyone have an answer for Sue?

Last week was one of my favorite events of the year – the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show in Madison. It is put on as a joint effort of Nancy Zieman Productions and PBS ~ and I think this year’s was the best show yet! It is truly a national level show with quilts and vendors from all over the USA.

My first stop at the show was an exhibit of Nancy Zieman’s landscape quilts. They were breathtaking, and beautifully displayed.

One of the free stage presentations this year was a bed turning of some of the new acquisitions at the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts. Due to my class schedule, I couldn’t stay for the talk, but the ladies allowed me to take a peak during set up. We are so blessed to have this museum here in southeastern Wisconsin.

Then there were the “Black and White Plus One” challenge quilts. There were so many great ones that I think you need to see them all. They haven’t been posted to the show’s site yet, but I’ll share a link when they are. It was hard to choose, but “Dancing in the Moonlight” was my favorite:

I thought I might skip sharing some of my favorite quilts from the competition this year, since I’ve recently shared a lot of wonderful quilts on this blog from the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham. But… the quilts were so fantastic I can’t resist posting some of my favorites here again ~ and I hope you enjoy them.

This year I was really drawn to quilts which have a personal story or evoked special memories. “My Inspiration” by Betsy Stoughton was one of these. The photo transfers of women who have inspired her, and her skill at broderie perse, were both so well done.

“Gypsy’s Daughter” by Mona Lagan displays vintage doilies and hankies in a unique way. It’s a bright and colorful quilt.

The orange peel pattern in Lorna Maxwell’s “It Makes Me Smile” are made from vintage shirtings, feedsacks, and rick-rack. It’s lovely from a distance, but just look at the up close details ~ rick-rack around every oval!

Nancy Wolf made “A Special Puzzle for Mom” to commemorate her mom’s love of puzzles.

So how did she make the bumps on the puzzle pieces? With very tiny corner triangles (those bumps are 1″ squares)!

“70 Hearts for Damaris” was made by Mario Alonso for his sister’s 70th birthday. In his description he stated that “the back is a big 70, made with hearts for each number so she can’t lie about her age. 😂

“Friendship” by Gretchen Watkin spoke to me because the appliquéd portion of this double wedding ring pattern was unexpected. Then I read the story and liked it even more.

So many quilts were done with such amazing workmanship that they stopped me in my tracts. One of these was “Basilica di San Marco II” by Donna Goodlaxson. What phenomenal piecing on a bed sized quilt!

When it comes to amazing appliqué, “Baltimore Autumn” by Marilla Schmitt has it all. The blocks are simply delightful.

And I just had to include “Sue’s Garden Party” by Wilhemina Vandevoorde. The details are exquisite.

And then there are the quilts that are just so clever. “The Rabbit that Ate My Garden” by Kathy DeVries is a small quilt, and so well done. The rabbit is filled with beautiful things from the garden, and surrounded by carrots.

Inspiration can come from anywhere when making a creative quilt, as in Misty Cole’s piece “Dirty Laundry”. She was inspired by the pattern on her laundry basket and reproduced it in reverse appliqué. The shirt sleeve hanging through the handle made me laugh out loud.

My father is an historical genius when it comes to the Civil War, and I know he would have enjoyed seeing Neil Anderson’s quilt “Second Day at the Battle of Gettysburg”. Neil was actually at the show (all the way from Texas), and was so very enthusiastic in sharing his passion for this piece.

Then there was “Just a Little Bull” by Ann Marie Miro. Her depiction of the elephant is striking, and the artistic rendering of other animals in the ears and background is amazing.

I think you’ll find the description of her technique very interesting.

And some quilts I just liked. I would love to see “Fall Oaks” by Mary Ellen Dunn Wunderlich on my bed.

Or to snuggle under my friend Margaret Gawlik’s “Pokeberry Quilt”.

And I just love the colors and craziness of “Improv Quilt” by Nancy Martin.

Didn’t I tell you the quilts were fantastic? And these were just a few of the many wonderful works.

I also thoroughly enjoyed teaching at the show this year. My lecture was an updated version of one from a few years back about my Mariner’s Compass technique. I think it went over very well, and a repeat of that class next year might be a possibility. I also taught a new sit and sew workshop using the circle maker attachment for the sewing machine, and the pre-programmed specialty stitches we all have, but seldom use. The classes were full, it was a simple project, and everyone had a lot of fun!

I did a previous blog post about this technique, along with a “hack” for quilters who don’t happen to own a circle maker. Click here for that post.

It was such a wonderful show that one post can’t do it justice. But I hope you enjoyed reliving just a bit of it with me.

And one more thing… while at the show Ellen came up to me and said that she participated in a round robin through her guild, and she worked on one that had a mariner’s compass as the center. I’d taught my mariner’s technique for their guild in Janesville, WI a few years ago, and Ellen’s friend Gloria used the compass from that class as the center of her exchange. Her comment was that she was in a very talented group. I agree, and I was so excited when Gloria sent me a photo:

Beautiful! I love the way Gloria set the compass with the central points forming an “X”. An unexpected set that worked so well. Thanks for the photo Gloria!

I decided to take a one week break from my series of posts about our trip to the United Kingdom. I still have some wonderful adventures to share from it, but a recent meeting here in Wisconsin was so much fun ~ I thought you might enjoy a short intermission.

Over the years I’ve created some unique pieces while playing with Shiva Paint Sticks™, and recently our Fiberistas group decided to revisit this fun product. We had a “play date” and created some interesting pieces of fabric. To read about it please click here.

The piece I worked on was inspired by a photo I found on Pinterest™ of a project made by Shelly Stokes. She overlapped squares of paint stick rubbings, and then embellished them with threads, etc. It was beautiful, but there were no instructions on the post where I found this photo.

So Lori and I chose to experiment using freezer paper to add boundaries, and to block previous painted areas. There was definitely a learning curve. The fabric I used for my background is a gradation piece I found in a “free bin” at On the Bias quilt shop in Whitewater, WI (A wonderful shop I must say ~ click here for their site). I began by tracing some oval templates in an overlapping style, and cutting out the first oval. I used a rubbing plate and made a design in blue. Then I cut out my second oval, and after this photo was taken I ironed the first oval back in place.

I continued in this fashion,

until all the ovals were filled in.

Then I removed the outer freezer paper. I had no idea how it would work, but I was pleased with the results. Everyone thought they looked like Easter eggs!

I think each area would look best if outlined, like the black thread used to surround areas when doing embroidery or cross stitch. I’m going to start by drawing the lines in with a fabric marker, but part of me feels embroidering it would be best. Things are a bit busy right now, so I’ll save that for a future “finishing” post.

As I was working on my ovals, Lori was experimenting with squares and rectangles.

It was a morning filled with friends and fun! Have you done something interesting with paint sticks? Please send me photos!

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And one more thing…

During retreats and workshops over the past few months I’ve become more aware of a safety issue, and I feel compelled to share it in the hope that it might prevent future injuries.

When rotary cutters first came out the had two positions: closed (left) and open (right).

When the blade was closed the cutter was safe, but when it was open it could be dangerous. As a teacher I often had to repeat during classes “close your blades”. I actually have a pertinent story from a student in one of my classes back in the 90s. She said she was cutting fabric on a table in her living room when the phone rang, and she went to the kitchen to answer it (the phone was hanging on the wall in the kitchen – so you know this is an old story 😀). This left her 4 year old daughter alone in the living room. The problem? She forgot to close the blade on her rotary cutter. When she returned to the living room there was no blood – praise God – but the couch was in shreds! Her daughter had used the cutter “just like mommy”.

So, you can imagine my joy when Olfa™ came out with their deluxe rotary cutter. For safety purposes, the blade would always close when not in use (left), and then it would open when the handle was squeezed (right) for accurate cutting.

The red lock button was very helpful when transporting the cutter, so the blade could be locked closed and it wouldn’t open accidentally. But here’s the important part – the blade should never be locked open! This defeats the safety feature! Please don’t lock your blades in the open position!

Be safe out there!!!

While at the Festival of Quilts I was able to take 2 workshops from British instructors. Bright and early on the first day there I took a class entitled Free Motion Leaves and Flowers with Molly Brown. It was only 1 1/2 hours long, and we learned a lot. What a blessing!

I stitched the flower above and a leaf, which will be quite lacy and fun once I’ve trimmed and washed away the stabilizer. Quiltina just begged to be photographed among all the lovely threads and sheer fabrics Molly brought for us to play with.

Molly was an excellent teacher!

That afternoon I took a class with another enthusiastic and talented instructor ~ Gini Armitage. This class was entitled Autumn Tree Dorset Button Brooch. Hmm. Sounded very interesting ~ and it was. Gini learned the art of Dorset buttons from a woman who’s family had passed down the art through generations, and she was thrilled that Gini wanted to continue the tradition and teach others to make Dorset buttons. These are a few of the traditional ones she’s made:

Please click here to go to Gini’s site and read the history of Dorset buttons, and about Gini too! In short, you begin with any ring and then wrap and knot pretty threads to make a brooch or button. Her enlarged demo was wonderful.

I absolutely loved the process. I stitched it to the hem of Quiltina’s dress after completing it, and I look forward to making more!

Plus ~ I loved getting to know the ladies I sat with in class. It was all delightful!

At this point I really want to share a few more photos from the “quilts” portion of the show. These are from the Quilt Creations category and they were quite artistic. Isn’t this a fascinating mask? “Masquerade” was made by Chitra Mandanna of India.

Our Enchanted Castle was a group project made by the Art Tarts in the UK (you gotta love that name).

Vendulka Battais of the UK decided to make her husband a jacket and shoes after making herself a number of garments. She said he’s French and has a “quirky” style. It’s entitled “Quirky Like Me”. I think I’d like to see him in it!

And my favorite creation was this sign by Jo Westfoot, also of the UK. “Quilting Leads to …” is a sign post she created after challenging her social media followers with the title statement. I love it!

The vendor mall was HUGE and amazing, with many patterns and items that I haven’t seen at shows in the States. Our group supported them well, and I want to share photos of my 2 favorite booths.

I’ve taken classes with Philippa Naylor in Paducah, and admired her work for years, so it was fun to catch up with her.

My friend Susan has signed up for her online classes and loves them (click here for her site). Philippa told me that she’s reached a point in her life when she doesn’t want to travel and teach as much any more, so she’s found this new niche. She also gave me lots of tips on quilty things to do while in the UK. What a delightful conversation we had!

I spent quite a bit of time (and a few pounds) at the MellyMadeDesigns booth. Her patterns are unique and fun!

Hopefully I’ll share a completed piece or two in the near future.

The show was big, exciting, inspiring, and so well done. But all good things must come to an end. Fortunately this didn’t mean an end to our trip. Next week I’ll share some fiber adventures in Wales!

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And one more thing. When I was in Paducah last Spring I “stumbled” upon a group of amazing fiber artists (click here to read that post). One of them, Diana Fox, recently contacted me because she’ s teaching at the Woodland Ridge Retreat Center in northern Wisconsin, and she still has openings in her upcoming event.

It looks like a wonderful class! For all the information click here.

Last week I shared some of the contemporary and art quilts from the show. This week’s quilt photos include quite a variety. I’ll begin with a few from the “Traditional” category.

If you like scrappy triangles, you’ll love “Cut Glass Rose Bowl” by Judith Caroline Lynch of the UK. The roses are in the quilting.

“365 Quilt Challenge” by Teresa Kelly Cuthbert of the UK is a delightful sampler quilt.

“Star of Wonder” is another spectacular sampler quilt. It was made by Brenda Clough of the UK. Just look at the variety of blocks ~ and half blocks ~ she’s used to make all the wonderful stars:

“Oh My Gosh” by Liz Merckel of the UK contains 14,531 pieces, some of them just 1/2″ finished!

And if you like traditional appliqué, these two quilts were stunning! “Spring Thing” by Claudia Scheja of Germany was a variation of a traditional pattern and the quilting design fit perfectly.

“Kentucky Rose” by Sandie Lush of the UK also has wonderful quilting, with a much more subdued color palette, and it’s oh so lovely.

As I was sorting my photos I found two monochromatic blue quilts that really intrigued me. “Every Quilt has a Voice” by Glenys Davies of the UK includes zippers and other bits from old jeans, along with lots of denim ~ in a landscape!

“Monochrome Sketch no. 1” by Grazyna Ryszawa of Poland was not made from jeans. She used what she called a “confetti” technique.

Here’s a close up:

There were also quite a few portrait style quilts, and the variety of styles was fascinating. The figure in “Peaky Blinders” by Amelia Hanratty of the UK was done raw edged.

Whereas the image in “Shadow” by Scott Culley of Germany was made with a pieced Greek key type of block.

“Forgotten Stories – Woman from Urzecze” by Magdalena Gasowska of Poland was made to preserve the heritage of her ancestors.

Dee Bushrod, a British quilter who made this quilt in Oklahoma, used a pixelated mosaic technique to make a lovely tribute quilt of Queen Elizabeth entitled “Thank you Ma’am For Everything”.

And then there were the hexagon quilts. I’m not sure if they all were made using English Paper Piecing, but this style is certainly popular there. Marion Goodrich of the UK used hexagons to make diamond tumbling blocks in “Baudelaire Blue”.

While Grit Kovaks of the UK used many colors to make “Grit’s Serendipity” with over 12,000 pieces.

Lesley Arber of the UK stitched over 17,200 pieces together to make “Perseverance”, and she also counted the hours it took ~ over 2000!

“Hope Flows” by Angela Southey of the UK used an intense color scheme and a very unique pattern for her hexagons. What a great effect!

This 2 person quilt made by Aitchbee and Helen Howes of the UK is named “Blue Moon” and uses hexagons in a very artistic way.

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while you may remember how intrigued I am by the One Block Wonder quilts made from printed panels. “In the Amazon” by Victoria Miller of the UK is another lovely example.

It was so interesting to discover that the “panel” used in “Jeju” was actually a photograph taken by Korean quilter Kyungjoo Kim, which was digitally printed onto fabric multiple times. Wow ~ what amazing creativity!

At this point I need to include a photo of a quilt that was not in the competition. There was a wonderful exhibit of antique British quilts at the show and this top, circa 1820, just had to be included here (did I mention the show had something for everyone?)

Oh my! So many different ways to use hexagons!

Well, it looks like I’ve gotten a bit long-winded again, and I haven’t even gotten to the “Quilt Creations” category or the classes I took. So I guess I need to do at least one more post about the Birmingham show. Please stay tuned ~ again 😁.

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And one more thing:

I’d love to have you sign up for my lecture and/or workshop. Click here for all the information. Hope to see you there!

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 😃!