Festival of Quilts

 I got back yesterday from my two days at the Festival of Quilts.  I quite enjoyed it this year.  And although the train strike was the only reason I went for two days, it was actually quite relaxing to have two whole days instead of trying to rush around and do everything in one day.  I didn't go last year because like a lot of people I thought it was too early when the pandemic was still raging and not everyone had had their jabs yet.  But apparently last year they introduced a lot more space between exhibits, wider vendor aisles, booked more hall space etc. for social distancing.  People liked that so much that they have repeated the roomier layout for this year.  It really felt much more like an American show this year, and I mean that as a compliment.  More spacious, better layout which was more intuitive to move around, good signage, the quilts were well hung and with sufficient room that passersby weren't brushing against them (which I have seen happening at past Festivals), the winners were pulled out and displayed in a separate photo-friendly exhibit area, there was a good assortment of vendors and you could easily access the vendor stalls due to the roomier aisles, the classrooms were all close together so easy to zip to your next class, more places to sit, etc. It just all felt like a much better customer experience.

I started out with a three-hour Handiquilter familiarisation workshop because I am still flirting with the idea of getting a longarm now that I am retired..  Basically the workshop was a classroom with two Moxie machines and seven Amaras, all set up differently so you could move around and try out, for example, ruler quilting, micro stippling, an echo foot, pantographs, Pro-stitcher computer, couching etc.  It was quite enjoyable and the trainers were both award winning quilters (one of whom took a first in Excellence in Machine Quilting at this year's Festival) so really knowledgeable and quite friendly.  I had a go on most of the machines.  I found the Amaras (a 20" machine) felt a bit ponderous to move around because I am used to a little domestic, but the stitch regulation was amazing, the frames seem really solidly built, and everything seemed to work well.  I was disappointed they don't have a thread cutter so you have to pull your threads up manually to cut them. Also the handles don't extend very far at all, so on the deeper frame for the Amara, you have to hold your arms awkwardly far out in front of you which I think would hurt my back after a while.  

One of the classroom Amara machines

The class goody bag contained Glide thread, a quilting stencil, a

ruler template for leaves, and a  spectacles cloth

Also at the show were dealers for Innova, Bernina, Grace/Q-nique, Gammill (who were so posh that you couldn't even try the machines out as they were auto-stitching patterns by themselves, and the stand wasn't manned some of the times I passed by) and Juki.  So I tried most of the machines out (not Gammill) to see how I liked them.  Bernina is out, not just because of the price, but because of the hot air vent at the rear of the machine blowing in your face while you do pantos.  And the Q-nique just felt a bit cheap and low-end after using the Handiquilters.  The Innova is built like a tank and seems great but I suspect will prove expensive - I'm still waiting for the price list to be emailed to me.  I quite liked the Juki but their website is impenetrable and I am unable to find much out about their machines, and for a service apparently you have to take the machine into their shop in Essex.  So it looks like Handiquilter are topping the ranks: they are easily available, there's a big user community both in the UK and abroad so lots of educational material and support, the service and support from the UK dealer Pinhole Quilting is widely praised, and everyone seems to love their HQ machine.  The overall price is hard to determine because there are so many add-on options, I guess you would have to have a long discussion with Pinhole as to what meets your needs.  I don't think I would want the computer add-on, it doubles the price and I wouldn't do enough with it to warrant the cost.  I'm not sure it would feel like my own work if the computer had guided the machine to stitch out the pattern anyway.  I'm also not sure where I would actually put a machine - obviously it can't live permanently in the dining room.  Maybe I could get rid of the knitting machines (which I haven't used for years) and use the attic room, but it has a sloping ceiling so I would have to do some measuring.  I'm sure the installers will be happy to trot up three flights of stairs with enormously heavy boxes....not.

I went straight into a one-hour quick class to sew a rope bowl on the machine.  I'm sure you've all seen these but I had never tried to make one before.  It is both easy and tricky at the same time. I found it hard to get a consistent slope on the sides, and I need to do some more stitching on my base.  But it was fun and I might make some more, maybe as Christmas presents.

I had a couple of hours until my final class so I toured around the various quilt exhibits.  There were a number of standalone exhibits by various artists or collections, and then of course the competition entries and prizewinners.  The entries can be viewed online here. Some thoughts:

- a healthy percentage of the entries and winners had been ruler-quilted within an inch of their lives.  It's not a look that I care for even though I recognise the technical difficulty. And I don't think it suits every style of quilt either.  The minority of entries that were more traditionally quilted, eg stitch in the ditch and loose fills in areas using cables or feathers etc., looked under-quilted in comparison. It makes me feel that I am now creating very oldfashioned quilts with quilting that is utilitarian to hold layers together decoratively.  I'm not turning the quilt into a version of corrugated cardboard with close geometric quilting lines which is what seems popular now.

- there were more entries in the Traditional category than I remember from previous years, and many entries in other categories which I would say were traditional as well.  I was pleased to see this swing, the Festival used to be heavily orientated towards City & Guilds-type textile art and contemporary experimental design which is not my thing.

- there were even a small handful of Hawaiian quilts so perhaps that is coming back into fashion again?

- I was puzzled by the choice of Best in Show, and I don't think there was any explanatory note as to why it had been singled out.  It was an attractive impressionistic pictorial quilt of a Venetian street scene, competently executed and quilted in horizontal lines.  It's a nice looking quilt but on the face of it comparatively simplistic in technique. I don't know. Perhaps there is some hidden excellence that I wasn't picking up on.

I liked this Miniature Quilt, with insanely tiny pieces.

And I thought this was a neat idea: someone cross-stitched a geisha, then blew up the pattern into large squares and turned it into a quilt.

I did take other photos but you are better off looking at the official website. 

At 4pm I had my final class which was a 1-hour quick introduction to indigo dyeing.  We were given three weights of fabric in squares to hastily apply thread ties or wraps before dipping in the dye vat.  None of mine are particularly impressive but it was fun to find out more about the process.

My second day was all about the shopping, it took me about three hours to make my way around all the vendors.  The only thing I was specifically looking for was cake-themed fabric for the pattern I bought in Paducah, and I didn't see any at all. Obviously that's out of fashion as well :)

But I did manage to acquire a number of other finds:

 

A dress length of drapey fabric

A subscription to an Australian magazine

A pack of fabric from Janet Clare from her Spindrift collection, and a 
layer cake of Tilda Chic Escape

Some custom-printed garden birds and seasonal fabric, from a woman who was 

an ornithologist in a previous career.  There were a few stands selling

custom-printed fabric this year.

A By Annie pattern for little pouches and a wallet

A sewing-themed panel which is surprisingly large.

So that was the Festival for this year and it was quite fun.  I got back yesterday and today had my final shop class making the sampler wallhanging.  I have got as far as putting my blocks together and adding some of the embellishments, although I did most of the assembly at home on the machine and not by hand in class as intended.  I don't see the point of sewing sashing on by hand and I wouldn't be happy with the resulting inaccuracies.  I'm fairly pleased with the Victorian feel of the quilt, and I made a fun little pull-out tag which is embroidered 'Remember Me' and tied with ribbon and lace. The class was a fair bit of work but also interesting to revisit techniques I haven't used for years such as EPP hexies (hate them), crazy quilting, yo-yos etc.

I finished quilting  the seventh quilt, the Cottage scrap quilt.  Frustratingly, about halfway through, one of my homemade roller ends broke and started spinning freely. This meant that I could only secure the takeup roller at one end, which resulted in the quilt rolling unevenly despite efforts to ameliorate the problem.  So the panto lines get more bowed as the quilt progresses, luckily the quilt was going to charity and wasn't something precious to me.  I had to wait until the quilt came off the frame then I could remove the roller and try re-glueing the end fitting with Araldite.  Hopefully it works.  The DIY roll ends lasted through probably about 35 or more quilts so I should be feeling lucky I guess. The Pfaff felt like a children's toy after working on the Handiquilters at the show.  But it does the job.

It's cooled right off and we are back to normal British summer weather, cloudy and about 22 degrees, thank goodness!