There was a lot to process from my first trip to Festival of Quilts, and after 4 days of attending, you can imagine that there were a lot of things to see and photograph, so I’ve decided to break down my thoughts on it. Since I know you’re all here for the quilts first and foremost, I thought I’d start with the ones that were hanging as part of the competition, then for my next post I’ll cover the special exhibitions and finally the shopping will be the last one.

There are quite a number of competition categories, and I’ll try my best to cover all of them with my favourites from each:

2 Person Quilts

This was where My Supersized Small World was (I’m starting here not because it’s where MSSW was, just because they’re the first quilts I saw!) There was a very varied selection of quilts here – 2 person covers quilts pieced by one person and long armed by another as well as true end to end collaborations, and along with the group section covers everything from traditional to modern via pictorial, art and contemporary.

This is The Circle Game by Deborah Yates and Sue Di Varco, it certainly gives me ideas of what to do with my Alison Glass stash! I apologise for the rather dodgy lighting, the bottom left corner wasn’t that dark IRL.

I thought Woodland by Yvonne Potter and Sarah O’Hora had so much life in it, I felt I could run into those leave and play too:

I thought the piecing and quilting complimented each other so well on Carmine Bee-Eater Eidos by Araba McMillan and Joe Bennison:

If you ever thought log cabin quilts were boring, think again! This awesome map quilt, The Whole World, by Heidi Steimel and Karin Dunkelgod was breathtaking. What isn’t so clear in this tiny photo is that there were little bits of aboriginal prints in Australia, African animal prints in Africa etc

The quilting that Trudi Wood did on the Deathmoths by Jessamie Self was fabulous, with quilted moths in each corner:

Trudi got about a bit in the 2 person section, because she also quilted Alex Fox’s Hot Mess

Modern Quilts

The Future’s So Bright by Janet Bottomley definitely did what it said on the tin!

Tatyana Duffie’s Bauble II had fabulous quilting, I just can’t even begin to imagine the time it must have taken her!

Carol Harrison’s Orphan’s Got The Blues definitely shows what you can do with a lot of imagination and the oddments of WIPs and improv you have lying around:

Window To The Waves, by Jo Westfoot, was another with fabulous quilting around the outside of the ‘window’:

Gill Roberts’ Surf Sea Trinket quilt did not photograph well in the terrible lighting, but it was beautifully calm and soothing, showing why it won the ‘alternative’ layout section of the Trinket Quilt Along earlier this year:

Hanna Farquharson’s ‘Breathing’ was simple but very effective:

Negative Space? by Helen Butcher gave me a chuckle as a literal interpretation of the brief about including negative space.

Alex Fox’s Luminaries was a beautiful reflection/echo style quilt, albeit suffering from some fairly crappy lighting:

Nicholas Ball’s Triangle Study III was included in his recent book, but apparently didn’t wow the judges (there’s no accounting for taste!):

Fellow Stirlingshire Stitcher, Kim Moran-Jones, has been working on this Friends And Lovers quilt at Killearn for months, and it won a Judge’s Choice award, but photographed terribly!

Angela Lackey was the first of 2 Prince quilts that I saw:

Tracy Aplin’s I’m NOT A-Lone was a fun take on a lone star quilt:

Olga Krylova’s Three Sprouts was interesting, but I’m still trying to work out the title!

Rebecca Bell’s Hermann And The Dingbats was another neon wonder, and another cursed with crappy lighting:

I loved both the cable knit effect of the quilting and the bargello on Rachel Denneny’s Modern Movement, which won 2nd place in this category:

Pictorial Quilts

Moooving on, Teresa Summerfield’s Mad Cow gave me a giggle:

Audrey, by Robyn Martin, was another lovely pixellated portrait quilt – interestingly there was some debate as to which category these belonged to (is Prince more modern than Audrey?)

Joanna Soloch’s Tulips were beautifully vibrant:

Here’s Prince number 2, this time by Cat Haggart, and also complete with crappy lighting:

I thought Malin Wood’s Yearning (Saknad) was very effective, and I especially loved the tree poking out the bottom:

Group Quilts

Snow Wonky is another quilt that I saw some of the making of, as some of the Edinburgh Modern Quilt Guild are members of the Stirlingshire Stitchers too:

Walking Circles by DreiHSW was very effective and Highly Commended:

Tumbling Spools Instagram was lovely to see up close, as I’ve seen it floating around IG previously:

Dazzle Ships, E Wadsworth 1919 by 5VG Art Quilters was a very different group quilt, but very effective:

I saw a number of people ticking off symptoms as they looked at Hot Stuff by The Mood Swingers:

I loved Exe Valley Contemporary Quilt Group’s Dry Stone Wall, all the textiles they used were so effective at bringing a wee section of wall to life:

Traditional Quilts

Moya Geraghty’s Sundials could just as easily have found a home in the Modern section:

This photo does no justice to Robyn Fahy’s Dogwood Daisies, because you can’t see all the tiny pearl beads sewn into it, or the sparkles, but trust me, they were there and they were awesome (I attempted a closeup below):

Sharon Appleton’s My Trip Down The Rabbit Hole was a lovely rendition of Sarah Fielke’s BOM:

I had quite the fight to get this quilt back at the end of Sunday (myself and my friend Mary were collecting for a few people), but thankfully this made it back to Trudi Wood without an unseemly tug of war with it!

Lynda Jackson’s Tranquillity was awe-inspiring, I love how she added colour just using thread (closeup below) but I can’t believe she only got 3rd place with it!:

Contemporary Quilts

More awesome quilting with Cecilia Slinn’s Mind The Gap quilt:

Mandy Murray’s Dame Of Australia contained some fun, hidden quilting (as you won’t be able to see it, it says ‘Hello Possums’ in the bottom right hand corner)

Jane Osborne’s As The World Goes Round got 2nd place in this category:

Anna Williams’ Log Cabins In The City was another fun use for log cabins, as well as beautifully complimentary quilting:

Hilde Hoogwaerts’ Fly Away With Me was a beautiful riot of colour:

Annelize Littlefair quilted her Big Boy On Patrol entirely on leather:

Yan Liu’s Infinity was a bit of a mind bender:

I can’t even imagine how Colette Dumont made her Fleur De Glace, but it’s amazing:

Art Quilts

I’d seen Chris English’s #ZeroWaste quilt being made over on Instagram, but what wasn’t obvious then, and won’t be in the photo below, is the fact that the green fabric is actually shiny sateen, and it adds a great extra dimension:

Liz Heywood’s Shifting Coastlines reminded me of graffiti for some reason, but I really liked it:

I loved the message behind Lauren Connor’s Colour Blindness?

Novice Quilts

I liked Mary Whitehouse’s Help Is On The Way, for some reason it made me think of a WW1 or 2 aid station:

Magdalena Gasowska’s Dorota – Yellow Joy was fun:

Miniature Quilts

Fiona Rabson’s Isle Of Eigg Inspirations almost makes me want to pop over there:

Winning Quilts

Now for all the crappy lighting in the exhibits, the winners area was the absolute worst, so I’m just going to include a link to the FOQ website where they got shots with far better lighting!

I hope you enjoyed your virtual tour, next stop the Special Exhibitions.