FESTIVAL FEVER

One Day Just Isn't Enough

This week, as I am sure many of you know, was The Festival of Quilts up (or down depending where you are coming from)in Birmingham, it is my quilting highlight of the year, the one I save all my pennies for, the one I get huge amounts of inspiration from, the one I get back ache and bruises from, and this year was no different. I always find it incredible to see the wide variety of people that come to this event, literally every age group, race, both men and women, it is amazing to me how so many different people from all walks of life can be drawn together by bits of colourful fabric stitched together in some truly breath taking patterns and designs.

We set off at 6:30am, had one petrol pit stop and arrived promptly at 9am, this allowed enough time to sit down, have a sausage sarnie and hot chocolate whilst planning our route of attack via the trusty show guide. First stop was Quiltmania, to purchase the rather lovely premiere issue of Simply Moderne. The first 100 customers bagged themselves a free gift, a rather lovely set of Aurofil threads put together by the super talented Victoria Findlay Wolfe, so obviously Kerry Q and I made a mad dash straight over there. An extra bonus is that inside is a detailed spread of where to go for your quilty needs when in New York....I'll be there in 10 weeks time, it's like they knew!! Our next stop is always the wonderfully colourful Alice Caroline, for all our Liberty needs, and yes we need them!! Her infamous £1 a piece scrap baskets are always full of treasures and this year was no different.

We then zig-zag around all our other favourite places - The Cotton Patch, Lady Sew and Sew, Kaleidoscope, picking up a huge variety of delicious fabrics and a few sought after books/patterns before moving on to ogling the hundreds of beautiful quilts on display. Every year I am amazed by the talented people there are in this world, and the breath taking things they can create from such little pieces of fabric, rows and rows of stitching and just pure imagination. I think it's best if I just let the pictures do the talking....

I came away feeling a few things on Thursday, firstly in awe of these master pieces and the people who created them, secondly a little bit intimidated by their talent but hopeful that maybe one day with a lot of practise I might be half as good and thirdly very inspired with lots and lots of ideas for projects I want to create and make. It really is such a fab day out, there is something for everyone and even non-quilters come away feeling like maybe they should learn to sew. There are many great places to go and try out beginners quilting classes or less specific general sewing classes, many of them can be done online via websites such as Craftsy, but there are also a huge amount of free video tutorials on websites such as Youtube. I don't know what I would do if I couldn't sew, it has opened up my life to a whole creative world that has saved me from some very dark times and helped me to make some wonderful life long friends.

If you have been to the show, I'd love to hear about what you found inspiring and see all the lovely things you bought...it will make me feel less bad about all my spends!!

Happy Quilting

Kerry xx