An awful lot is written about patchwork, but sometimes the quilting is the most important part of the design.

These pictures from the Festival of Quilts 2019 at the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham show what a difference it can make.

The quilt on the left has a peacock that is almost entirely made of quilting.

Then there is the idea of having a multicoloured piece of fabric and quilting a variety of patterns over it:

The next example has some basic patchwork, but the quilting in different coloured threads pays little attention to the patterns made by the fabrics:

Then finally, here are some more that were dominated by their quilting. The cream one was awarded “Highly Commended” in its class. I overheard someone saying “If you have to put in that much work to get Highly Commended, what is the point?”

Which seems a little harsh…