This week’s post from the Festival of Quilts 2019 at the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham, comes from a display called Deconstruction-Reconstruction-Evolution Leah Higgins. She took inspiration from industries that have touched her life, and mapping change.
And in doing so, she has created some lovely shapes and colours:
Now here is a classic scrappy quilt embellished with embroidery, from the Festival of Quilts 2019 at the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham.
These Baltimore Album quilts, on display at the Festival of Quilts 2019 at the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham, are from the collection of the International Quilt Study Center.
The technique developed from the tradition of floral applique, and this particular variety became popular in the Baltimore district of Maryland between 1845 and 1854.
You can see why they were selected for this year’sbrocure cover and poster, can’t you?
I can’t beleive that it is the end of October, and I’m still working through my pictures from the Festival of Quilts 2019 at the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham.
The group today show what you can do with a slightly unusual technique and a little imagination.
The first picture shows that, while sewing together squares of old shirts might sound ordinary, thinking about using the raw edges as a feature can liven things up considerably.
Plain fabric is usually quilted in a matching thread, but using a coloured thread really brings out the pattern. This example is particularly striking, as not only has blue been quilted with its complementary colour, orange, but the stitching is more intensive in some areas, adding additional dimentional contrast. In a venue full of DO NOT TOUCH signs, for obvious reasons, an official was on hand to show how the edging included brightly contrasting fabric:
This double sided piece made of hexagons was getting a lot of attention. It is a lovely idea, but one of those where you would need to plan round your display space. I’m guessing most of us don’t have a place where this could be properly appreciated:
And finally for today, a demonstration of how some simple folding techniques can give a quilt design a lift:
This group of pictures from the Festival of Quilts 2019 at the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham, is really impressive.
These fabulous creations show various techniques for representing people.
The quilt of Cinderella and the ugly sisters on the left is by Beverley Rebelo, from Antrim. She has used lots of different materials and embelishments, including Inktense crayons, and hand and machine embroidery to create a whole range of patterns.
You certainly need a design board to acheive the photographic effect. It must take many hours just to get the pieces of fabric in the right order, ready to sew together.
The first photographic quilt is of Audrey Hepburn, made in inch squares of grey and white. It took Robyn Martin from Mt Mellum, Austrailia, two years to complete. One of the pictures includes a close up showing my hand, to emphasis the scale:
The next is a picture of a picnic under a tree:
Now another face, this time by Catriona Haggart, from Edinburgh has made a portrait of Prince:
The next one is called Stories of St Nicholas, and has been made by a group for the church in Fyfield, Essex:
There was a whole section of work by Tatiana Sinitsina, an architect from Moscow who has been a keen patchworker since the 1990s:
And finally, some other quilts involving people:
Today’s collection of pictures from the Festival of Quilts 2019 at the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham, shows some of the effecs that can be achieved when you use a wide range of colours within a very limited palette.
Most quilts depend on the cntrast between the “pattern” and the “background” fabrics, but here the colour gradually fades away, leaving the quilting to continue the design.
This effect certainly takes a lot of planning and will power!
I was planning to split this collection of pictures from the Festival of Quilts 2019 at the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham, into two posts, one for red and white, and one for blue and white.
But when I went through the pictures, there were not as many red ones as I remembered.
It still shows how much variety you can make out of a very linited pallette.
And by the way, notice the quilt for the 50th anniversary of walking on the moon in this set:
Today’s selection of pictures from the Festival of Quilts 2019 at the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham, is a collection of minature quilts.
To enter this class, quilts must be no more than 30cms on the longest side. In a photo where there is no indication of scale, it should look like a full sized quilt or wall hanging.
I haven’t cropped these pictutes much, so you get more idea of the size.
If you look on Pinterest, you will find all manner of designs for sampler quilts. A sampler gives you the chance to explore a range of blocks and sew them together into a finished quilt, or a cushion if you are less ambitious.
You can tie it all together with a colour scheme, or limit yourself to a theme lioke stars.
You can decide on one size for your block, or work it so that several sizes fit together.
As you can see here, you can even make it into a book hanging, if you are clever enough to handle perspective at the same time.
One sampler deserves a group of pictures on its own, as the main “sampler” section is so small, as you can see from the picture of my hand:
This one is more like a series of panels:
Today’s collection of pictures from the Festival of Quilts 2019 at the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham, is about birds.
Those who follow this blog regularly will not be surprised to see several peacocks here. Well, I can’t help it if other people find them inspiring as well, can I?
And just look at the range of colours in the border of this one on the left. Isn’t that fab?
The dragon caught my eye for two reasons. Firstly, his “breath” is an unusual use of hexagons. And then, just look at how the body is made up. Random scraps to make up the body, with only a very general attempt to follow the shapes. Some carefully shaped black lines give shape to the tail, while the other plain black pieces give shape to the rest of it. Very clever
The pastel birds are very clever as well.
One other in this group needs singling out. I especially like this one. The same image is used with different combinations of the same colour palette, giving surprisingly different effects. But look at that quilting, with the colour of thread used for each feather’s thread being slightly different:
