Classes at the Festival of Quilts

We went to two classes at the FOQ.  The first was a half day workshop, the second a one-hour taster class.  The quality of the classes varied enormously, and not how you'd think.

On the Friday we did a Shisha mirrors class.  It was, hands down, the worst class we've ever taken.  We had three hours, the first 20 minutes was the teacher passing round the materials for us to choose.  She started with the fabric, when we'd all chose the fabric she passed round the threads... stuff that could have all been done at the same time.  The she gave the first group of ladies over the other side of the room a piece of fabric and a cotton reel to draw around.  She then demonstrated the first stitch to these four ladies.  We couldn't see anything.  Then she showed the next group of ladies.  Then the first group had questions, so she went back to them.  Then back to the second group to help them.  We just sat there twiddling our thumbs.  Finally it was our turn and we were taught this stitch.

I'm afraid I have no idea what it's called, we weren't told.  It has nothing at all to do with Shisha mirrors.  

After this we were told to get on with decorating our panels however we wanted.  It was a satiny fabric with wadding spray basted to the back.  She gave us silk threads.  Clearly she had not tested this combination as the thick fabric shredded the thread.  We were just left to "do what we wanted" for the next hour or so.

The elephant was block printed on the fabric so I was just stitching over the lines.  I added some beads and sequins too.

Finally, she started teaching the first group how to put on shisha mirrors.  Then the second group, back to the first, back to the second, back to the first, then over to us.  We had 30 minutes of the class left.  A few minutes into my first one, I realised I had a problem as the thread was falling off the mirror.  She told us to keep the foundation stitches taut, which she hadn't told us before.  At this point a couple of ladies left, saying they'd look it up on U-tube!

This photo shows my foundation stitches.

Above you can see the finished shisha mirror.  Not very neat and even, but then we didn't have long to do it!

Needless to say we were very unimpressed and I was delighted when she asked us to give online feedback, oh I'll certainly be doing that!

The next day we had a one-hour taster class which was brilliant fun.  Oh - before I tell you about this - people of Britain, did you know there is a lake at the NEC?  And a big shopping centre?  We had no idea until we stumbled into it and we've been going to the NEC a couple of times a year for about 12 years!

Anyway - sari silk flowers.

We were given strips of sari silk and a large bath washer to wrap them around.  The fluffy bits are just from where the sari silk is torn.

We then wrapped the smaller washer with thread, round and round, over and over.

Cut along the edges of the flower, take out the washers to use again and sew it all together.

Top with a button and sew a brooch back on - done!  It was good fun, though the finished flower came out a bit too thick for my liking, we used a 3m strip.  I've bought some more sari silk strips but will make future ones using 1.5m or even 1m.  I was thinking of using them to decorate the chalk board I showed you last week.

Festival of Quilts 2016

Last weekend was the Festival of Quilts at the NEC - a large exhibition centre in Birmingham.   I think this is probably the biggest event of its kind in the country. I only live about an hour away from Birmingham and in the past we've travelled down and back in the same day.  Last year my car broke down and so we missed a lot of the show.  This year we decided to go for two days and stay over.  It was the best decision, we had plenty of time to look at the quilts on display, buy the odd(!) thing and do two workshops (I'll tell you about them later in the week).

I'm going to show you some of the quilts that caught my eye.  There were plenty of others that I saw on Instagram but didn't actually see in the show so I think we missed a bit of the exhibition.  Maybe we need to go for three days next year!

Helen Godden OMG#4 UBER (modern quilts)

Fiona McIntosh - Sursum Semper (Modern Quilts)

Claudia Pfeil - The Magical Mermaid's Castle (Pictoral Quilts)

This quilt was amazing, it had thousands of tiny flat-backed Swarovski crystals on it.  One of the white-gloved people showed us the back and it was an exquisite thread painting.

Emma House and Natalia Bonner - Ocean Delight (two person quilts)

Vera Skockova and Skocek Ctibor - Wallachien Colours (two person quilts).

Kathleen Moore - Little Lollipops (modern quilts)

Anne Lilliholm Jorgensen - Bubbles of Joy (Modern Quilts)

The quilting on this was amazing.

Helen Butcher - Modern Sampler Quilt (modern quilts)

On the first day I didn't actually buy much, I certainly remedied that the next day!  Here is my haul.

I bought the boy's clothes kit for the Luna Lapin, as I've already made Luna, I have the pattern so I just bought a piece of the felt to make Alfie - and his clothes of course!  I bought the pretty zips as I've seen them around and felt I needed some!  They were only £1.  The threads are a selection from Stef Francis, some gimp, some ribbony, some cotton.  There is also a Sashiko printed panel of a bunny to embroider, some bunny buttons and a bunny hanger.

That's it.

Oh, except of course for the fabric!

Most of it is blenders as that's what I use most, most of it was cheap and/or on sale.  There are 46 Fat Quarters and 2 half metre pieces there!  Not bad going I think.  We'd met a couple of ladies at breakfast who were talking about spending a lot of money and I said that if you don't spend all the money you bring with you, you have failed.  I'd like to confirm that I did not fail!

Festival of Quilts 2014

Good afternoon, I think I'm back!  The horrendous side effects seem to have abated and, fingers crossed, the new tablets seem to be doing their job.  A small light has appeared in the distance and I'm hoping it's not another train...

I've been meaning to write this post for a while, so this will serve as my first post back.  A few weeks ago I went to the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham.  It was my first time.  I took my mum and met Kerry there.  Due to a torrential downpour, the road was flooded so it took us so long to get there that we didn't have much time.  I did, however manage to do some shopping!

I fell in love with this bunny and with her beautiful coat.  There are other clothes patterns available.  Before you say "another bunny you're never going to get round to sewing", buying this actually encouraged me to start the one I bought in Harrogate that is my ALOYF goal for the month!  More on that soon... and hopefully a finish by the end of the month.

The finished hare quilt above was hanging in this booth so I had to buy the pattern, though I will call them bunnies.  It's fusible bias tape so I need to get started on the Mackintosh one I bought at Harrogate first!  The kit on the right is a gorgeous embroidery.  Hopefully it will be gorgeous when I've finished!

Continuing the bunny theme...

Bunny fabrics!  The Eternal Maker turned out to be a great source of bunny fabrics, and the two middle ones that look like aliens at first were from a cheap stall.  All destined for my bunny quilt - which I now have an idea for!

I loved this map fabric, but when I tried to buy it on the first stall I found it on, they said I had to buy it in 60cm increments... which lead to the top of Russia being cut off! (the continents aren't lined up, they're "tossed" onto the fabric).  I refused as I wanted Russia - I'm intending to embroider the places I've been and considering I crossed the length of Siberia, I think that's an integral part.  I bought it from another stall who said I could have whatever measurement I wanted.  The little blob things to the left fell into my basket after I tried to convince myself they were bunnies.  I drive a blue Mini with a checkerboard roof and checkerboard stripes on the side.  This fabric ALMOST has my car on it, so it had to come home with me.

I think this is worthy of Sunday Stash, so I'll be linking up with Molli.

Want to see the quilts that caught my eye?  I have no details of who made them (with one exception), so if anyone wants me to credit their quilt, leave me a comment and I will gladly do so.  Quilters featured here - your quilts are amazing (as were a lot of the others but we only saw about half the exhibition).

   

  

 

  

This one is by Kerry!