Festival of Quilts

I'm back from Birmingham where I had a great time. The show was very good, and I met many lovely people.
How nice to meet up on Friday with Sharon and Jacqueline, in real and not only in blogland anymore.
The same day, on the way back to the hotel, I encountered this delightful little guy who graciously allowed me to take a picture of him and to post it here...
On Sunday, the last day of the show, I had lunch with my Twelve by Twelve fellow Helen. We hope the other Twelve by Twelve members will agree to join us in Birmingham next year...
Let's talk about the show now...
This year, the exhibition of EQA focused entirely on children's quilts. Two quilts from each country were exhibited in its gallery, and more quilts were shown in the young quilters' competitions. If I had to choose between all the invited artists, I think I would pick Jacqueline Heinz. Unfortunately, she doesn't have a website, but if you google her name you'll find several examples of her work. Her quilts are the most beautiful free machined pieces I've ever seen.
The big stars of the show this year were Dorothy Caldwell and Ricky Tims.
The other galleries featured artists like Bente Vold Klausen, Susan Brandeis, Susan Chapman and Terrie Hitchcock, Els Van Baarle and Cherilyn Martin,... There were also exhibitions by groups: SAQA, European Art Quilt, ColourFX,...
And then, as usual, the Kemshalls, Maggy Grey, the Virtual Studio by Committed to Cloth, Quilting in Action, demos, workshops, lectures,... and, of course, too many gorgeous and tempting vendors booths.
But I managed to be very restrained in my shopping frenzy this year... Pictures tomorrow, maybe...