Festival of Quilts

I spent three days at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham last week. As always, the show was just great.

First, I was very moved by the lovely tribute to Marie Roper. She had been my teacher during the Creative Computing City and Guilds course I followed some time ago. On top of being a great artist and a wonderful teacher, she was a very kind and sweet person.
Here are two pictures of the gallery space that was devoted to her beautiful work.
The competitions of the Festival were interesting. Some excellent work, and some, hum, how could I say?... not so excellent. ;-) There is no selection, and thus everyone has a chance to take part. And once you know this, I think it is perfectly fine. The list of the winner quilts, with some pictures, can be found on the Twisted Thread website, here.

As for the invited artists' galleries, they were as good as usual.
Here is the amazing Anne Woringer with her quilt "Ciel de traîne"...
I liked very much the "Heavy Metal" exhibit by the group It Happens. Their work is so good, well presented and also documented through their sketchbooks. What a treat!
Here is "Gate" by Anne Tuck...
Among my other favourite exhibits, there were also Masters 2 by SAQA, European Art Quilt VII, Kate Dowty, CQ@10 by the Contemporary Quilt Group of the Quilters' Guild, Cas Holmes, Pauline Burbidge, and probably a few more I'm forgetting at the moment.

The Virtual Studio was again a lot of fun to visit. Here is Susan Chapman busy demonstrating screen printing.
I believe the green fabric behind her was printed by Fiona Wilson.

So much inspiration!
Of course, I also talked with lots of old friends and made a few new ones.
And now, just for my friends of Twelve by Twelve, look what I spotted on the first day in a bookstore display...