The Festival Of Quilts

We can finally say The Festival of Quilts is this year! Horray!
Here's a throwback to some of our favourite quilts entered into the 2018 Festival of Quilts competition #FOQ2018 #FOQ2019

Merry Christmas and a happy new year from The Festival of Quilts team! #FOQ2019
Photo Credit: Diary of a Quilter: Amy Smart

The Festival of Quilts 2019 calendar is now ON SALE!
Our brand new calendar is a celebration of the competition winners from 2018, with a photograph of a different quilt for each month of the year.
You can enjoy the beauty and craftsmanship of twelve quilts and hopefully you’ll be inspired to enter yourself in 2019!
... The calendar makes a wonderful Christmas gift (or maybe just a treat for yourself!). Purchase yours now for just £14.99 (includes postage and packing). Buying as a gift? Make sure you order before 14th Dec to ensure it arrives before Christmas.*
To order simply click this link: https://bit.ly/2Qym0nR
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Want to see the winning quilts from this year's Festival of Quilts all year round? Well now you can!
We are very excited to be launching our first ever Festival of Quilts calendar - which will feature 12 of the stunning winning quilts from this year's show.
Calendars will be on sale soon - more details to follow. Will you be purchasing one?

We’ve been a bit quiet on here lately, but we’re back with a treat! To celebrate our last textile event of the year we are giving you the chance to win 1 pair of tickets and goodie bags to our sister show Knitting & Stitching Shows at the Harrogate Convention Centre from the 22nd – 25th November.
To be in with the chance of winning share this post and tag the craft buddy you would bring along! The competition ends at Midnight on Sunday 18th.
Terms and conditions apply.

😂 😂

Happy Monday! Here's some inspiration from 3rd place prize winner in the Miniature Quilts competition category 2018 by Kumiko Frydl with the quilt 'Peony Mandala'.
What projects will you be getting up to this week?

Throwback Thursday to The Festival of Quilts 2018.
Who managed to catch the wonderful 1718 challenge competition category at this year’s show and see the winning quilt by Denise Geach? #FOQ2018

Check out the full list of 2018 Competition winners from this year's Festival of Quilts using the link and comment below your favourite!
http://bit.ly/winningquilts2018

1 week ago we were opening the doors for the final day of #FOQ2018 . Check out some of our favourite shots of the show below...watch this space for the full photo album coming soon.
Next year's show dates will be the 1st - 4th August 2019 ( Yes we are thinking about next year already) So make sure you note it down in your diaries and let the countdown begin!

The Festival of Quilts is over for another year and what a fabulous show it was.
We are pleased to announce the Handiquilter Best In Show award goes to the talented Katy Whitby Last with her cotton and silk organza piece named 'My Favourite Things' #FOQ2018

The winning pair for this year’s Two Person quilt category is Julie Brandon and Valerie Schultz. All the way from America Julie & Valerie based their quilt around their childhood memories of summer vacations at the New Jersey Shore. The Quilt is named ‘Childhood Exhilaration’ #FOQ2018

Celebrating the Young Quilters of today we are pleased to announce the three winners for this year’s Young Quilters Competition sponsored by Brother UK. Beginning with the youngest winner of this year’s competition is Basile Tharel winning the 5-9 age group at this year’s show with his quilt ‘The Desert Dinosaur’. The next winner for this year’s young quilters category is Aoife Behan with his quilt ‘Keep calm and sew’ for the 10-13 age category. The final winner is Miranda Hart for the 14-18 age category is with her talented quilt ‘Dandelion Clocks’ . Well done to all three winners in this year’s Young Quilters category. #FOQ2018

The winning artist for this year’s Traditional competition category is Sandy Chandler.
After experimenting with a paisley design with a pieced top last year, Sandy liked the effect so much that she designed the paisley wholecloth quilt resulting in this interpretation of a classic, traditional design. #FOQ2018

Taking the top spot in the 2018 Quilt creations competition category is the skilled Susie Yates. Susie created ‘The Gift’ using cotton, beads, wadding, R.form, synthetic threads, gold, frankincense and myrrh. #FOQ2018

What an amazing day out! My first time at the festival of quilts and definitely won't be my last! Truly inspirational the amount of work that is put into these quilts. And lots of fabulous shopping too! Needed more time though as we only managed to get around 2 of the 3 halls! Well done to the organisers for putting on such a great event.

This was the first time I have been to The Festival of Quilts. I stayed in a hotel and attended for two days. It was a lovely event and I thoroughly enjoyed meeting the various exhibitors and chatting to the various artists. The work people had put into this event must have been tremendous. It was sometimes a struggle to see some items on display due to the volume of people, but waiting patiently I got to see everything I wanted to. I had the opportunity to buy fabrics not available locally to me and I shall certainly go again next year.

Spent 2 days at show with friends. We come every year and always have a great time. Lots to see and lots to purchase! We didn't have a problem with seating and always managed to find a seat both in the cafes, Weatherspoons and general seating areas. Was a bit crowded in some areas and a bit confusing in navigation around the stalls. Maybe have the exhibions separate from the vendors? Also think parking at £12 a bit steep and never enough toilets! But didn't affect my enjoyment and overall a really good show as usual and NEC a great venue. Looking forward to the next show.

It was my first time time to go. One of the ladies from our sewing group arranged it for seven of us to go. Well worth seeing. As a novice there was lots of inspiration to be had. Well organised. Really helpful you had a room to drop our bags as we had stayed overnight. Toilets were spotless no big wait. Excellent professional staff and very courteous. The only minor thing I would of liked was all the quilting on display to be together. Will definitely be back. Well done to all who organised it.

I was asked by someone i know to demonstrate sewing machines at the show. I'm a dressmaker by trade but had not done any quilting before the show. I made a simple quilt while there. I felt the work that I did see was inspiring and some most amazing. One of the best shows from an art and craft perspective I've ever been too. I'm now feel I want to start quilting. Altogether lovely with lovely friendly people.

I have now been to the show four times and it seems to get better organised every year.

The only comments I would like to make are -- work shops with 12 to 16 people and only two irons!! the size of venue and cost of tickets etc. and technology I would expect more. Also PLEASE can hard plastic trolley's be banned, I got run over by one and still have a painful bruised foo. Otherwise I really enjoyed all the inspiration / Talent and shopping a great two days with good friends Thank You

Had a fabulous day, it was our first time at the festival of quilts. The quilts were amazing. There's some very talented people about! Also lots of stalls to shop for fabrics etc. Have to agree about seating, some people struggle to get back up if they are forced to sit on the floor. This seems to be an issue at all the NEC shows.

Had a fabulous day, it was my first time at the festival of quilts. The quilts were amazing. unbelevable talented people. Many stalls to shop for fabrics etc.

I was very disappointed with the PFAFF stand I had gone purposely to purchase a sewing machine, but delivery would not be until a week Monday as the order would not go in before Monday when they get back from the show, why ? I can order on line and it be delivered the next day, so why could the not have put the order in so I could have it early next week.

I can understand why people go for 2 or 3 days there is a lot to see

First time to Festival of Quilts.....enjoyed listening to Chris Evans on Radio 2 promoting the show and referring to it as "Quiltingbury" as we travelled en route towards the NEC. Have to agree about the lack of seating, luckily l am fairly agile, not much fun having to eat lunch sitting on the floor! With its ever increasing popularity why not open the doors at 9am and finish say around 7pm, instead of 10am-5.30pm. Queuing time was too long to enter.....we lost about 25 minutes after opening time.....valuable time wasted when you are only there for one day. The quilts were amazing.....so many talented people. Came away feeling totally inspired and my purse very much lighter!!

Fantastic exhibition. Could easily spend 2 days there as there is so much to see and do. Have to agree on the seating. It's appalling that, as it is a quilt show and not a pop festival for teenagers, the seating is totally inadequate. The average age is probably 50 plus and people were struggling to get up off the floor after eating their lunch. Just sitting for 15 minutes I saw a couple of altercations over tables and chairs and to pay £13.50 for a ticket to the show it is quite a basic thing to provide.

Can't wait for this year's show - tickets arrived on Monday �

Arrived at the NEC yesterday morning to a wonderful array of international exhibitors. I should have booked in for the 3 days as I only got around a quarter of what there was on show.

The artistry was amazing; there are some very talented quilters out there. It has given me the urge to become more creative with my time behind my sewing machine. Congratulations on what I'm sure will be a sell out of a show.

Are Project Linus having a stand at FOQ 2018 ????

Amazing display of Quilts - they really are works of art, and so inspiring. As ever, not enough seating or hot drinks' sellers - Ally Pally have it nailed - but a fifteen minute wait for coffee when you're third in the queue isn't good. Overall a great day, as usual

2018 and such a great show. Everyone is so happy to be there looking at the huge variety of quilts, both judged and in the galleries. We all find something to buy despite our best efforts to tell ourselves there's nothing we ,

'need'! So lovely to bump into so many quilting friends and have chance for a quick catch-up. Then there's the dinner (very tasty) and all the other events, not to mention the workshops. Love it. Even got a 30p discount on a coffee because I had my own reusable mug!

Visited the FoQ on the Thursday and Friday, first day accompanied by husband thankfully as he's tall and worked out the layout quite well. Like others, I found the layout it a little confusing. I was on my own on Friday and felt quite panicky when I couldn't find my way out of hall 9 and had a train to catch! Maybe some thought should be put into signage. It's my third time visiting so not a stranger.

Overall, great time. Some wonderful work, the children excelled themselves. Well done everyone.

The displays of quilts were stunning, except where there were a few lighting issues. The organisation was well done, and the mood, atmosphere, ambience was truly festive, with everyone out to enjoy. BUT!!!! Why, oh why are we still having to plead and moan about the lack of proper seating, both for eating picnic food and for just 'taking the weight off' as we go around??? Speaking personally, I'm glad that my mobility problems mean that I have to use a wheeled frame that has a small seat area, otherwise I just could not survive even one day of the show. As it was, I attended on each of the four days, and count myself a very lucky lady to be able to be part of such a great show. (Would have been five stars if the seating had been there!)

We went early on the first day and were waiting for the doors to open. However there was a long queue and it did seem poorly organised.

Inside, it was difficult to follow the numbering system of the stalls, but because we were early, it was not too crowded.

Quilts on display were worth seeing - some spectacular, others not so. However, always in my mind is the criteria for the judging - do they judge the design and piecing or the quilting? Quilting is sometimes done by someone else on a longarm quilter but does add a significant amount to the finished article.

All in all a good day - lots of inspiration for my art quilts.

I drove to the quilt show on my own from Cardiff when I arrived I realised I had left my ticket at home I got my husband to whats app a copy not the best but a lovely young lady helped me out on the programme stand. I loved the show but it was very difficult to find your way around so I know I missed a lot of the stalls and definetly missed a lot of the wonderful quilts that were on show. I asked several people that were working around the show for help but on all 4 occassions I was met with a shake of the head sorry cannot help you. Hopefully future shows will have a better structured layoutthat will be easier to follow.