Festival of Quilts – by Jackie S
This year the FoQ celebrated its 20th year at the NEC but, did you know, the very first named Festival of Quilts was held at Lord’s Cricket Ground in 1999. This was the year that women were first allowed into the inner sanctum of the MCC’s male-only clubhouse, and I was one of those women who ventured into the hallowed halls to see the quilts. The first FoQ after that at the NEC was in 2003, hence the 20th anniversary, but I still think of the first exhibition as being in 1999.
The exhibition has changed a lot in those 20 years, going from one cramped hall to three at the NEC. Since Covid, the exhibition, galleries, stall holders and visitors have enjoyed much more space and wider aisles, plus more seating dotted around for tired legs to rest a while.
On 3 August I and 15 other members of my quilt group, Parkland Patchers, set off in a minibus and journeyed to Birmingham from Northampton, reaching the NEC at 9.45am. After having purchased a show guide I found the traders I wanted to visit and bought a few fat quarters and fabric on my list, won two prizes on the Guild tombola stand, purchased some fabric from the Linus stand and generally wandered around the trade stands. All the usual names were there, although not Fabrics Galore and a smaller than usual Doughty’s stall. I bumped into someone I knew from my Region 1 days, so we had a nice chat while resting our legs and then I went outside the halls to meet a friend for lunch.
Then the trawl of the quilts, of which there were many in 18 different categories. A new category this year was “For the Joy of Sharing” - a category not judged but quilts shown for the pleasure of the quilter being able to display their work without criticism (good or bad). A welcome and popular category for those who don’t want to compete with 51 quilts on display. All of the exhibition quilts were interesting, colourful, well made, etc but I felt the winning overall quilt was not a quilt that I would like. Also, interestingly it did not win its category (not visitors’ choice but judged by a panel of judges).
For me, the quilts I liked most were those from the International Quilt Museum of Nebraska - showing about 20 of their huge collection of old turkey red and white quilts. Fantastic. Also fantastic were the Tentmakers of Cairo, demonstrating and selling their beautiful work.
After a long and tiring, but enjoyable, day 4.30 pm saw us getting on the bus back to Northampton. So here’s to next year, and other exhibitions in between!
See below for links to some of the Exhibits.
Note: Jackie moved to the Northampton area in 2020, she is still a member of Shirley Quilters and very much involved. Reviews are regularly sent by her when she goes out and about.