Striking Art quilts

At the Festival of Quilts there were several categories that seemed quite similar to me, for example an Art quilt and a Pictorial quilt, but each category has clearly defined boundaries which also include what the judges are looking for.

So in case you were wondering an art quilt is ‘a quilt designed to be displayed as artwork’ and which communicates ‘an idea, emotion or concept’ with its textiles and stitching. It has to be an original design with a strong visual impact and non-traditional fabrics and construction methods are encouraged. Whereas a pictorial quilt depicts a scene or subject, so now we both know!

The quilts I’m sharing today - my favourites from this category - definitely meet the strong visual impact criteria. It’s also probably no surprise that I’m starting with a garden related quilt with a strong, positive message.

BUILD WHAT YOU BELIEVE IN, JOHN J COLE-MORGAN, FESTIVAL OF QUILTS 2025

BUILD WHAT YOU BELIEVE IN, JOHN J COLE-MORGAN, FESTIVAL OF QUILTS 2025

Isn’t it wonderful? Simple, yet complex and definitely strong.

BE PATIENT DIY QUILT, PIA TØNNESEN, FESTIVAL OF QUILTS 2025

I love the colours, the lettering and the quilting on this one. It’s completely different to the first one but yet still meets that criteria.

This next one is just fascinating, the colour palette is obviously monochrome, but it’s the textures for me on this one - and it’s clearly not one for your bed is it?

SOMNAMBULIST SERIES, JOSEPH KOPIEL, FESTIVAL OF QUILTS 2025

SOMNAMBULIST SERIES, JOSEPH KOPIEL, FESTIVAL OF QUILTS 2025

A Somnambulist can be what’s more often known as sleepwalking, and knowing that it does give a different perspective and interpretation - and like lots of art, often each of us will see it and react differently, and that’s ok.

This next one is different again, but again it’s the textures in this one for me - and the sparkles!

IRENE’S PICNIC, ANJA GEBLER, FESTIVAL OF QUILTS 2025

IRENE’S PICNIC, ANJA GEBLER, FESTIVAL OF QUILTS 2025

I am rather partial to a sequin, and a sequinned beetle just as much as those embroidered insects I saw many years ago at another show.

It was the colours and all those half square triangles that drew my attention to this quilt, and there’s definitely truth in the message.

KILLING OTHERS WILL NOT BRING BACK THE DEAD, ALISON BLACKBURN, FESTIVAL OF QUILTS 2025

There’s clearly a lot of work in all of these quilts, in fact in any quilt and it was great to be able to see these up close first hand - and I’m already looking forward to seeing the quilts in this category at this year’s show.

If you enjoyed this post from my visit to the Festival of Quilts 2025 then please do check out my other posts from the show. Even though my mind was blown by the sheer volume of quilts on display, I’ve booked to go again - just for the day - this year.

Enjoying the Golden Hour

* I was invited to the Gardeners’ World Live show and provided with a pair of tickets to the show, therefore all my posts will be marked as 'Ad’ though as usual my views and opinions are very much my own.

I’m not sure if it’s just because I’ve recently finished my pink and orange embroidered pouch, but I seem to be talking a lot on here about my favourite colour scheme of pink, orange and yellow. And that’s continuing with this beautiful border from the 2025 show.

I didn’t realise it at the time - the pink and orange genes clearly run deep - but I suspect that’s what drew me to this space designed by Ellen Tozer, that and the magnificent planting.

But first that arch, it would truly feel like you were entering a different space walking through that wouldn’t it? And that could be just what the designer intended as the accompanying blurb says this “is a space for reconnecting with your true self and escaping from the hustle of daily life.”

No doubt you’ve gathered from its name that its inspired by the golden sunrise and sunset hours, but there’s also three key features in this garden which encourage daydreaming and letting go.

They’re the warm earthy tones of the flowers and foliage in hues of amber and orange, which is proven in promoting relaxation. The wild and free planting encourages you to reject formality and adopt a more relaxed approach, and that circular arch is to signify the sun and renewal - so not the stepping through it to a new, more chilled you as I thought - though I still think it’d be pretty chill to have something like this in a garden.

But it was really the planting that I was drawn to.

It’s just glorious and full of flowers that I already love, and some of which I have or have been acquiring for my garden. I have foxgloves, though I’m not sure I’ve seen any evidence of them this year; I have an astrantia too, though mine is the paler white/pink version but seeing these deep burgundy flowers I think I need some of these too. They are really beautiful flowers aren’t they?

I also have an iris that is similarly coloured to the one photographed above, though I missed it flowering last year as that coincided with our holiday, so l I hope there’ll be a repeat this year. I haven’t checked on this either - my focus in my garden at the moment is weeds, and getting rid of them - but it’s still snug in its overwintering sheltered half-in/half-out of the bush position, and is getting ready to put on flowers just as beautiful as these again this year.

Fingers crossed.

* With thanks to Gardeners’ World for inviting me to Gardeners’ World Live, it was quite a show! I’ll be sharing more from my visit to this year’s show throughout the year - I hope you enjoy them as much as I did the show.

More from the Walled Gardens at Scampston Hall

I surprised myself at the end of the first post exploring the walled gardens here by how few I’d managed to cover in that post, I’m hoping that we’ll cover many more in this post. Though I’ll admit I’m probably cheating (a bit) as I’ve split out some of my favourite parts, like the potager and the still to come gardener’s yard into separate posts!

But anyway, leaving the cut flower garden behind us we wandered amongst the three metre squares of box, flanked by more traditional herbaceous borders of garden 6, enjoying the decaying flower heads as we went.

When the flower heads get to this stage, they’re still beautiful aren’t they - but to me now almost sculpturally and architecturally beautiful, and they were a great palate cleanser for the Silent Garden (garden number five).

You know how much I like topiary, well after the large three metre squares we’d just walked past, to then come across 24 round columns of yew was a delight. These are permitted to grow to a height of three metres before their tops are levelled.

They certainly have impact.

In the centre of the garden there’s a rectangular pond and the yew columns reflect majestically in this, and their symmetry is divine. It’s clearly a minimalist garden - so while I enjoy it, it’s probably not for me in my own garden - and it exudes calmness, and that low bench was a great place to sit and just be.

Though much of my sitting and enjoying the garden also included trying to work out if that was a plank of wood in the pond - it was - and wondering where it had come from. There’d been a bit of a storm the night before so it was relatively easy to work out how it got there, but it wasn’t obvious where it had come from though I think it had probably travelled a fair way.

We headed back towards the borders with the large box borders, the spaces are edged with beech hedges so you can just imagine how great they look as the seasons turn to winter and as their leaves turn bronze.

I could spy more topiary in the distance, and so as it was calling me we jumped the structured and numbered order of the gardens again this time making our way to garden 11, named the Serpentine Garden. Named so because it has six serpentine hedges of clipped yew - what a joy!

The clover shaped beds as you entered this garden were also full of spent flower heads which gave a hint to their fabulousness when in full flower.

Behind us we spotted The Mount (garden 12) and not one to turn down an invitation to explore further we headed straight up the steps.

And oh, what views across the garden.

The guide to the garden suggests that this is where we should leave the garden, but as we’d skipped gardens along the way that wasn’t our plan. Instead we retraced our route past the serpentine hedges (which reminded me of the hedges at the Thames Barrier park) and garden 10 which had the same three metre squares of box as garden 3, bringing symmetry to the overall garden design.

We walked past the Katsura Grove but didn’t spend much time here, but this picture of the exhausted colchicums (or autumn crocuses) made me smile, and reassured me too as mine in my previous garden always seemed to be more horizontal than vertical.

What drew us away from the Katsura Grove was the showstopper of the garden, even in autumn - the Perennial Meadow, located in front of the Conservatory. The Perennial Meadow, or garden seven, is pure Ouldolf and the naturalised planting has been chosen to give a long season of interest, and that certainly works doesn’t it?

The garden notes told us that ‘the form of each plant - leaf, flower head and stem - is just as important as its colour and scent.’ We also noticed that none of these plants were staked, and that again is down to the choice of plants alongside the maintenance routine in this part of the garden,

And as great as it was on our visit, I can’t help but imagine what it’s like in both spring and summer. No doubt it’s full of butterflies and bees, and it’s easy to see why.

So looking back we have covered more gardens in this second post - seven in total, but there’s still the conservatory and the gardeners’ yard and more to share so look out for more posts on those soon.