Just for the joy of sharing

I hadn’t realised that the quilts with the ‘Joy’ labels and in the category ‘For the Joy of Sharing’ were quilts that simply want to be seen and not judged. What a great way for quilters to share their quilts, without the constraints around quilting style, or any other rules, apart from not being no more than 3 metres in any direction.

But don’t be fooled, these quilts were just as detailed and eye catching as any of the other quilts in the show.

A RAINBOW OF HEXIES, COLETTE DUNNING

These two had plenty of colour, and look more closely at the one above and you’ll spot plenty of English Paper Piecing (EPP) hexagon flowers, and flowers galore in the many sized squares below.

MY SISTER’S GARDEN, CLAIRE BAXTER

I liked the connecting hearts in this one, as well as the colour fade throughout the design.

ALL THE LOVE, K CARPENTER

FLOWER POWER, MELISSA ATCHISON

The fabrics in the Flower Power quilt above call to me, and the more I look at this one I alternate between seeing flowers and crosses, and I love how you can work out how it’s constructed.

These curve studies though are night and day, or rather day and night - aren’t they great?

CURVE STUDY, KAT MOLESWORTH

I’m in two minds about this one, it’s clever and there’s a lot of work in this but I’m not sure it’s a quilt I’d want myself.

DECONSTRUCTED TOILE, KARIN LISHER BRIDEN

Unlike this one, I love it’s bright sunny disposition - and I love the pattern too.

BARBICAN ON A SUNNY DAY, CATHERINE HUNTER

It’s the Happenstance pattern which I’m planning to replicate when I get around to my Jeans and pyjamas quilt. I know mine will look different to this, but I’m hoping that it will (eventually) look as good as this one.

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’m pretty sure I’ll be going again!

Colour Relationships by Colorminds

As we walked around the exhibition halls at the Festival of Quilts out of the corner of my eye I kept getting glimpses of a gallery full of colour, and there’s a lot of colour in those halls. But these bursts of colour were different, as you’ll see.

Eventually as we worked our way around the suppliers and amongst the quilts on display it was time to stop and enjoy the Colorminds gallery. Colorminds are a Dutch group of eight art quilters who’ve worked together since 2013 and who aim to inspire each other while creating high quality colour driven textile art.

In their display titled ‘Colour Relationships’ they showed seven series of how colours interact visually and emotionally, highlighting contrast and harmony and how hue, tone and intensity along with warm and cool colours influence each other.

I took way too many pictures of this exhibition to show here, but even with this relatively small selection I think you’ll be able to see why I was wowed.

I’m not surprised that I was drawn to the quilts shown above and immediately below, as they all are ‘my colours’ so I guess it’s natural to be pulled towards those. But the more you look, the more you see - as with everything, but the level of detail on each of these quilts is definitely to be admired and something to aim for, that’s for sure.

The following quilts aren’t in my natural colour palette, or not fully anyway, but I was also drawn to these especially the dots and detail on the one below. It’s mind blowing isn’t it?

I’m so glad I spent some time looking at and enjoying these quilts, and I’m also glad that I didn’t rush over to them at first glance, but instead let them tease and tempt me until it was time!

And as good as these quilts looked individually, displayed as a series you really get the whole picture of how the colour relationships work. It was hard though to capture the overall effect like this from each series of quilts, which was a shame really, but I had to share one of these series photos (chair and all) to help explain the complete mind blowing-ness of this colourful gallery of quilts.

Even looking back at these photos now some six months on I can see why people say you need more than one day at the Festival of Quilts, I think you’d definitely take more in but I also think you’d still never quite have had your fill!

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’m pretty sure I’ll be going again!

Sustainable quilts at the Festival of Quilts

This was a category I was keen to explore once I spotted it existed. You’ll know I’m trying to use as much of my stash as possible and am reusing old clothes in at least some of the quilts and pouches I’m making, so it was a category after my own heart. Having already seen some of the fantastic quilts on show I was keen to see, and be wowed, by the creativeness of these quilt makers, and I wasn’t disappointed.

To class as sustainable for the Festival of Quilts the quilt needed to have been made with ‘minimal negative impact on the environment’ with at least 75% of the fabric used being repurposed, and the remaining 25% would ideally be organic fabrics or taken from their stash, and ‘the maker should use biodegradable or recycled materials wherever possible, or use materials from sustainable and natural sources’.

And none of these criteria meant the quilts didn’t have the wow factor, in fact they do a brilliant job of showing what can be done with repurposed materials.

Prepare to be wowed

I did warn you, it’s stunning isn’t it? I am rather partial to a Cathedral Window quilt and I’ve long had an idea that I would make one in denim, but I think making one that looks good would be tricky enough so I’m not sure I need to add in the complexity and thickness of denim. I downgraded my ambition and that’s how I landed with my ‘jeans and pyjamas’ quilt on my 2025 list, there’s still some curves and some denim but hopefully in my doable category, although as I write this at the beginning of December I’ve yet to start this one - so maybe it’s optimistic to think this will make it this year, but who knows?!

ONE OFF THE BUCKET LIST, VICTORIA MILLER

I love the repeating circle pattern, and the uniformity of the white and almost taupe colour in the detailing of the circles, but most of all I love the colour and how much it doesn’t look like it’s made from repurposed materials! I bet those colourful centres hold all sorts of memories, and that’s what really does it for me especially when using old clothes that have been much loved.

This second quilt I’m sharing is a design I need to remember, as I have a growing pile of 2.5” strips from the quilts I’m making. With clever colour placement this quilt proves that you can use those strips effectively - note made!

ÅLAND, LINNÉA EHN

SHIRTSANDO, VICKY HAWKINS

The quilt above looks to have used old shirts in a really effective way, but again with a fairly simple pattern. I was drawn to this one by the circles in the quilting, and I suspect this is the quilt that influenced me to try something similar with my Half the Scraps quilt, but way less successfully!

Looking at this again now it looks as if those circles have been hand quilted, and I suspect that may be the way to go if I see circles in my quilting future. Those smaller fabric circles look to be appliqued on, which is another technique I’m trying in my latest quilt.

This next quilt also blew me away, I love a colour graduating quilt - but this one was huge and double sided. It was on display so you could view both sides, and while I’m sure I took a photo of the other side, I can’t find it for the life of me - I’m sure though it was equally as impressive.

ECLECTIC BECKY, ELIZABETH BARKER

But so many small squares, and so many seams to match up - but definitely a wow, wow, wow from me.

The final quilt that I’m sharing in this category (and there were more than I can include in this post) is this denim masterpiece with an equally clever title. The second picture shows the detail of the quilt, and the rivets, buttons, button holes and zipper sections used so effectively.

JUDGES’ CHOICE - RIVETING RESTRICTIONS - FROM WASTE TO WONDER, MARJA MATIISEN

RIVETING RESTRICTIONS - FROM WASTE TO WONDER, MARJA MATIISEN

It rightly deserved its Judges’ Choice label which admired the mind boggling texture, and how the madness is beautifully tamed by the dark central circle. It also called the quilt ‘Genius!’ and I have to agree, I think this was easily one of my favourite quilts at the show - and I thought I loved the Cathedral Windows quilt at the top of this post, this one I loved twice as much.

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’m pretty sure I’ll be going again!