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!

Ohio flower garden

I’ve made another quilt as part of my quilting ‘stretch’ project using the block from Sherri at A Quilting Life’s mystery block a month. As I said then I don’t know if I’ll manage to make a quilt a month, but I won’t really know unless I try…

And I really enjoyed making this one.

This month I’m sharing my twelfth charity quilt and my new pile is now growing, since the first nine have now been donated to the Mansfield Coordinator of Project Linus UK.

My twelfth charity quilt

This month I decided to embrace the pinks and everything floral - after a couple of months avoiding pink, it felt good to let the pink roll! The Ohio Star block looked similar but different to one I’d completed earlier in this challenge, and when I looked back it was the friendly bee quilt it reminded me of.

I think all of these fabrics have made appearances in previous charity quilts and as you can see - it was destined to be full of florals, with lots of pink.

Making the central block

The Ohio Star block requires lots of squares cut into triangles and then sewn back together again, and despite it sounding (and looking) complicated it came together relatively quickly - and the individual stages looked pretty on my cutting board too.

Adding borders

I randomly laid the blocks out after adding the first log cabin border and really liked the position of the darker burgundy fabric, and so that became the layout I was working too, although it meant I needed to make some adjustments when adding a final border so that it remained balanced to the eye.

As soon as I saw the layout above, and especially the daisy which had placed itself quite unintentionally right in the centre of the quilt, that was the layout for me. I’d love to say it was planned this way, but it wasn’t!

It’s a really effective central block and one that I enjoyed making, so I can see more Ohio stars in my future. And with all these floral patterns, it really did remind me of a flower garden so this month finding a name was easy.

That’s twelve, but that isn’t it!

You may be thinking that now that’s the twelfth charity quilt, that’s my stretch project finished for the year. You’d be wrong - this is only the October edition of the Mystery Block quilt I’m making, so I’ve a further two quilts to go before I complete this challenge. It does mean that I’ll be making fourteen charity quilts in total but the first two that I shared were not part of the mystery block challenge. I always knew this would hopefully be the case, but I also knew that it’d give me a two month leeway if I needed it!

I have the November block and that’s currently doing its best to intimidate me a little, but I’m sure once I actually start it I’ll be fine…

You can see my other quilts I’ve made to donate to Project Linus - a charity whose mission is to provide love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort to children, who are sick, disabled, disadvantaged or distressed through the donation of new, homemade, washable quilts and blankets, including those that are part of this ‘stretch’ project in earlier posts. I’m aiming to publish an update on my progress in the last week of each month for the remainder of 2025.

Repurposing old clothes as pouches

You know I like a pouch or two, and you’ve probably worked out that I don’t really like to throw things away if they still have another use in them. Today I’m sharing a couple of recent makes which combines both of those, and I’m very happy with the outcomes, and hopefully you’ll be persuaded to try projects with clothes you have loved too.

T-shirt to project bag

I really loved this Joules t-shirt and was happy to rediscover it in my wardrobe this summer, but really it was long past its best to wear - even for gardening, and so it was retired briefly. But I kept seeing it in the corner of my craft room, and I knew that if I didn’t cut it up soon then it might very well make its way back into my wardrobe.

So I had a look through the rest of my scraps, and in particular the old clothes that I’d already cut up before we moved and found the remnants of an old brightly coloured Phase 8 tunic which made the perfect pairing. Once again I loosely followed the instructions for the vinyl fronted pouches, but without the vinyl front and supersized.

I wanted to keep the embroidered Joules logo, and so cut the front of my new project bag from the back of the t-shirt. As I was sewing I realised that I also wanted to see snippets of the fabric I’d chosen for the lining, which if I’m honest looks better as this pouch rather than with the brown trousers I regularly used to pair it with for the office!

That meant I needed to add a strip of the lining fabric to the back section of the project bag to be, so that when I turned the surplus fabric over to encapsulate the rough edges it would be on display. Mission accomplished, and a few decorative splashes of zigzag additions to bolster some of the seams and I was done.

I told you the lining was bright, didn’t I? I’ve immediately put this project bag to use and its currently storing a selection of fabrics for a future make I’m contemplating - in fact it came with me to my patchwork group like this, and after lots of playing around testing out the placements of fabric it came home looking pretty much the same, but with the added ideas and advice from more experienced quilters than me.

I’ve a feeling this will be a small make for the new year unless I have a burst of inspiration, time and inclination!

Geometrical yo-yo storage

The second pouch is one that I’ve made this week to solve a specific problem (not really a problem, but it’s definitely solved). The material I’ve used was once a vest top, and unusually for me is more coordinating than contrasting, well on the outside anyway.

I wasn’t sure how this fabric would sew as it’s quite stretchy, so instead of using another t-shirt I had in mind I opted for this contrasting batik fabric which I’m sure I bought back at one of the larger shows I went to in London and was well due a sewing outing.

The problem it needed to solve was to provide a home for my giant yo-yo maker (well it’s the biggest one I have), which as you can see was struggling to fit into one of the pouches from the recent batch I’d made.

And it does - phew. The maths had me doubting myself at one or more points, but my reasoning for adjusting the original pattern instructions worked out ok.

I even added some of the rolled hem detailing to the bottom of the pouch as a reminder of its previous purpose. And I smiled to myself as I put the completed pouch back in its new home, wondering if my choices has been influenced at all by the wicker basket this time round…

But what’s even better is that I’ve still some of this fabric left, and I have the trimmings which are now very happily wound together and sitting in my waste weaving pile, no doubt they’ll show up in another project one day!