Kaffe Fassett Quilt

To demonstrate the fact that Kaffe Fassett quilt designs can be used for other things - not just quilts, we've posted a photo from Catherine Corbishley Michel who visited our stand at the NEC last week. She kindly brought in a photo of her interpretation of the Hot Diamonds quilt using Kaffe Fassett and Martha Negley fabrics which is used as a curtain and definitely works in this format. Thank you for dropping the photo into the stand!

Catherine also had a quilt called Five a Day on show in the Large Quilts category.

I remember that last year Catherine raised money for Prostate Cancer research as she works in this field as a Doctor and we were glad to be able to assist by sending her machine needles to that she could stitch a quilt. The resulting sponsorship for her "quilt miles" and raffling the result in order to raise money for this worthwhile cause.

We would love to see more quilts that customers have made and the stories behind them so that we can post them on the blog. You can either send your quilts in (with a bit about how you made it, the fabrics, threads, etc) or post them directly here.

Festival of Quilts - Post Show

The Show met and then exceeded all our expectations. It was buzzing with the energy created from the combination of many factors that make the Festival of Quilts a show that is in a class of its own. That combination came from the wonderfully varied and international audience, a fabulous selection of quilts from the competition entries, the galleries and the stands themselves with, as usual, the quilts being presented in a way that really does justice to the work and talent of its creator. The excellent venue and the ease with which local, national and international visitors can access the site plus the range and depth of the workshops on offer gives participants a greater knowledge and skill of the craft..brilliant!

So thanks to Andrew, Rhonda and the team at Twisted Thread for another excellent show.

The fabric packs of the quilts from Kaffe's new book Quilts in the Sun are now available.

We had the opportunity to meet old friends and make new ones ourselves and some of them will be featured over the next few weeks or so on this blog.

We were fortunate again to have Kaffe Fassett and Marti Michell on our stands and they were joined this year by Anneke den Broek who was demonstrating the needle puller which her husband designed.

We have been busy today unloading the vans and trying to get back to some semblance of normality. For those of you who managed to make it to the show we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

Pom Pom's, Yo Yo's and Festival Finalising

Things are very busy here today again - but we still had time for a quilt show of the quilts from Kaffe's new book - "Quilts in the Sun" and before we knew it our office was full! Kaffe will be be doing book signings throughout Festival (timings for these will be on our stand D20).



Adam will be cutting the Rowan fabrics at the show and here he is with one of the quilts from Quilts in the Sun - a snowball design called "Gilded Snowball" by Kaffe Fassett.

We will also have the latest designs and sizes of Yo Yo makers (otherwise known as Suffolk Puff) and Pom Pom makers. Hearts and Flowers Yo Yos have now been added to the Circles (new extra small size is also available) which can be used to accessorise bags, scarves, quilts and more. Here is a selection of the Pom Poms that David (our web designer) and Janet put together this weekend when they had a few minutes spare.

All of the Pom Pom makers, Yo Yo makers and examples of them will be on our stands at D20 and E20 - we hope to see you later this week!

Festival of Quilts Preparation

Final preparations are underway for the Festival of Quilts at the NEC and it promises to be even bigger and better than last year! We really hope you can visit and look forward to seeing you there.

The FESTIVAL OF QUILTS runs from 16th to 19th August, 2007 at the NEC, BIRMINGHAM. Our stands at D20 and E20 will feature lots of offers and products including..

Fantastic offers on Cotty thread boxes - this is a closeup of the threads earlier today whenJayne, our latest Cotton Patch recruit who will be working at the NEC for the first time, was putting together our Cotty thread boxes.

Kaffe Fassett will be signing copies of his new book "Quilts in the Sun". We will have a huge selection of Rowan fabrics, kits of the quilts in the new book, charm packs and special collection packs.

Marti Michell is visiting from the US for the third year running to demonstrate her rulers, templates and books, including her latest book "Kaledioscope ABC's", which is hot off the press. For more information on her latest book and the Kaleido Rulers click here

We will have demonstrations of Daylight Lights, which make sewing a lot easier on the eyes for many crafts (and for reading). We will have some fantastic show offers on selected products including the Ultimate , Portable and the new Clip-on Battery Lamp.

Anneke ten Broek, from Holland, will be demonstrating her Needle Puller, which makes your quilting easier and less tiring on your hands. For more information on the Needle Puller please click here and scroll to the bottom of the page.

FESTIVAL OF QUILT CLASSES AND WORKSHOPS
If you need to order items to pickup at the show for classes (or just to save on postage!) please let us know by Saturday 11th August so your order can be ready to pickup from the E20 stand. Please specify the day you require it. For web orders put the "Delivery to" address as the NEC,the second line as the date required and the postcode as NEC E20

We look forward to seeing many of you next week at the Festival!

Shibori at The Festival of Quilts

Following on from the last post on Shibori I was looking at the Festival of Quilts website (organised by Twisted Thread), which is at the NEC in August and noticed there is a workshop on Sunday 19th August by Yoshiko Wada. She is a Japanese Shibori textile artist and her workshop looks very interesting..

"..Students will experiment ways to enjoy fun and vibrant elements and unconventional piecing. We will explore how a variety of fabrics like wool, silk, rayon, and polyester react differently, achieving transparency, texture, depth, and thickness. Animated sculptural results may amuse you. Simple shibori dye techniques will be applied after sewing the final piece..."

The Festival of Quilts is a quilt show not to be missed. Each year more and more customers book for multiple days just to be able to see the quilts, exhibitions, attend workshops and lecture and ...buy supplies! It is a great opportunity to be inspired and learn new techniques.

For more information please visit the Twisted Thread website.