Monday, March 8, 2010

Festival of Quilts 2010 Academy Programme

Described as "the largest, most eagerly anticipated event in the patchwork and quilting calendar anywhere in Europe", the "Festival of Quilts" takes place at the NEC in Birmingham during August.

While Quilters who have previously visited know that it provides huge inspiration, with the Victoria and Albert Museum (see previous post) showcasing some of their quilt collection this year in Quilts 1700-2010, we hope that the "Festival of Quilts" also tempts those who don't aspire to necessarily make quilts but for those for whom the art and artistry of quilts, the history or the beauty and colour or texture is enough reason to visit. Last year over 30,000 people visited the NEC from over fifty countries - it certainly felt like it as someone who could not get from one end of the stand to the other!

So if your diary is handy - the dates are:

19th to 22nd August 2010

Opening Hours: 10.00am to 5.30pm (closes 5pm Sun)


For those who want to get on with the "making", one of the highlights is the collection of teachers whose workshops and lectures provide that inspiration to extend knowledge and techniques into new areas.

While the organisers Twisted Thread are able to show the Quick and Easy Workshops programme on their literature The Academy Programme is now so vast that the easiest way to view it is online. We thought we'd give a taster of some of the masterclasses, lectures and workshops that you can sign up for on the Twisted Thread site.
Non Quilters Guild members can start booking from today!

Marti Michell


We are delighted that Marti Michell together with her husband Richard Michell (and seen here with their daughter Stacey who runs Shades Hand Dyed Fabrics) will be joining us on The Cotton Patch stand for demonstrations of her templates and advice on how to Machine Quilt in sections, make a real log cabin...I mean make a Log Cabin Quilt and lots more!



Marti will be reaching for the stars with A Constellation of Star Quilts (Reference 271)


You won’t want to miss Marti’s star studded trunk show. It is full of tips
and tricks for making Evening Stars, Feathered Stars, Kaleido-Stars and
stars you might not think are stars, even Seven Sis-stars. Oh my stars, you’ll be star-struck!
Lecture (1 hour)
Saturday 21st August 10.00am to11.00am


Machine Quilting in Sections / Quilting As You Piece (Reference 294)
You’ll learn the difference, the similarity and how both methods can help you finish your quilts on your home sewing machine! If manoeuvring a big quilt through that little opening in your sewing machine is overwhelming, this lecture has answers! There are always new quilts and tips.
Lecture (1 hour)
Sunday 22nd August 10.00am to 11.00am


Why Use 8 Fabrics When You Could Use 80? (Reference 249)
Who knows whether you have lots of fabric because you love to make scrap quilts or you love to make scrap quilts because you have lots of fabric? It doesn’t matter, you’ll love Marti’s scrap quilt trunk show. Plus Marti will review the top 10 reasons why you need more fabric!!!
Lecture (1 hour)
Friday 20th August 4.00pm to 5.00pm

Kaffe Fassett

Kaffe Fassett - what can you say about a man who has contributed so much to pushing the boundaries of colour within the traditional designs of patchwork that hasn't already been said? So often people know that the colour in their quilt is not quite right but
don't know what to do to make it so...Kaffe Fassett has that talent (as we discover when we try and substitute a fabric in his quilts and find it quite tricky!).

Kaffe is shown (below) with Nik from The Cotton Patch signing books on the stand at the Festival of Quilts in 2009 - Kaffe has his own stand this year but will also be doing book signings on The Cotton Patch stand.

Kaffe is also doing a Soup Supper talk entitled Concentrate on Colourwhich is designed to inspire and motivate. The presentationhighlights works from his latest projects, these include his patchworkquilt, fabric, needlepoint, mosaic, painting and knitting designs. For more details and how to book please visit the Twisted Thread site.

The Kaffe Fassett lecture is designed to inspire and motivate. This year Kaffe will be talking about Diamonds...could be a girl's best friend...



Diamonds (Reference 258)
Kaffe Fassett
Play with colour in design from a Kaffe Fassett quilt structure under the supervision of Kaffe and his assistant Brandon Mably. Most class time will be spent teaching the arrangement of fabrics to develop each student’s own personal colour palette in making one of Kaffe’s original designs. Students will need to bring lots of fabric to play with! Although Kaffe and Brandon teach the same principles of colour, the class structure will be different and you will come away with two totally different wall-size hanging quilt arrangements.
You will be arranging your work on a piece of flannel that you will just fold up at the end of the workshop, ready to take home and sew.
You may elect to keep your projects wall sized or expand them to full size once you return home. The quilts are primarily scrappy so the workshops are for scrappy quilts done in fairly low contrast. Kaffe and Brandon will be taking you through the same process they use for designing their quilts.
1 Day Masterclass
Any Level
Saturday 21st August 9.30am to 4.30pm


Amy Butler


Last but by no means least....Amy's influence on the world of design just keeps on growing. We recently saw that Amy has teamed up with Graham and Brown who manufacture the most gorgeous wallpapers so your next quilt may match your wallpaper! Amy showed some of the rugs she has designed at the Soup Supper at last year's Festival of Quilts - they are a perfect foil for her designs. Wow! So now its quilt, bedding, wallpaper, rugs.... find out what inspires her and her creative process at her lecture. She'll also be available and will be signing her books on The Cotton Patch stand. Below is one of the rugs from her collection -



Inspirations with Amy Butler
(Reference 244 and 274)


Spend an hour chatting, laughing and getting inspired with American fabric and interiors designer Amy Butler. Get an inside look at some fun, behind the scenes imagery and stories chronicling Amy's latest creative adventures through her travels and studio life.

Lecture (1 hour)

Friday 20th and Saturday 21st August

1.00pm to 2.00pm








One of Amy's beautiful handmade 100% New Zealand wool rugs.








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Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Festival of Quilts 2009 - Amy Butler, Kaffe Fassett et al


Preparations are well underway for the Festival of Quilts at the NEC from 20th to 23rd August. We are delighted that Amy Butler, Kaffe Fassett and Marti Michell will all be joining us again. We also have Sandy Chandler from the States who will be demonstrating the Curve Master, tweezers and seam roller.

Amy and Kaffe will be able to sign copies of their books at the following times. They may be on the stand at other times as well if they are not doing classes and lectures so please stop by on our stand at B25 - we'll have lots of fabrics by the metre, packs and books. There will be some great Show Special Offers so it will be well worth a visit.



Amy's Book Signing Times

Thursday 10:30 - 12:00 and 4:45 - 5:15
Friday 10:30 - 12:00 and 4:45 - 5:15
Saturday 10:30 - 12:30 and 2:00 - 3:00
Sunday 10.00 - 11.00







Kaffe's Book Signing Times


Thursday 11:00 - 1:00 and 2:30 - 4:00.
Friday 11:00 - 1:00 and 2:30 - 4:00.


Our main Cotton Patch stand is just across from Amy and Kaffe at C19 and our demonstrations of hand and machine quilting frames (including the new Bernina frame) will be at B21.



Don't forget that our shop is only 1/2 hour drive away from the NEC so please do visit while you are in the area. The shop is open on Thursday, Friday and Saturday (20-22 August) from 10am to 5pm. To give you an extra incentive to visit, if you spend over £35 on any of those days get a free copy of one of the following books! (Offer is limited to one copy per customer per day.) For directions to the shop please click here.




The Quilt Road by Kaffe Fassett (Ref 4259, normally £15.95)


A collection of 20 projects to suit all skill levels by:- Kaffe Fassett, Janet Bolton, Keiko Goke, Roberta Horton, Mary Mashuta, Liza Prior Lucy, Pauline Smith, Betsy Mennesson, Brandon Mably and Hilde Aanerud Krohg.
This Rowan Patchwork & Quilting book is styled by Kaffe Fassett and photographed by Debbie Patterson in the dramatic Pennine landscape of Yorkshire, amongst the barns and lichen encrusted mossy dry-stone walls that are so characteristic of the roadside scene in this part of Northern England.

The Impatient Patchworker by Jane Emerson (Ref 4395, normally £12.99)


If you like the idea of giving your home an individual touch, but lack of time, the experience or the ideas, then The Impatient Patchworker is just what you need. Jayne Emerson has created a range of 20 quick-to-make patchwork projects that will transform your home in a matter of a few hours. She includes wonderful mixtures of patterns and colours to create eye-catching but simple textiles, including cushions, shopping bags and purses, table runners, cloths and napkins.






Seven Easy Pieces by Kaffe Fassett (Ref 4057, normally £7.95)

A collection of 7 cool and contemporary projects with beginners in mind. The projects use just 10 Kaffe Fassett fabrics so, if there is any left over from one project you can use it to start the next!







We hope you can visit the NEC in August and if you do, we look forward to seeing you there!

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Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Amy Butler at the Festival of Quilts

It was great to meet Amy Butler on The Cotton Patch stand at the Festival of Quilts the week before last (it only seems like yesterday...!) She was able to chat to customers, sign books and inspired a few people who don't sew yet to do so (excuse the pun).

Her relaxed approach in her book "Midwest Modern" is quite inspiring with beautiful photography illustrating examples of how she and her husband David have used fabrics to great effect in their own home. As part of the post-Festival de-stress I spent part of an evening reading the books and can hardly wait to work out which projects I'm going to do from one of her other books "In Stitches".

Plans have been formulated for a few evenings with the sewing machine at my house with my niece Elllie who, together with her sister Anna, suddenly want to make pillows, throws and bags. If Amy can inspire teenagers to sew then this has to be good for the future.

We hope that Amy is able to make a return visit next year and if you didn't manage to see her at the Festival this year we suggest you make a date in your diary for mid-August next year when the Festival of Quilts returns.

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Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Festival of Quilts at the NEC - Setup Day

Well its been a long day (and not over yet) but we are pretty much there in terms of setup for the Festival of Quilts!



We hope many of our customers will be able to make it to the show. Here is a sneak preview of the gorgeous Kaffe Fassett/Amy Butler Rowan stand. Kaffe and Amy will both be signing their books (including their new ones) at stand D20.


Meanwhile across the aisle on stand E20 we have Marti Michell who returns to the Festival of Quilts to give demontrations on the stand when she isn't teaching lectures - there are still spaces on her Stripping lecture on Sunday.

Ricky Tims will be signing his books, DVDs and CDs on stand E20 too so if you would like to meet Ricky who is not only a talented musician and quilter but is utterly charming as well! Please visit stand E20 where we will have lots of his books, DVDs and CDs and a schedule of when he will be on the stand.

We've only had chance for a quick look at some of the quilt galleries. It looks like this year will surpass all previous shows and we thought that last year!

We look forward to seeing you soon...

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Tuesday, August 21, 2007

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.

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Monday, August 20, 2007

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.

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Monday, August 13, 2007

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!

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Thursday, August 9, 2007

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!

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Wednesday, June 27, 2007

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.

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