Festival of Quilts at the NEC - A Riot of Colour

Few who attended the Festival of Quilts last week could fail to have left inspired and brimming with ideas. Attendance was in excess of all expectations and the quilting community certainly came out en masse to view a fabulous collection of quilts, works, classes, workshops and shops.




Accents from all over Europe and North America could be heard every day. So thank you to everyone who visited The Cotton Patch stands - we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did and we look forward to seeing you again next year!


We were fortunate to have the photographer Liz Hingley on the stand on Friday to capture some of the essence of the atmosphere of the show. It was Liz's first Festival and like so many first-time visitors was amazed and inspired by it. Over the next few days we'll be posting some of her images... For those of you unable to make it we hope it gives you the motivation to join us next year!

Anne, Ellie and Nikki helped with cutting the fabrics, setting up the stands (and dismantling them!) and were pretty invaluable on the Rowan stand.

Geoff demonstrated the Little Gracie II, Pinnacle and the new Bernina 8 Series Quilting frame to hundreds of people during the show. Here, one customer is testing out her stippling technique on the Little Gracie II.

More photos will follow. For those of you into social networking you might like to join the Festival of Quilts Facebook group - just follow this link.

Kirstie Allsopp's Homemade Home - Kaffe Fassett and Quilting

Last Friday all the talk at The Cotton Patch was about Kaffe Fassett on Kirstie Allsopp's programme Homemade Home - Kirstie, having moved on from Location, Location, Location with Phil has turned her hand to rennovating an absolute wreck of a cottage in Cornwall. Her focus has been on using local crafts people and materials to furnish it and recycle where possible. All good!

Yesterday featured an old patchwork quilt (red and green - any thoughts on a date?) that Kirstie bought in a textiles antique shop and she also made a quilt with Cowslip Workshops. Its great to see so many crafts being showcased on the programme and although not everyone will appreciate Kirstie's style we think she's doing a great job!

So if you're new to quilting we hope you find our site and blog useful - but beware - it can be addictive!

Z44 - Enorme!

One of our customers in France recently bought the Grace Z44 quilting frame and has posted the photos on her blog. Its great to see the frame all set up and ready to quilt a King Size quilt.



Here's the link - Les Ouvrages de Nat - Nat's Works!

If you need the English translation there is a button you can press but these translation tools have their limitations, particularly its seems, where the words that quilters would use don't quite translate seamlessly (if you'll pardon the pun) from French into English!

It looks like a great blog - and what a view from the window for quilting in front of.

Shibori - a Japanese Technique

We had an interesting customer visit the shop last Saturday to buy the Grace Z44. She was finding it difficult to get the tension on her quilts right for the particular technique that she uses. She has studied the Japanese technique called Shibori. An example of one of the results from her workshop is shown below.

Relief I - detail
(Image: Huw Jones)

For those of you not familar with this, it is a Japanese technique which involves tying, shrinking and working with fabric so that the fabric form retains the memory of the stitches which are removed. Michelle Griffiths has a wonderful website with example of her work. "Her work explores the natural rhythm of traditional shibori techniques in order to create contemporary three dimensional sculptures. Working predominantly in whites and creams Michelle records the actions found within shibori; stitching, binding, gathering, manipulating and folding - not through the expected dye process, but purely as texture and form." Her website is at http://www.shibori.co.uk/

Currently on exhibition

- "Art of the Stitch & Scholar

"The Williamson Art Gallery, Birkenhead

(Image: Pinegate Photographics)

We were fascinated by the effects and results of this technique that is not that well known outside of Japan. If you are interested in finding out more you can visit http://www.shibori.org/