Festival of Quilts after thoughts

Yes, I admit it!

It has taken me over a week to recover from The Festival Of Quilts.

It was as wonderful as ever. A chance to catch up with those I only see at the festival and also a chance to chat to some of my personal quilting heroes such as Gloria Loughman and Sandra Meech, who were both delightful. I was assisted  by my daughter, who has been with me each year since I started. It was a lovely for me to see how she has grown in confidence over the years. So much so that I could chat away to all who came by while she did all the hard work!

For me there were two faces of this year's show (literally)

The first was this one.

This guy's exhibition was just down the way from the Quilting In Action section and one of the perks is that you get to go in early and have a look around at things before the crowds arrive. I made a bee line to this one because I have followed Luke's work online for a number of years so it was great to see it on the flesh.

I find his work exciting, not because he is a man (you know what I am saying here) but because he is young. There are a lot of young quilters out there these days, which is good, but not so many seem to be in the Art Quilting camp. 

For me he embodies the mixing Quilt and Art. When there are so many conversations about what is Art Quilting in my humble opinion Luke Haynes ticks a lot of boxes. (He also recycles fabric which is another plus). I got to chat to him and he too is delightful!!

Read more about him and his work here.

The other face was that created by Jenny Dutton with the pieces in the Through Our Hands Gallery taken from her The Dementia Darnings series. I don't have any photos but I urge you to take a look at these powerful pieces.

So... my apologies if you started to read this post hoping to see lots of photos of quilts, but I simply don't have any and the few I did take were blurry, including this one snapped as we were leaving one evening.

However google or hashtag festival of quilts on Facebook/Instagram/Twitter and you will be inundated with images. 

If you were there I would love to know what you enjoyed most. 

If you know of any other young art quilters I should know about then tell me in the comments.

Thanks for visiting!