Spring Quit Festival

Several weeks ago I spent an inspirational afternoon at the Spring Quilt Festival, Ardingly. I do occasionally make quite simple cotton quilts for the home and when I was 12 years old my very first attempt at a quilt won a prize at school. However, the quilts on display were in a completely different league!!!

Alison Bramley combines quilting with patchwork and appliqué, in a rainbow of dupion silk, to create some quite breathtaking work which I am guessing isn’t used to keep her cosy at night. I loved her ‘Midnight Peacock Revisited,’ ‘Italy – A Tale of Three Cities’ and ‘Beating the Blues with Blue Bs.’ If you would like a closer look at this beautiful work just click the image.

Although I am a traditional hand stitcher it was quite remarkable to see some of the intricate quilting that may now be achieved with long-arm machines. I saw some of these machines at Knitting & Stitching, Alexandra Palace, last autumn …. they are great fun but I have to admit to being quite shocked by both their price and size – they are enormous!

Finally there was a fine selection of ‘Saints of Cornish Churches’ by the Cornish Quilters and Stitchers. Thirty five quilts each depicted a chosen saint and again used a wide variety of stitching techniques. There were some quite beautiful motifs and I was totally enchanted by the fish, leaping into the font, stitched by Stithians WI Patchwork Group.