I traveled up from Southsea by train and as I arrived in Birmingham I was surprised by suddenly being surrounded by loads of women with small suitcases on wheels all heading purposefully in one direction. I guessed they were all going to the show, but what I didn’t realize at the time was that all the cases were empty, ready to be crammed with all the wonderful goodies available for sale at the show.

I arrived a little too early to check in to my hotel, so I dumped all my stuff, grabbed a bag and headed off myself. What struck me first was the size of the place and then the quality of the workmanship in the quilts and the wide variety of different styles on display. Everything from the latest techniques and materials to the most traditional, there must have been something to suit every taste. For the shoppers there was a marvelous variety of fabrics, threads, notions and everything else you could possibly wish for.

As I hadn’t been before and because I don’t normally have access to classes other than online, I wanted to take full advantage of the workshops being offered, so had signed up for two full day and one half day workshop. In retrospect, this was too much and didn’t leave me enough time to really look at all the quilts and trade stands properly. Two of the workshops I chose were on techniques and styles that are different to the way I normally work and although they were fun to do, and the teachers were good I don’t think I’d incorporate these things into future work.

 For me, the class that I got the most out of was the one conducted by the Australian teacher Pam Holland called Monet’s Garden, based on flower s she’d photographed whilst in France. Her method of working is similar to how I like to work, and the subject matter was also one that appealed to me. She introduced us to methods of creating shading and depth using thread painting and fabric pens, the pens were also used to add fine details. These are some techniques that I’d like to apply to my own quilts, and actually the pens would have come in handy for my last hornbill design that I was creating where I wanted to add some very fine palm fronds. Jan brought along a selection of her own work to inspire us including her award winning reproduction quilt and the full size copy of the Bayeux tapestry that she is currently working on. The attention to detail and workmanship in all the quilts is amazing.

The four days went all too quickly and I was very sorry when it was all over, but I left feeling inspired and keen to get to work on my own projects again and hopefully next year I’ll be able to enter something of my own. Here are a few photos from the exhibition……

The winner of the Art Quilts category

Winner of contemporary quilt category

A detail of quilt by Judy Bowker from Australia