My quilt show conundrum

Last month I visited the British Quilt and Stitch Village show which is held at Uttoxeter race course. This is the closest show for me to attend, though Festival of Quilts is easier to get to by public transport. It is a very “manageable” show and everything can easily be seen in one day. It has exhibits and competition for both quilting and embroidery, various workshops, a good range of traders and a free show guide!

After have a quick look around to determine what I would have time to do (I had a fixed departure time as I was on a coach trip with my local quilting group) I realised I would have time to do a workshop and booked an embroidery workshop with Sew Thimble Wood. It is long time since I did any embroidery and this was an hour long workshop to introduce tips and hints for embroidering on sheer fabrics. Everything we needed was provided and we made good progress in the hour and were given enough supplies to finish the project at home (which I have yet to do).

Even though an hour was spent in the workshop, I still had ample time for shopping and added to my stash with some Aurifil thread from Oakapple Haberdashery, some continuous zips and pulls from Ooh LaLa Crafts, a bobbin storage ring and seam marker from Quilteez and a little log cabin book from the Project Linus stand.

I think my favourite quilts were to be found in an exhibition by Wombourne Quilters which celebrated their Ruby anniversary. This comprised 15 “round robin” medallion quilts, all in ruby and cream, though each lap quilts was very different. Each quilter made their own centre block and the borders were add by other members of the group. Some quilters wanted a limited range of fabrics and provided these, whereas others left the choice of fabrics open.

My conundrum comes from the quilt show and competition part of the show. I last visited the Uttoxeter show 10 years ago when I first entered a quilt into a show and until now, I had not entered any other quilts into shows. Our quilt group was encouraged to support this show by entering quilts and seeing as I had a quilt in progress that would be finished in time thanks to the extended dead line, I was persuaded to enter it. My tiny nine patch quilt had been an on going project last year which I was plodding on with at my own pace and not being too concerned about mismatching seams, etc. However, I noticed that once the entry forms had been sent, I stopped enjoying making this quilt and started worrying about (and unpicking) misaligned seams, wonky borders, uneven quilting and such.

This was not intended to be a show quilt when I started it and I knew the borders were the weakest part of the quilt, but there was a difference of opinion from the judges with one scoring them “very good” and the other scoring them “satisfactory” with an additional comment that began with “What a shame …”. It was also a bit disheartening looking back on my entries from 10 years ago to discover that I had gone from mostly “very good” to mostly “good” this year. I do realise that judging quilts can be very difficult, especially when a show class encompasses all abilities and techniques.

When talking about supporting quilt shows, not everyone can support them by attending the show and buying from the traders and entering a quilt into the competition. There are signs that the quilt shows are recognising the barriers that people might encounter when thinking of entering a quilt into a show.

Costs such as entry fee and getting the quilt to/from the show can soon mount up and I’ve had a look at costs for this year for some of the main UK shows that have a competition element to their show and have tried to summarise them in the table below. The entry fees for a single full sized quilt (up to ~60” or 2 kg) range from £10 to £22 and then you have to consider getting the quilt to and from the show. If you live close to the venue or logistic agent, delivery in person may be the cheapest way to deliver your quilt, but this still comes with transport costs and even administration costs in some cases. The cost of posting your quilt will depend on the size/weight of your quilt and which service and level of compensation you chose but with the Royal Mail this is approximately £8 for 48 h delivery or £14 for next day delivery. If you are unable to collect your quilt in person at the end of the show, return delivery costs range from £10 to £23. The shows do offer some options to reduce the total cost, such as free in person delivery or collection, a free show ticket or, in the case of Festival of Quilts, a limited number of bursaries, though these cover the entry fee only.

Show	Entry Fee	Delivery in Person	Return (Collection)	Return (Posted)
Festival of Quilts	£22	£8-£10	Free - show ticket for last day included	£23
British Quilt & Stitch Village	£10	Free	Free – show ticket required	£15
Scottish Quilting Show	£15	Free	Free – show ticket for all 3 days included	£10
Quilts UK (Doncaster, costs may  be similar for Malvern)	£12	Free	Free – show ticket required	£13

The competition element may also be a barrier for some to support a quilt show by entering a quilt. The lists of winners and quilts for the shows can feature the same names and same quilts and knowing that you could be in the same category as previous winners could be off putting, however, this may be being recognised and addressed by some of the quilt shows. For example, Festival of Quilts have a “Joy of Sharing” category which is not judged and the Scottish Quilting Show has a Professional Maker category which includes any persons who have won an award in a major national or international competition.

As I mentioned before, quilt shows need our support if they are to continue, but what makes a good quilt show – is it the number and variety of quilts on show, the types of traders attending or having workshops on offer? If we go to a show and buy from the traders but not enter a quilt, is it the case that, in the words of Meatloaf (!), two out of three ain’t bad?

My experience this year has just confirmed that entering a full sized quilt into a competitive quilt show is not for me and perhaps I need to see if there are other ways I can support the show part of a quilt show. I’ll end this longer than usual blog post with a photo of my tiny nine patch quilt drying on the washing line. I’m much happier seeing it hanging there freshly washed and crinkly ready to use than seeing it hanging as a competition entry.

(A WordPress version of this post is available here as it may be more mobile-friendly for viewing and commenting.) 

April – a busier than usual month

This month has seen quite a lot of sewing and sewing-related activity.

First of all was the arrival of the new Millefiori book by Willyne Hammerstein. This book is published by Quiltshop Leur in the Netherlands and I was wondering how Brexit would affect things. I'm pleased to say the whole process went very smoothly -  it was shipped on a Saturday and arrived the following Friday. I received an email from the Royal Mail to say that the parcel had been posted in the Netherlands, another when it arrived in the UK, and a final one with the expected delivery date and time. I was expecting to have to pay a customs charge, but was pleasantly surprised when one was not required. I’ve yet to make any of the Millefiori quilts, but now I’ve another book from which to choose when I do start one!

Next was lots of satisfying sewing over the Easter break making syringe driver bags to be distributed by Waterloo Quilters to local hospices. This was a great opportunity to use up fabrics from my stash that were not really suitable for the quilts I make, such as poplins and embroidered cottons. We had been told that football-related bags were very popular and I managed to find an LFC single duvet cover on eBay which had enough fabric to make 9 bags. (My search for Everton fabric was not as successful, but someone else in the group found some Everton curtains for making bags, so the red and blue sides of Liverpool will be covered.) In total I was able to make 34 bags and used over 10 meters of fabric from my stash.

Finally, I finished my tiny nine patch quilt and sent it off to the British Quilt and Stitch Village show. When I started this quilt last year, I didn’t intend to send it to a show and it was only entered due to encouragement from fellow quilters and an extended deadline. The quilt has over 500 tiny nine patches made from half inch squares (finished size) sent on point, and the inner border is made from individual half inch squares also set on point. The backing is a Liberty print made for the V&A museum and has been in my stash for at least 10 years.

I’ll write more about my trip to the show in another post.

(A WordPress version of this post is available here as it may be more mobile-friendly for viewing and commenting.)

March’s mixed sewing

I’ve a variety of projects to report on this month, starting with some secret (at the time) sewing from January.

I mentioned that I was pattern testing and I can now share that it was for Jodi from Sewfearless and was for her Rafka box. Way back in 2013 I tested Jodi’s Mommy Poppins bag and it was lovely to work with her again. This is very clever pattern – the large size box opens out into a useful tray thanks to the curved zip. The pattern went together really well, though I made things difficult for myself by not taking the zip apart. I would certainly recommend deconstructing the zip (as in Jodi’s instructions) or using a separating zip if you make this pattern.

In something completely different, I attended an afternoon workshop and evening talk at Waterloo Quilters by Jennie Rayment. The workshop (Texture into Sudoku) saw us making nine blocks using a variety of folding techniques. I took photos as I went along, but I don’t think they will be much help if I wanted to make the blocks again. There are still finishing touches needed and I will share more photos when these have been completed.

My final update for this month is for the Tiny Nine Patch Challenge and the end is in sight for this project. The borders have been added and the top sandwiched for quilting. Fortunately the backing (which has been in my stash for at least 10 years) was wide enough not to need piecing. However, I did run out of pins when basting the layers and had to find my emergency supply of smaller pins for the borders.

I’ve now completed the quilting and binding and just need to work out how to get a photo of the completed quilt as I think it might be too big for the usual washing line photo.

(A WordPress version of this post is available here as it may be more mobile-friendly for viewing and commenting.)

Barnyarns "Mystery Box"

Last month I received an email from Barnyarns stating that their mystery box was “back and better than ever”. Always on the look out for a bargain, I ordered one and was keen to see what it would include.

My expectations were somewhat managed when the box arrived as by its size I could tell there would be no cutting mat, wadding or thread boxes inside. (To be fair, it is clearly stated that the image is for illustration purposes only.)

The box contained a variety of items covering a range of crafts, some of which will be useful but many of the items duplicate what I already have.

Cutting mat not part of mystery box

I think previous mystery boxes may have had specific themes (perhaps quilting, dressmaking, embroidery) and these may have been a better option for me than a general box such as this.

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Tiny nine patch progress

Good progress has been made on my Tiny Nine Patch Challenge quilt this month. It has gone from this:

To this:

The tiny nine patches have been replaced by making tiny Seminole style strips for the borders.

Who knows, maybe next month there will be a complete quilt top to show.

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The tiny nine patch project continues

In several of last year’s posts, I mentioned the blocks I was making for the Tiny Nine Patch Challenge. These blocks are tiny - each block is 1.5” finished size (UK 5p and 1 cent Euro coin for scale!).

The original timescale of the challenge was to get the quilt top completed in a year, but I only managed to get as far as making all the tiny nine patches (~550) I need and cutting over 400 setting squares. Good progress has been made this month and all the tiny nine patches have been assembled into larger nine patches. This means that I am now ready to start stitching the rows of the quilt together and working out what size edge triangles to cut for the on point layout.

However, I’ve taken a brief break from tiny nine patches to gather some supplies from my stash for some pattern testing. I pattern tested for this person back in 2013 and I'm looking forward to trying her latest pattern.

 I’ll update you on the project and show the finished item once the pattern is available. 

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2024 Sewing Summary

This year has been much more productive than last year with quite a few items sewn for charity, for online challenges or as activities at the meetings of Waterloo Quilters.

 

• Three quilts and an advent calendar for Project Linus
• Comfort cushions and syringe driver bags for a local hospice
• Mini quilts for online challenges
• Tree decoration, organiser bag and travel tote made at/for Waterloo Quilters
• Two mini iron caddies repurposed from a full-sized iron caddy

 There has also been a lot of sewing of tiny nine patches for the Tiny Nine Patch Challenge. Approximately 550 tiny nine patches have been stitched and trimmed and 424 setting squares cut for the first part of assembling these into larger nine patches.

Hopefully it won’t be too long into 2025 before I have an update on this project.

(A WordPress version of this post is available here as it may be more mobile-friendly for viewing and commenting.)