The Festival of Quilts 2015

The Festival of Quilts takes place from 6-9th August 2015 in Halls 7, 8 & 9 at the NEC Birmingham.

Europe’s leading patchwork and quilting show returns to the NEC bringing together a community of like-minded, creative people in a unique celebration of patchwork and quilting.

• See up to 1000 quilts entered into competition by quilters from every corner of the globe.
• Visit in excess of 25 curated galleries from leading quilt artists and groups.
• Shop from over 300 companies selling specialist and hard-to-find supplies.
• Choose from a huge range of workshops and masterclasses or hear from the experts in one of the lectures.

Traditional, contemporary and modern quilters; professionals and amateurs; young and old are all brought together in this huge stitch extravaganza! Nowhere else in Europe will you find such talent, colour and vibrancy and such creativity and passion for quilting under one roof.
 The Quick & Easy Workshops and the Quilt Academy and Lecture Programme timetables are now available to view.

To view the basic academy programme including the lectures click here -  http://www.thefestivalofquilts.co.uk/files/quilt_academy_timetable.pdf

Make sure you book your classes as soon as possible (once tickets go live) so you don't miss out on some of the fantastic classes and lectures on offer.

 Tickets for members of The Quilters' Guild of the British Isles will go on sale from midday on Monday 30th March 2015. To buy your tickets (if you are a Quilters Guild member) please visit the Guild website here and book your tickets as per the instructions sent to you.

Tickets for everyone else will go on sale at 10am on Tuesday 7th April 2015 from the Festival of Quilts website.

EQA Diversity in Europe

European Quilt Association: Diversity in Europe EQA Gallery at FOQ 2015.
 
With Quilters’ Guilds across Europe represented, the Diversity In Europe gallery is an opportunity to see some of the outstanding work of artists from 17 different countries. Each country can only select one piece to represent their country, so it is always an interesting and stunning example of quilt making at its finest. 

The Irish Patchwork Society are currently looking for IPS members to submit photographs of their work for consideration as the Irish entry for this year's gallery.

Rules:
Size of quilt:
Maximum height 2.5m - maximum width 2.5m
Minimum height 1m - minimum width 1m
Maximum perimeter (all the way around the quilt) 9 metres
Minimum perimeter (all the way around the quilt) 4 metres

All quilt must have a 10cm (4inch) hanging sleeve (with extra fullness to accommodate the rod) sewn 1cm below the top of the quilt and stopping 2cm from each side.

All quilts must include the following information at the bottom of the quilt, either on a fabric label securely attached to the back of the quilt or written directly onto the back of the quilt - owner's name and full postal address (including country), Name of the quilt. 

All quilts must have a Quilt makers statement.

Please email a good quality photograph to the International Representative (Loretta O'Brien) by 31st May 2015.

The quilt will be chosen by the Executive Committee.

Festival of Quilts Entry Form

The entry form for the Festival of Quilts is now available. 

Click here for the link to download the entry form.

Quilts selected to hang in the IPS stand at next week's FoQ

Here is the link to see which quilts have been chosen to hang in the IPS stand at the Festival of Quilts, Birmingham, UK.

http://irishpatchwork.blogspot.com/p/branching-out-quilts-selected-for.html

 We hope to be able to hang all the quilts on the first list, and hopefully, most of the ones on the second.  However, we do, as always, ask people to note that we cannot guarantee that any particular quilt will hang.

A reminder: The quilts which were hung in the "Branching Out" exhibition in the Botanic Gardens will be required again in November for the Knitting and Stitching Show,so members will not be getting their quilts back till after the show.  

Twisted Threads (who run the Festival of Quilts and the Knitting & Stitching Shows) are putting a huge emphasis on patchwork and quilting, and are being extremely generous to the Irish Patchwork Society in the amount of space that they are allocating to us, including teaching space.  For further information please see:   http://www.twistedthread.com/pages/exhibitions/viewExhibition.aspx?id=32