Festival of Quilts: virtual tour

If you want to spark true debate at Gathered towers, just ask us which is our favourite category of quilt in The Festival of Quilts competitions, then stand back and watch the fireworks. Some of us LOVE the complete magic of the mini quilts (hands up here, as how do they make them so wee?!), others are in awe of the traditional quilt galleries, steeped in the quilting heritage that we learnt from the generations before us. Then there's the camp that can be found gazing for hours, lost in the eye-tricks of the pictorial quilts.

Being such complete devotees of the UK's best-loved quilting event, it's with great sadness that we learned that this year we'll be missing out on our annual trip to the NEC to get our quilt on and immerse ourselves in the galleries (let alone snaffle ALL THE FABRIC at the shopping stands). We also happen to work alongside the hard-working and creative team at Upper Street Events who throw this biggest UK quilt event of the year each summer, so we know how much work had gone on behind the scenes on this year's exhibitions when the global pandemic got in the way.

Check out their awesome plans for a Virtual Quilt Competition this year (above) and then dive into the complete comfort viewing that is this visual tour of the quilts that captivated us and won the judges' hearts last year.

Festival of Quilts, we are all the heart eyes for you and we cannot WAIT to see you in 2021.

*Pencil in 29th July – 1st August 2021 in your diaries now people!

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Head to our Craft Events page for more news of crafty get togethers (even if they are virtual at the time of writing).

A round of applause for the 2019 winning quilters

Best Traditional Quilt

1. Gwenfai Rees Griffiths
2. Robyn Fahy
3. Lynda Jackson

Best Modern Quilt

1. Robyn Fahy
2. Rachelle Denneny
3. Marina Kontsevava

Best Group Quilt

1. Cowslip Workshops
2. The Mood Swingers
3. Exe Valley Contemporary Quilt Group

Best Two Person Quilt

1. Mary Palmer & Anne Kiely
2. Julia Mcleod & Sue Fox
3. Chris Harvey & Jennifer Harvey

Best Pictorial Quilt

1. Juana Castañeda Romera
2. María Eugenia Corbella
3. Marjolijn van Wijk

Best Miniature Quilt

1. Sandra Newton
2. Mari-Carmen Pujante
3. Roberta Le Poidevin

Creations

• Lynne Barker
• Amanda Whewell
• Caroline Nixon

The Vlieseline Fine Art Quilt Masters

• Winner: Ann Goddard
• Runner up: Marilyn Rathbone

The Quilters’ Guild Challenge

1. Kate Dowty
2. Pippa Wardman
3. Sheena J Norquay

Best Novice Quilt

1. Katarzyna Plesniak
2. Pascale Michalski
3. Jill Farrell

Best Art Quilt

1. Betty Busby
2. Sandra Newton
3. Jo Coombes

Best Contemporary Quilt

1. Claudia Pfeil
2. Jane Osborne
3. Anne Lillholm Jorgensen

Best Young Person's Quilt – Age 5-9 years

1. Beatrice Varley
2. Emily Martin
3. Rebecca Connor

Best Young Person's Quilt – Age 10–13 years

1. Naroay Nahia Sevilla
2. Lillia Bowsher
3. Eloise Fossey

Best Young Person's Quilt – Age 14–18years

1. Kyle Long
2. Abigail Fossey
3. Hannah Errington

Best Primary School Quilt

1. Shenley Brook End School
2. Belmont Grosvenor School
3. Hazzlegrove Prep

Best Secondary School Quilt

1. Atelier de Couture Magique
2. JETS Oswestry Embroiderers’ Guild
3. Burgess Hill Girls

Best in Show

Congratulations to Mary Palmer & Anne Kiely

It's never an easy decision to choose one winner from such a superb collection of quilts but the judges managed it, awarding the top spot for "a harmonious blending of skills from two people." They highlighted tha, "there are so many intricate techniques within this quilt, which carries a powerful social message."

BA Bursary

Brooke Wakeman

City & Guilds

Julie Pywell

Hand Quilting:

Andrea Stracke

Longarm Quilting

Mary Palmer & Anne Kiely