The Festival of Quilts 2025 - my favourite modern quilt, and friends

 

Me with 2 of my ExTex girls Mary and Trisha  

I had 2 days at The Festival of Quilts. The exhibits were fabulous, a real inspiration. And it was so good to catch up with friends. 

If you missed my previous post about my favourite stand at FOQ 2025, you can find it here - My favourite stand FOQ part 1

Isha Sharma, Wendy Dolan and me

I made the trip to catch up with Wendy Dolan, Isha from Aahilya Holidays and Janet Kolle from Vlieseline. John J Cole Morgan was the bonus!!

Wendy and I have known each other since we first taught at The Connaught Adult Education Centre in Hove. UK. in the late 1990's. We have both developed from adult education tutors to professional freelance tutors, artists and authors. This is Wendy's website.

 Isha Sharma is the owner of Aahilya Holidays. You may be aware I am now leading tours for her company, as is Wendy. My first 2 trips to Uzbekistan in March and April of this year were incredible. Everything is so very well organised. There is a great balance between discovering exciting parts of the world and being cared for. My next 2 trip to Istanbul in November are full. I will be leading tours to India, Morocco, Uzbekistan and Turkey next year. To find out more - click here

Me and the lovely Isha Sharma of Aahilya Holidays

It was wonderful to catch up with Isha, I miss her, I haven't seen her since April!! We won't meet up again until we are in Istanbul in November, but we do keep in touch, checking on bookings and making plans for new tours. 

Team Vlieseline

It was SO good to catch up with Janet from Vlieseline and John from iQuilt. Again we chat through the year and Zoom call regularly, but it is not the same a a BIG hug. It always feels like a party when we get together.

 xxx

So - onto my favourite quilt. There was obviously a huge amount of quilts and other textiles on show. From beginners to very experienced, hand stitched quilts and machine stitched quilts. For me, this quilt stood out. It was calm and peaceful. It didn't shout it's message. You had to stop and pay attention. It would have been very easy to just walk by. But it drew me in. 

Covid was a difficult time for many people, and a lot of us lost friends and family in those years. Whether through Covid or natural causes.

This quilt by Cag Tyndall really struck a chord with me. Simply made and with a simple message, but one we can all identify with.

 These are the words stitched along the sides of the quilt which is an interpretation of their scorecard.

"In the early days of the COVID lock down, my father Timothy Tyndall and I started a daily game of cribbage. Each evening at eight we would play over Skype. Dad kept the scoresheet. When he died in December 2024, aged 99, we had played 926 times. Dad was ahead by two."

Dad was ahead by Two by Cag Tyndall
 

Detail

For me, this is what what quilting is all about, not how clever you can be, but creating something quietly beautiful, with a message. 

I understand there is a place for all the colour and cleverness in textiles, but sometimes it is good to remember how most textile based crafts started - through a need to a keep warm and be thriftful.

xxx

 

I had a fabulous couple of days at FOQ 2025 - it was great to see everyone that came up to me and said Hello. I hope to have a stand there next year. 

Watch this space.

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