The Festival of Quilts - Our Story
The Festival of Quilts was launched in 2003 in partnership with The Quilters’ Guild as a hub for people from all over the world to come together and share their passion for quilting.
16 years on and it is now the biggest quilting show in Europe attracting over 26,000 quilting fanatics each year. It is also home to the largest open quilt competition in the world.
Famous Faces
Over the years the show has attracted some of the most prestigious textile artists and world renowned quilters including Dorothy Caldwell, Elizabeth Brimelow, Nancy Crow, Jane Dunnewold, Diana Harrison and Luke Haynes. Our 2020 Festival promises to be no different with Angela Walters ‘The Midnight Quilter’ joining us at this year’s Festival dinner and inspiring us with daily lectures. As well as professionally curated galleries from internationally acclaimed textile artists Danny Amazonas and Sarah Hibbert.
The place to learn
The Festival has always been one of the best places to learn about quilting and textile crafts with an unprecedented workshop programme. The show offers a selection of taster classes with it’s Quick and Easy classes, more intense masterclasses in the Academy programme as well as the chance to hear from some of the best quilting tutors in the world in our talks and demos programme.
A source of inspiration
The show hosts the largest open quilting competition in the world. Over 800 quilts are entered annually into the competition which covers a variety of categories including; traditional, modern, contemporary, art and novice quilts to name a few. As well as a juried competition for textile artists – The Vlieseline Fine Art Textile Award.
With so many quilts under one roof it is hard not to leave full of ideas and inspiration to create your next quilt.
A place to shop
The Festival of Quilts offers an unrivaled shopping experience for quilters. With over 300 companies selling patchwork and quilting supplies, fabrics, threads, wadding, fat quarters, sewing machines, notions and more all under one roof.
