Love Sewing — Issue 45 2017

vintage fabric stands. Any book you could

ever want on patchwork and textile art could

be found at the show and there were a few

big textile art surface decoration stands such

as the popular Art Van Gogh, which also

appealed to dressmakers who like to dabble

in a bit of dyeing and printing.

TALKS, WORKSHOPS

AND DEMOS

I didn’t get the opportunity to attend any

workshops as I was only there for one day but

there was plenty on offer for dressmakers – a

wide range of surface design techniques to

more traditional techniques such as appliqué

and lots of talks on design and the design

process. Plenty of food for thought!

What can

QUILTING

teach us?

celebrating the work of some of the world’s

leading quilt artists).

SOCIAL HISTORY AND

POLITICAL VOICES

For me there were two standout areas of the

show covering social history and the power

of quilts. The first was the Walks of Life

stand which had historical examples of many

traditional forms of quilts and, most exciting,

a couple of teaching samples of unfinished

quilts that we were able to examine and

touch! One was an English paper-pieced quilt

top, still with all its original backing papers

that included lots of fragments of letters

dating from the 1800s, the other was a hand-

embroidered Victorian crazy patchwork design

and it honestly felt like a real privilege to be

allowed to handle these pieces.

The Women’s Quilt is a project to highlight

the issue of domestic violence against women

and was completed for International Women’s

Day this March and presented at parliament.

The quilt is made of 598 blocks, one for each

of the women killed by their partners or

ex-partners between 2009 and 2015 – a truly

shocking statistic. You can follow this project

on Instagram thewomensquilt and on its

Facebook page of the same name.

SHOPPING

The lovely Jules of shop and pattern brand

Sew Me Something was running one of only a

handful of dressmaking-specific stands. There

were lots of fabric retailers, many who also

sell fabulous dressmaking fabric, including

Rosenberg, Fabrics Galore and some lovely

I spent seven years working

in the fashion industry before

moving to teach dressmaking

from my own studio, MIY

Workshop, in Brighton. MIY

Collection is my range of

easy-to-follow modern sewing

patterns. I have also written

two books about dressmaking

both available from all good

bookshops. My third book will

be out in February 2018!

http://www.wendyward.co.uk

http://www.miycollection.com

http://www.miyworkshop.co.uk

ABOUT

WENDY WARD

The winning quilt in the Fine Art Quilt

Masters competition, Birchington

Breakwaters by Margaret Ramsay

A beautiful piece by Adelheid

Gubser showing feathers

trapped between layers of fabric

with hand-embroidered writing

NEXT YEAR?

I’ll definitely go back! Maybe even for

two days so that I could attend some

talks and take a few classes. The Festival

of Quilts is Europe’s leading patchwork

and quilting event, attracting 24,000

quilters from all over the world. The

show is a celebration of quilting in

all its forms, with over 300 exhibitors

offering essential supplies, professionally

curated galleries of quilts from leading

international makers, 350 workshops,

talks and demos plus a magnificent

display of over 700 competition quilts.

It is the ultimate patchwork and

quilting experience. Find out more

about this year’s show and keep

updated in time for the 2018 show at

http://www.thefestivalofquilts.co.uk

Bling by Katherine Jones

http://www.lovesewingmag.co.uk 59

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