2019 Spring Quilt Festival, Exeter

I love visiting the Spring Quilt Festival in Exeter. I'm not much of a shopper, but the range of goodies on the numerous stalls is fantastic. I go mostly to see the quilts and this year there were some gems.

Firstly two quilts that I love for their colour.

This is "Upstairs Downstairs" by Marlene Chaffey

and a detail to show the twin needle cross hatch quilting in the border - a great idea.

This is by Christine Badger - a simple looking quilt made extra special by the choice of fabric and its placement.

I was much amused by another wall quilt by Christine called "Happiness is ... we all like to chat".

This was entered in the South West Quilters challenge "Happiness is ..." and another appealing entry was by Annie Yeo - "Happiness is ... a Snuggle". We all need plenty of these!

Lynette Anderson designs are always charming and this one is "My Country Cottage" made by Jeanette Cox. What a super combination of applique and pieced blocks.

Radiance Quilters - a group who quilt with longarm machines, created beautiful work using ice dyed fabric (I am yet to look this up to see what it entails!). All these 4 are about 24" square and are by Annelize Littlefair, Heidi Simkin, Roz Rossiter and Lynda Jackson.

Kate Andre was running a workshop on printing on fabric and I love these two unfinished pieces that she had as samples. They are very reminiscent of the copperplate printing of Rebecca Vincent - a favourite artist of mine.

Joan Dawson used lots of different techniques, including Inktense pencils, to create "Pebbles on the Beach". This was inspired by the beach at Lyme Regis.

This detail shows the painting of the sky, sea and pebbles combined with lots of quilting to make the surface texture.

Jean Stetson had some beautiful applique quilts in the exhibition and here are a few examples of the blocks in her quilts:

All the above are hand appliqued and hand quilted.

This beautiful work by Karen Lane is called "Summer in the Garden" and is a lovely combination of applique and embroidery.

And finally this is a triptych (each one is A4 size) by Penny Armitage for the Exe Valley Contemporary Quilt Group Challenge - "Tree Time" depicting the same tree in three seasons.

All in all a thoroughly enjoyable day out.

Happy stitching - Anita x