Last night I arrived home, after spending the weekend at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham UK. This is the biggest quilt festival in Europe and it is great to see all the European and UK flavors of creativity as I walk the show. I am still pondering all the quilts I photographed at the show, and thinking about the trends I saw emerging.
One of the things that struck me was how many quilts there were with African themes and African fabrics. One quilter wrote about her quilt – “Africa – Our Future”. Despite all the refugee problems emanating from Northern Africa, there is still a recognition that the continent is a huge untapped resource.
There was also a lot of attention on issues such as animals going extinct, and climate change. Some quilts were very subtle and some were very blatant and direct in their message.
This bold quilt by Ingrid Agering “African Star” uses a traditional quilt design with bold African prints in the pieced star….and a graphic circle of elephant silhouettes. There was a lot of intricate quilting in the white background. It drew a lot of attention and admiration from the festival attendees, and was placed in a visible location.
We have always carried African import prints, African animal fabrics, and African batiks/panels. Since my visit to South Africa for the 20th anniversary of Apartheid ending (with Carolyn Mazloomi’s quilt group, to see their Nelson Mandela quilt exhibit there) I’ve had an even greater appreciation for the colors and traditional fabrics coming from this vast continent.
Next week in my Midweek Creative Nudge, I’ll be posting quilt photos and talking about other trends from the show. Kudos to Ingrid for this bold beautiful quilt!
The quilt is shown in a collage of Elephant and African-themed fabrics now in stock at eQuilter.com
sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana
2016 Travel Calendar:
Sept 3 – Water is Life – Embassy Reception – Frascati Rome
Sept 18-25 – CUBA Arts Tour #2
Oct 6 – Dairy Barn – Athens OH – “Intl Quilt Trends” Lecture
Oct 29 – Nov 4 – Houston Quilt Market & Festival
Nov 11-13 – Color Marketing Group – Albuquerque
Nov 15-20 – Luana’s Polar Bear Tour – Churchill Canada
