Thanks to all of our eQuilter friends who came to the panel discussion, and then my Trends power point lecture. eQuilter was the sponsor of the Festival Theatre, which was also the site of the Award Ceremony and the Fashion Show. I’ll have photos for you from these events, and the large quilt exhibits, after I return home.
I’ve been trying to explain the Modern Quilt movement to quilters here, and it is clear that most of these quilters do not understand what it is all about. I hope – for those who attended my lecture – that is more in focus now. If not you can visit my Modern Quilt / QuiltCon photo page to get a better idea! The photos say more than words can tell.
Last night at the fashion show there was excitement about British designer/icon Zhandra Rhodes being in the front row, and coming onstage with her textile and garment designs at the end. I was able to snag a seat in the front row on the other side of the runway, so many of my runway photos have Zhandra in the background.
The Tentmakers of Cairo had a huge exhibit space full of many of their quilts. You may recall we made a video about these quilters a few years ago. Now they have had great success and are selling quilts by a whole collective of quilters. I was able to visit with Tarek, one of the original quilters, and he was delighted with the exposure we gave them in our videos. eQuilter also sponsored the production of a film about the Tentmakers of Cairo, by Kim Beamish, which is due out later this year. We have just a few copies of the two “Tentmakers of Cairo” book titles in stock.
Luke Haynes had an exhibit space this year, and he got a lot of attention for his large scale portrait quilts. There was an expansion of the 3-dimensional trend this year, including some large soft sculpture animals, one of which was a human-sized alien looking creature. The Steampunk Elephant sculpture was very unique too!
I am always enchanted with the children’s categories of quilts. Individuals and school groups in different age groups submit a surprising number of art quilts, and a lot of the junior prize winners this year were boys!
Over the course of the show I took about 2000 photos, so let me work through those and I’ll post the best ones. I am uploading some photos from Sacred Threads tonight so check out my photostream for the latest uploads.
One of the favorite outings at the Festival is an evening of Shakespeare in Stratford. Tonight we went to see Othello, and it was a star-studded cast. There were many actors who we recognized from Dr Who, The Paradise, Star Wars, Indian Summers, Wolf Hall, and Game of Thrones. (We are big BBC fans.)
Our son Sam moves into the college dorm in 10 days which is pretty crazy! My kids are growing up too fast!
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