Festival of Quilts 2022, Birmingham

The Festival of Quilts organised by Upper Street Events in partnership with The Quilters’ Guild was launched in 2003. Currrently, it is the biggest quilting show in Europe attracting over 26,000 quilting enthusiasts each year. It is also home to the largest open quilt 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. 

Entry fee to the event is at GBP 17.5 per day. This years event has staggered entry timings to manage the crowd better.

Ticketing is open and you can buy your tickets here. 

The events this year include 

• Textile Galleries
• Quilt Competition
• The Fine Art Textile Award
• Shopping opportunities
• Workshops & Talks

The Textile Galleries as in the past will iclude work from leading international textile artists and museum collections. These include a section on African - American Quilts, Diversity in Europe, SAQA, works by Danny Amazonas, Sarah Hibbert and the Fine arts textile awards.

The Quilt competition is open with total prize pool of GBP 35,000. The best in show sponsored by HandiQuilter is a prize of £3,500, one of the largest prize awarded in the open competitions.

There are 14 categories and 6 overlay awards.

https://www.thefestivalofquilts.co.uk/competition-categories-prizes-2021/ 

More than 300 vendors participate in the festival making it a great opportunity for hobbyists and art enthusiasts. On display are products ranging from art supplies to sewing machines.

400 workshops and talks are on offer. These include Quick and easy workshops , Academy classes and Talks & Lectures. Check out more about the classes here. A typical 1 hour Quick and Easy workshop is priced at GBP 17.5.

NEC, though away from downtown, is close to the Birmingham airport and the festival has a tie up with Hilton which is a walking distance away.

Check out more from their website.