quiltfest
  • Quiltfest 2020
    • 40 Years and Still Stitching
    • Song of the Celts
    • Traditional Stars
    • Cauldron
    • Ten Plus
    • Invited Members' Quilts
    • Traders' Quilts
  • Previous Exhibitions
    • Quiltfest 2019 >
      • Maps Exhibition
      • Just One Day Exhibition
      • In Print Exhibition
      • Modern Quilts Exhibition
      • Colwyn Quilters
      • Trading Day
    • Quiltfest 2018 >
      • Quilts at The Pavilion
      • Quilts at The Museum
      • Trading Day
    • Quiltfest 2017 >
      • 1001 Nights
      • On The Edge
      • Wrexham Tailor's Challenge
      • Miniatures
      • Make and Take
    • Quiltfest 2016 >
      • NinetiesCollection
      • Wrexham Quilting Circle
    • Quiltfest 2015 >
      • Region 13 Challenge
      • Contemporary Quilt Challenge
      • Dislocation by Contemporary Quilt Group
    • Quiltfest 2014 >
      • Barbara Howell: A Retrospective
      • Going Dutch
      • Cestrian Quilters
    • Exhibition 2013 >
      • Susan Briscoe and Friends at the Pavilion
      • Rieko Domon at the Museum
      • Cwiltcymru
      • Threadbare
    • Exhibition 2012 >
      • Ferret 2012
      • Magie Relph 2012
      • Dilys Fronks 2012
    • Exhibition 2011 >
      • Made in Wales - DeAnne Hartwell-Jones
      • Made in Wales - Other Artists
      • Passage Defined - By Design
      • Trees and Carved in Cloth - Turning Point
      • Miniatures by Sandra Goldsbrough
      • Quilts in the Library
      • Trading Day
      • Ario Workshop
    • Exhibition 2010 >
      • Effie Galletly 2010
      • Contemporary Quilt 2010
      • Liesbeth Williams 2010
      • Celtic Connection 2010
      • Borderlands 2010
      • Trading day 2010
    • Exhibition 2009 >
      • Nikki Tinkler
      • Hanging Together
      • In Response
      • Bethan Hughes
      • Peaceful Hearts
      • The French Connection
      • Kate Cawley 2009
    • Exhibition 2008 >
      • Elizabeth Brimelow 2008
      • Calendar of Kings 2008
      • Invited Artists 2008
      • Sisters' Choice 2008
    • Exhibition 2007 >
      • Chiaroscuro 2007
      • Boutis 2007
      • Hot and Cold 2007
      • Miniatures 2007
      • Invited Artists 2007
    • Exhibition 2006 >
      • Pat Storey 2006
      • Images of Wales 2006
      • Invited Artists 2006
    • Exhibition 2005 >
      • Travels with Cloth - New Horizons Group
      • Pat Salt 2005
      • Invited Artists 2005
    • Exhibition 2004 >
      • By Design 2004
      • Invited Artists 2004
    • Exhibition 2003 >
      • Edrica Huws 2003
      • Trading Day and Colwyn Quilters
      • Invited Artists 2003
    • Exhibition 2002
  • Contact us
Picture

​From Our Founder - Val Shields
It was suggested that as founder of the event, I should be asked to pick a favourite from each display.  It is an impossible task, I fear.  In the early years, I picked every item and I admired them all for one reason or another.
To paraphrase something written by Jerome K. Jerome concerning work I will say “I like quilts. They fascinate me. I can sit and look at them for hours. I love to keep them by me...” 

In July 2001, I agreed to present a display of Quilts in the Pavilion in Llangollen during February 2002.  During August, I approached quilters in Region 13 whose work I admired and asked them to give me a wall-hanging come February.  In September, my husband and I drove across France to Alsace to attend that year’s Carrefour in the Val d’Argent.  (It was the day of the attack on the Twin Towers in New York – never to be forgotten). 
The next day, we went first to see the display by June Barnes who was the British Quilter being promoted that year. I told her about the coming display in Llangollen and she immediately offered me my choice of anything she was showing in Alsace.  This immediately widened my horizons!  I made a list of those I considered my twenty top British makers and when we got home, I wrote to them all, asking them to send me something.  I enclosed a SAE hoping that would at least ensure a reply!  It did and all were positive!  How could I choose a favourite from amongst that selection?  I could perhaps suggest June’s and also Janice Gunner’s.  She was then The Quilters’ Guild’s Exhibition Officer and had offered to open the Exhibition.  She had a Nursing friend in Wrexham and could visit her!
Happenstance and serendipity played a part in future years!  An article in Merched y Wawr, the publication of the Group similar to the WI  in Wales, in late 2002, had caught Gwenfai’s attention.  Whilst phoning me on another matter, she happened to ask why there was nothing by Edrica Huws in The Guild’s Collection.  I had never heard the name and asked her to explain.  The upshot was that the second Quiltfest, (yes!  The first had been such a success that I was asked to make it an annual event every February), introduced the work of this amazing artist to British quilters.  She was already famous in France and Japan – and that’s another story! 

​Everything in 2002 was shown after my sending a special request to the makers.  I promised to hang items carefully and securely and to return them by the same method as they were sent to me.  This year I also set up a Trading Day on the second Sunday in February which was designed to raise enough money to cover all exhibition expenses.  It turned out to be a great success and established Quiltfest in our national quilting calendar – where it remains today
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  • Quiltfest 2020
    • 40 Years and Still Stitching
    • Song of the Celts
    • Traditional Stars
    • Cauldron
    • Ten Plus
    • Invited Members' Quilts
    • Traders' Quilts
  • Previous Exhibitions
    • Quiltfest 2019 >
      • Maps Exhibition
      • Just One Day Exhibition
      • In Print Exhibition
      • Modern Quilts Exhibition
      • Colwyn Quilters
      • Trading Day
    • Quiltfest 2018 >
      • Quilts at The Pavilion
      • Quilts at The Museum
      • Trading Day
    • Quiltfest 2017 >
      • 1001 Nights
      • On The Edge
      • Wrexham Tailor's Challenge
      • Miniatures
      • Make and Take
    • Quiltfest 2016 >
      • NinetiesCollection
      • Wrexham Quilting Circle
    • Quiltfest 2015 >
      • Region 13 Challenge
      • Contemporary Quilt Challenge
      • Dislocation by Contemporary Quilt Group
    • Quiltfest 2014 >
      • Barbara Howell: A Retrospective
      • Going Dutch
      • Cestrian Quilters
    • Exhibition 2013 >
      • Susan Briscoe and Friends at the Pavilion
      • Rieko Domon at the Museum
      • Cwiltcymru
      • Threadbare
    • Exhibition 2012 >
      • Ferret 2012
      • Magie Relph 2012
      • Dilys Fronks 2012
    • Exhibition 2011 >
      • Made in Wales - DeAnne Hartwell-Jones
      • Made in Wales - Other Artists
      • Passage Defined - By Design
      • Trees and Carved in Cloth - Turning Point
      • Miniatures by Sandra Goldsbrough
      • Quilts in the Library
      • Trading Day
      • Ario Workshop
    • Exhibition 2010 >
      • Effie Galletly 2010
      • Contemporary Quilt 2010
      • Liesbeth Williams 2010
      • Celtic Connection 2010
      • Borderlands 2010
      • Trading day 2010
    • Exhibition 2009 >
      • Nikki Tinkler
      • Hanging Together
      • In Response
      • Bethan Hughes
      • Peaceful Hearts
      • The French Connection
      • Kate Cawley 2009
    • Exhibition 2008 >
      • Elizabeth Brimelow 2008
      • Calendar of Kings 2008
      • Invited Artists 2008
      • Sisters' Choice 2008
    • Exhibition 2007 >
      • Chiaroscuro 2007
      • Boutis 2007
      • Hot and Cold 2007
      • Miniatures 2007
      • Invited Artists 2007
    • Exhibition 2006 >
      • Pat Storey 2006
      • Images of Wales 2006
      • Invited Artists 2006
    • Exhibition 2005 >
      • Travels with Cloth - New Horizons Group
      • Pat Salt 2005
      • Invited Artists 2005
    • Exhibition 2004 >
      • By Design 2004
      • Invited Artists 2004
    • Exhibition 2003 >
      • Edrica Huws 2003
      • Trading Day and Colwyn Quilters
      • Invited Artists 2003
    • Exhibition 2002
  • Contact us