Behind the scenes at a quilt show - part 1

Have you enjoyed visiting a quilt/ textile show or Open Studio this summer? I’m sure many of you have, but have you every given a thought to what goes on BEFORE  to get everything ready?

This year we started early with thread...a festival of textiles at Farnham Maltings, then in August, which is far from being a holiday month for InStitches, saw us start with the The Festival of Quilts at the NEC, Birmingham and close with The West Country Quilt and Textile Show at UWE in Bristol and at the end of September we shall be taking part in the Wokingham Arts Trail.

So, what exactly do we have to do to get ready for a show?

Through out the winter and spring we can be found winding thread skeins when we watch tv, that’s nearly 1000 (so far) this year, which is equivalent to 31 miles of thread! They are then scoured (to remove the winding oils from the mill), washed and soda soaked before being dyed. After that they are rinsed, washed and rinsed again - all by hand, before being hung out to dry. Then it’s back to the tv and box sets to re-twist the skeins, label and price.

All the while we are trying to avoid...

...threads of despair!

Under the threads we put metres of cotton scrim (which also needs to be pre-scoured and washed!) which are then cut and tied into bundles before being piled high into baskets.

Sari silk ribbon and vintage wool blankets also receive the InStitches touch of colour before being cut and packed ready for sale.

Metres and metres of fabric are also dye and print, washed and lovingly ironed (!) before being cut up and folded to go into our themed rolls and stacks.  Hazel puts the colour/pattern combinations together and then Terry comes and re-arranges them...team work!

More teamwork is involved in making up the workshop kits for all the teaching we do at the shows.  InStitches' friend Ruth comes into her own at times like these - she colour co-ordinates all the fabrics and threads which she then matches to the handmade labels - no mean feat when you consider how many kits we require!

Last year's printed fabric stash was turned into cushion kits: more ironing, cutting and folding, a coordinated hand-dyed thread selected and an instruction leaflet written, printed and folded...

And if that wasn't enough Hazel had the bright idea that some of the indigo fabric would be great made up into tops ready to wear at the shows...

All this and we haven't even got to set the gallery/ booth up yet; so don't forget to come back and join us next week to see how that went!

Hazel & Terry

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