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About Quiltfest North 2026
Set Up
The set up for the exhibition took two days. Huge thanks must go to Eric Croft for his skills and patience. Without him set up would have taken much longer! Both he and Sue made extremely early starts, several times, to get to the site before everyone else, to make sure everything was in order.
Thank you both!
This year's quiltfest North celebrated diversity that can be found in the field of Quilting, mixed media and textile arts.
In our larger gallery space we had three exhibition:
Man on Chair by Charlotte Wood
Charlotte Wood
Charlotte Wood is a Textile and Special Effects Technician at the Univeristy of Greater Manchester who also has her own studio at Neo Artist in Bolton. She won the Wilcom Associate Award for Textile Art for her piece Man on Chair and Lock Competition in 2025.
Nikki Parmenter
Nikki Parmenter
2) Nikki Parmenter is a Cheshire based artist who specialises in mixed media. textile based pieces. She has just won the Constance Howard Award for The Most Outstanding Piece, and the Artistic Director Award for Innovation, with her work called 'Feelin Fruity', in the 2025 - 2026 Embroiderers' Guild Members Challenge.
Contemporary Threads
Contemporary Threads
3) Contemporary Threads is a textile arts group based in Liverpool. They are passionate about all things textile and mixed media, bringing together inspired stitchers from a wide range of traditions, techniques and perspectives.
The Rust Collective, Group Quilt by Beartown Patchwork & Quilters
Beartown Patchwork & Quilters
One piece from the Beartown Patchwork & Quilters, winner of the Group quilt category in Festival of Quilts 2025.
Made by members of Beartown Patchwork & Quilting. It is made from silk and crochet cotton, dyed by group members, using rusted metal plus tea and vinegar.
Inspired by some gifted silk factory overruns, a group quilt was designed that allowed full participation by all. A fluid vision of the proposed design allowed freedom in individual contributions. Using both traditional and contemporary methods of piecing, the diptych satisfied everyone's creativity.
Modern Quarters Challenge
Modern Quilters Challenge
Fat quarter, Thin quarters, Four quarters, Hind quarters, Long quarters. How many different quarters can you find?
Last year the Modern Group Challenge was to design and make 20 square inch quilts on the theme of Quarters to celebrate the quarter century.
They had 60 entries - all of which arrived on our set up day. Unfortunately, we did not have enough hanging space for them all. Also, for some reason the individual explanations for each one were not available.
Their challenge for 2026 is "Off the Grid".
More from the Modern Quilters Challeng
"All the Roads lead to Home", inspired by the Magic Inch Book. Created by Margaret Logan
There was so much interest in the Quarters challenge - much of it to do with how the pieces fitted into the Quarters theme.
However the query stumped us slightly. It involved much peering closely at the stitching. At first glance it looks like QAYGO but the Background is all one piece with continuous quilting lines. I promised some visitors that I would find out.
The answer is: Catherine Hunter - newsletter editor for the Modern Quilt Group says - the Quilting lines are stopped at the limit of each square, which is very neat but requires a lot of patience at the end when you are left with all the tails to bury.
Margaret says, " It was all done in one piece. And yes I buried all my threads!!!! The lines (roads) are from the Magic Inch book by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr. I used my walking foot to quilt all the lines. I learned that from the book WALK by Jacqueline Gering."
For those of you who are saying - well that's obvious, I promise, all of the stitches at the inside edge of each quarter was the same length as all the others and not cut short in any way! Also, the busyness of the background made it more difficult to identify the stitching.
Festival of Quilts
This year we were lucky to have been offered a pair of tickets to the Festival of Quilts.
All of our visitors were allowed to put their details into the draw - and many did!
This was drawn on Tuesday 30th June and the lucky winner was Edie Glover. Sadly Edie couldn't make use of the tickets and so it was redrawn and won by Angela Hurren.
Congratulations! We look forward to seeing you there.
Summertime Challenge
Summertime Challenge
The theme for this year's Quiltfest North was 'Summertime'. We had 39 entries. Visitors were asked to choose their favourite and Lis counted hundreds of votes on the 29th.
And the winner is..........
See below.
Quilter By The Sea by Su Sisung
Summertime Challenge Winner
Su Sisung with her piece "Quilters by the Sea".
It recieved 12% of the votes,
Congratulations Su Sisung.
Cotton, Lancashire, Bent Needles.
Cotton, Lancashire, Bent Needles
The members of Bent Needles were set the challenge of making 12" square blocks on the theme of "Cotton". They produced 16 blocks that have been put together in this quilt.
The were limited to a light grey, dark grey, green, brown, red and blue but could add black.
Bent Needle Patchers is a small group of ladies with a shared interest in patchwork, quilting and all things stitch related. They come from all walks of life and range of ages and abilities - they share a passion for stitching. The group started some 23 years ago and they have a maximum of 30 members at any one time.
They meet every Tuesday evening in Leyland. Meetings alternate stitching evenings with talks, projects and alternative activities such as suitecase collections.
New members are welcome - contact Dawn on frockingadventures@outlook
Young Quilters Workshop
Young Quilters Workshop
This year's workshop ran smoothly with quite a bit of interest from visitors.
They made tulip pens and you can see them hard at work in the small gallery.
Destash Day
Destash Day
This was held across the road from Astley Hall at Buckshaw School.
People came into the exhibition enthusing over the amount that was for sale and bargains they had managed to get. Some were coming across the road to have lunch before returning for a second round!
This was obviously a popular event and it will be repeated again when everyone has built up their stash once more!
The work of Nikki Parmenter
The work of Charlotte Wood
Thanks also to the Committee and all the Stewards who gave their time willingly to organise, set up and host this event.
Author, Myra Logan,
Newsletter editor,
Region 13.
More From Region 13
Not Quite Finished for FOQ!
So there you are – I’ve admitted it! I entered a piece – in a year with record numbers, fortunately – but It Won’t Be Finished. Oh no, I hear you say, it’s only July xx, you’ve still got time, especially as you’ll be taking it down on July 27th…
About Quiltfest North 2026
About the very successful Quiltfest North 2026.
Inspirational
That was a visitor comment heard during Quilt Fest North at Astley Hall in Chorley. We saw fantastic attendance at Quilt Fest North, which this year focussed on modern, contemporary and art quilts. We had plenty of talent on show with award winning work, and it was a celebration of patchwork and quilting in the broadest sense of the art and craft. To educate and inspire are key aims for The Quilters’ Guild, and Region 13 certainly did this.
