30th Anniversary of the show

In very marked contrast to the Festival of Quilts, all under one roof in a very central location but with expensive parking and accommodation options in the opinion of many, the French festival takes place in four different villages, all along the “Val d’Argent” or Silver Valley, home of the early mining industry and the thread spinning industry in the 18th and 19th centuries. During show hours, rather large coaches run up and down the frankly narrow roads between the villages, but outside show hours you need to consider very carefully where you are staying, as you could be stranded without a car! And, as the area is delightful, with the fabulous Haut Koenigsberg Chateau and the mediaeval villages gathered round the town of Colmar, it’s a great place to be able to explore at leisure.

Back to the show! In each of the four villages there is one large venue - usually the Community Centre - and one or two smaller venues, often local churches, housing a single artist’s exhibition or maybe a group display. There were plenty of them - this year the “country of honour” was Australia and New Zealand – and the essential Trader’s Area was in Ste-Marie itself, as was the Theatre for the talks and presentations.

I did feel however, that some of the smaller displays in the churches were rather lacking in atmosphere - usually only a few people at a time in a large gloomy building, though always very well lit! And, as I’ve said, some of the distances between settings, even in one village, were quite large. Good mobility or a car - essential.

In the same way, the Traders Area was good in parts! Nothing like as extensive as FoQ, the inside area was stuffy, hot and of rather mixed quality and sorts - bag stalls, cheap fabric stalls, accessory stalls…. I left quickly. Outside was a large, cheerful area of attractive tented stalls, with a great batik stall, lots of threads, patchwork kits and embroidery essentials - with one thing FoQ hasn’t got….. a fresh, hot crèpe stall!

What I really missed though, were the quilts. Yes, there is a juried international competition, featuring maybe 35 selected quilts, all on the one theme, for the main prize. But where were the miniatures, the 3D items, the traditional, the modern, the art, the I-don’t-know-what-you’d-call it… Where were the 700-odd quilts that gladden our hearts so much every year at FoQ, even as we moan that there are far too many to take in…? I missed them!