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EQS Sponsors Student Category at Festival of Quilts

20/09/2004

At the Festival of Quilts held at the NEC in August, European Quilting Supplies and YLI once again sponsored the Student Category.  The winner this year was Sue Davis of Bradford College with her stunning entry entitled "Wired".

Sue explained her inspiration for the work as: "Exploring influences from boning in corsetry and the human form.  The quilt reflects the influence in society on women to do everything and be everything, creating a pressured, wired female.  The quilt is distorted and pulled in different directions (as women are), using a ridgeline to create a 3D effect."

At a presentation ceremony during the gala dinner, Jim Miller of YLI announced the winner.  Although Sue could not be at the dinner, Jim expressed his admiration for the skill and technique used in creating the piece and committed, in conjunction with the UK distributor, EQS Ltd, to sponsoring the Student Category again next year.  "It is so very important for the future of this industry to encourage the next generation of quilters to explore what can be done.  In fact, what was most amazing was the different slant that all the entries put on the very concept of 'quilting'.  For that reason we did not hesitate to agree to continue our participation in this programme."

In addition, European Quilting Supplies repeated their very successful Thread PlayDay workshops throughout the show.  Over 200 quilters were given the opportunity to make their own thread samplers, using twelve different threads on machines kindly loaned by Bernina.  "To see what thread will do, it really is necessary to see it once it is stitched in," says Graeme Wright of EQS.  "Then the true magic of the product comes to life.  Our PlayDays make that possible and encourage consumers to go into their local shop and ask for the product."

The prize money of £2,000 was given equally to Sue and her college.