It came out last week: the Brno Patchwork Meeting, the biggest annual patchwork show in the Czech Republic, is ending. For good.

For the whole community here, that's a real loss. Over the years the show had built up a lovely reputation abroad too, and it was one of the few chances for makers from all over the country to get in one room together – show what they'd made, swap ideas, talk to people who actually get it.

And now it's finishing.

Ask me if I'm surprised. Unfortunately, I have to say no.

I exhibited there myself, and the atmosphere behind the scenes was... odd. Not hostile exactly, just indifferent. I came away feeling like a nuisance – like the only thing the organisers were really interested in was how much money they could squeeze out of us. That doesn't sit well with any maker, and honestly, it's not the spirit this community is built on.

Patchwork and quilting here run on people who do it for love – not on spreadsheets and margins. When organisers start seeing an event purely as a business and exhibitors purely as a source of income, it shows sooner or later. And here, it showed.

I don't know what happens next. There are rumours that one of the bigger sewing supply retailers might pick it up in some form – and honestly, that's my only hope. This community deserves somewhere to come together once a year without feeling like they're just there to be milked.

I'd love to know if you exhibited at Brno Patchwork Meeting too, or went along as a visitor. What are your memories of it? And what would you want to see take its place here in the Czech Republic? Drop me a comment – I'd love to know if you see it the same way.

Karen