quilt show

I suppose technically you could count the time, 5+ years ago at the Spinach Festival

when we paid a buck, 

and popped into a small shop to look at a dozen or so quilts

as my first quilt show,

but this one seemed much more show-like,

so I'm calling it

my first real quilt show.

I enjoyed it,

even though I was most definitely the youngest person there

and most of the quilts weren't really my style.

Or if I liked the style,

I wasn't crazy about fabric choices...

(Those ladies are real fond of their batiks and blenders!)

I recognized several patterns, so I think it means I really am a quilter :-)

(just in case we weren't entirely sure...)

Forgive my fabulous cell-phone shots.

I'd planned on buying some goodies,

(plus it was raining - ugh!)

and I didn't want to lug around a camera, too.

Turns out I only bought 1/2 yard of fabric, so I could've handled it. ah well.

No need to be proud of me for showing restraint, though - that's really all that called to me.

I was hoping to see a Farmer's Wife, but no dice.

pooh.

This was a Dear Jane, which is sorta similar.

The lady who made it worked 15 years on this baby!

It was entirely hand-quilted - not sure about the piecing.

The blocks finish at 4"

so that little star in the center of this block is like, an inch!

That's a bit fiddly for my blood...

(but quite impressive)

I'm not a fan of square quilts, 

or medallion quilts,

but I do kinda like Elizabeth Hartman's Avatrix pattern.

I think she'd be tickled to know some quilter in Arkansas won a blue ribbon with her pattern.

This was one of the few quilts that was quilted by a domestic machine 

(at least that is my guess - I suppose it could have been long-armed?)

This next quilt is from the book Nearly Insane,

again,

similar to  a Farmer's Wife.

The blocks on it are a bit bigger than the Dear Jane's, maybe 5 1/2 inches finished?

And it looks like, on average,

there are more pieces per block.

This one had 96!

Dang!

This was hand-quilted in the ditch.

I must admit - I don't understand the whole quilt in the ditch thing,

especially when going to all the work of hand quilting.

I want all my stitches to show! ;-)

I kinda liked this border - I've not seen this block before, not sure what it's called. (anybody know?)

With the exception of the corner blocks, which are squares,

the border is made of rectangle blocks that alternate directions to form the zig zag.

This next one is really not my style at all,

but you've got to appreciate all the time that went into it!

It's needle turn appliqued,

and hand quilted in a 1 " cross hatch pattern around, but not across the applique.

The quilter who made it had at least 3 quilts similar to this in the show.

She came up while I was looking at it.

I congratulated her and asked how many hours a day she spends sewing.

She said, "Oh maybe 4. Or 5 or 6..."

Which I totally understand - when you love what you do, it's easy to lose track of time.

My favorite quilt, I didn't take a picture of.

It was a queen size hand-quilted white whole cloth quilt.

Maybe someday....