Friday, May 1, 2009

A Day Off to Attend a Local Quilt Show

And what a wonderful day it was! My friend Trish and I drove 60+ miles one way to attend the Kingwood Area Quilt Guild Show that continues tomorrow.

And what a pleasant surprise to find that one of my customer quilts won 1st place in the Professionally Quilted Category. This talented lady was the recipient of 7 ribbons in various categories! Her applique is indeed award winning!

You can visit my webshots to see close ups that I took of her quilt when it was here in my studio.



We truly enjoyed the day - I loved the way the guild had each little area 'decorated' by themes...I've shared a few group shots to give you an idea of how beautiful and inviting this show really was. Trish said she enjoyed reading all the captions as much as she enjoyed looking at the quilts. I think our favorite one was "Flying Geese From Hell" which read for my first quilt I chose this lovely pattern marked 'easy' however since I'm a beginner, many of my flying geese were done 2 times, hence the name. I practically did the top twice. I still love it."

Or what about this one on a garment "Too Tall and Too Fat Bog Coat" where the maker stated This reversible bog coat was my first serious attempt to make a quilted garment. I took a class back in 1998 where I was told I was too fat and too tall to make it. It took me a decade to complete it, and every time I wear it I smile, knowing I proved the teacher wrong!

The quilts were beautiful and I took almost 150 photos! I love coming home and seeing the show again. Many times I'm so caught up in the eye candy that I can't really remember what I saw and I want to be able to look at the quilts again. The lovely colors, patterns, and of course I have to check out the quilting!

Here's a few photos of the layout for your enjoyment. I thought the decorating committee out did themselves! What creativity!



The quilt in the corner had pooh bears on it


Loved the scrappy quilts!


Talk about school spirit! Texas A&M was well represented

By the way, one of my customers actually designed the quilt on the left and the pattern was marketed through Quilts By The Bay in Galveston I quilted the original....it's somewhere in my webshots around the fall of 2007 because it was in her booth at the Houston 2007 show...it was a popular kit that year.

One other thing I enjoy about a quilt show is being around a lot of quilters! We ran into so many people that we knew -- which I found really amazing and lots of fun, especially considering the distance. Ah but for quilters, there is no distance is there! Across town, across the state, or across the internet, somehow we all manage to connect. Truly was the icing on the cake for the day!

I typically don't shop at quilt shows. (gasp! please forgive me all you wonderful vendors) Just don't need anything and usually am on a tight budget. I sorta blew that today (grin). I've been working through my scrap drawer lately -- made a scrap quilt last weekend and have started one for this weekend (stay tuned) so decided that I needed to replenish my fat quarters with some bright fun colors....so I was on a mission....and got a little distracted when I came to a booth that had one yard cuts ($6.39, who can resist that!!) and oh did she have my colors! I bought 11 out of the 12 one yards cuts pictured below (paid regular $8.50 for the beautiful Kaufman on the bottom right, but it was worth it) and I did manage to find two fat quarters that met my criteria of bright and fun! I love things with black backgrounds and lots of color as well as anything purple or just bright. It's all good and it all came home with me today. That and a book and two magazines....needed some reading material for bedtime (grin).



By the way, this photo is sideways, I don't know why blogger turned it and I can't know how to change it, so just turn your head and put the fat quarters on the bottom and it really looks better.

Yep, it's always refreshing to take a day off and go to a good quilt show -- it's sew inspiring! Thank you Kingwood for a great show, and thank you also for allowing me to quilt your beautiful raffle quilt -- I hope you call my name tomorrow at the end of the show! I'd love to have this one hanging in my studio!

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