Monday, September 19, 2011

A Celebration of Quilts

Yesterday morning, I went to see A Celebration of Quilts which was held at a beautiful greenhouse in the next town. I went by myself and thoroughly enjoyed the outing - it was like visiting a museum or art gallery, which I always feel is best experienced alone.

I forgot my camera (it isn't working very well anyway), but was able to take photos with my phone. I'll spare you the pictures that didn't turn out well.

Most of the quilts did not have any information attached, and even for those that did, I didn't take notes. There were no prizes, although we could vote for our favourite on the way out.




Lots of inspiration in the Christmas quilts. I wanted to take the first one (snowmen) home with me.


I love this quilt, but it had very little quilting on it - just around the squares and I felt kind of sad for it because, with lots of use and washing, it might fall apart.
Do you see that in the corner? It's a Lamb Mini, like the one I made!



There were quite a few spool quilts. Love them!


Very pretty sampler quilt.


This was really beautiful. The colours were much more vibrant than what you see in the photo.


This Dresden Plate was pieced and quilted in...I think the sign said the 1940s. Tiny little hand stitches and all hand-quilted too.


I cannot believe I didn't take a picture of this entire quilt. It was amazing. It's called String Tulips. Look at the beautiful feather quilting!


Another type of Spool quilt. I thought the border was really neat.


Cute!



Flying Geese in reds.


Scrappy Irish Chain - be still my heart! Wow!


More Flying Geese. I might have to make one of these some day.


Another Christmassy quilt.


This quilt was pretty amazing too. All the flowers and vines (which you can't really see) are appliquéd.


This Spool quilt was my favourite and got my vote!


This one was nice too - the black background made the colours really stand out.


Bargello quilt.


Very colourful!


Gorgeous work!


Never mind the kid's quilt - look at that cat! It wouldn't stop licking itself for me to take a good picture.

So, there you have it. My morning spent at the quilt show. A couple of observations I made while walking around: 1) A lot of the quilts were stippled. A lot. And many were stippled on a long-arm machine (you can tell). I've never paid to have a quilt quilted on a long-arm but if I ever did, you bet I would get something more interesting than a stipple. I love stippling but I can do that myself. 2) None of the quilts had that crinkly, washed look, except for the old Dresden Plate. They were all perfectly flat and had never seen the inside of a washing machine. Do quilt shows demand that? 3) At the risk of sounding vain about my work (which I'm not), I have a few quilts that could be in a quilt show, based on what I saw there. Maybe that's something to work towards in the future. Do you show?

It was a good morning, as I said, and inspired me to finish my Halloween Cat Mini last night so I'll be able to show it off tomorrow. I also made the label for the Patisserie baby quilt and tossed it in the washer this afternoon.

Now, what's next? More bow ties? Ghastlies? or should I start on some Christmas sewing? Ahhh...decisions, decisions.

7 comments:

Rachel Slote-Brown said...

Beautiful Quilts.
Must be quilt show season! Seems like everyone has visited one - we went this weekend to the quilt show at the county fair.

Pat said...

Very nice quilts you showed us. I'm always too self-conscious and critical of my work to put it in any quilt show. I do agree you have some that could easily be put in a show and do well.

Thimbleanna said...

GHASTLIES!!!! How could you even ask that question LOL!

Great quilts Rachel! I love that first Christmas quilt, the scrappy Irish Chain and the one with the big pieced circles.

I completely agree with your number one observation. I've been really disappointed in quilt shows in the last 10 or so years. It seems that with the rise in machine quilting, quality and attention to detail in piecing, etc. has really slipped. I've seen some beautiful machine quilting, but a lot of it isn't what I'd consider quilt show quality. I have no objection to any type of quilt -- they're all works of love, but I think if it's going to be in a show it should be really top notch. Just MHO. ;-)

Lynne said...

Lovely quilts - thanks for sharing.

I'm a new quilter and prefer my quilts flat and non-crinkled; I was quite shocked the first time I really noticed that some quilts were crinkled! I think it's like the original song and the cover version - whichever is heard first tends to be the favourite! So my introduction to quilting was flat modern quilts and that's what I prefer (today - who knows what tomorrow will bring?) LOL Of course, being a novice, my quilts are nowhere near Show standard!

PunkiePie (Jen) said...

I've thought the same thing at our local fair. I should submit a couple if mine. At least I would get a "paticipant" ribbon.

Sew Create It - Jane said...

What beautiful quilts..thanks for the virtual tour :o)

Unknown said...

the one with the round wheels got my heart thumping!!!