Quilt Festival

First of all, thank you to everyone who responded about my quilting dilemma. It is nice to get opinions from those that have been there and done that. I respect those opinions!

A week ago, the plan was that my hubby would be gone all day today and would be coming back with our children and 4 extra kids and I would be spending the day at a Quilt Festival. Plans changed and my friend drove over here with the kids. Saving my hubby the drive and giving herself a few days of relaxation at our place. The thing is, now what about the Quilt Festival. Hmmmm. I don't have any close friends that 'get' fabric and quilting. Some of my friends scrapbook sometimes but they don't really 'get' the patterned paper and embellishment love either. Where did I get these friends??? Not at the quilt store or the scrapbooking store, that is for sure. I had a feeling that my friend was going to want to go with me. She would be ready to leave the Festival after about 15 minutes. I planned to stay for hours. So I just came out and told her. I told her that she wasn't going to enjoy it like I was going to and when she stopped enjoying it, she was going to make it miserable for me. She understood! I headed her in the direction of the Farmer's Market and the promise of going to the lake once all the kids were up and about. That sounded MUCH better to her. Off I went.

The quilt show was pretty small but had some lovely quilts. They had some speakers, someone doing some demonstrations, a sale of pattern books and donated fabrics and lots of raffle items. I took some pictures so that I could share them with you. I really like when others post quilt show photos on their blogs so finally I can do the same. I have a brochure from two gals that have a longarm quilting business in the same town that the Festival was held. I decided to scope out any of their work that might be on display. This first quilt by the name of EUREKA!, I believe, was pieced AND longarm quilted by one of the gals. I was liking what I was saw.

This black and white quilt caught my eye. That color combo is on my list of quilts to do someday. I think they are so striking.

This was just one section and border of this patriotic quilt. I love the flag style hearts and that braided border.

Isn't this raggy heart quilt cute? Not a color combo that I would necessarily choose for myself but I really do like it. There is a close up of one of the hearts too.




This little pinwheel cute was just sweet. I love how the blades of the pinwheels are raised (3-D) from the quilt. I think you might be able to see that better in the close-up.


This was my absolute favorite quilt of the show. It was done by a gal that did a demonstration on Embellishing your quilts. Her name is Dana Hobbs. I thought that Des at Quilt Taffy would appreciate this quilt after the one that she just posted using the aqua cords. This crazy quilt is made from her granddaughter's clothes that she wore from birth to age 2. Her daughter actually came to her with the idea of doing this with all of the clothes and she had to give it some thought.It made me kick myself for not hanging on to all the clothes my kids wore! It makes me want to go out and by baby clothes just so I can make one of these! PRECIOUS! The little pockets, the collars, the buttons and tags. I LOVE IT!

I left the Festival for a bit and went to the farmer's market in this town, walked to the museum where they had more quilts on display, went to a teeeeeny fabric store where I found a discontinued, hard to find Amy Butler Purse pattern for 99 cents! Then I asked where I could find these longarm quilter gals. They were supposed to be giving demonstrations in their shop. Pointed in the right direction I headed off walking through this charming town. I found the little shop, not a whole lot bigger than the quilting machine and no one was there. Strange. The front door was wide open, they were expecting to give demonstrations. Huh. So I decide to walk into the back room thinking someone is there and just did not hear me come in. So I walk into the doorway and there is a lady sitting at a table. She has her eyes closed. I spoke oh so softly and said "helloooooooooo". Nothing. Not even a flinch. So I think I should just tiptoe out and leave her be and just then she slowly opens her eyes and is so startled that I am standing there! LOL!! She gave a start, I apologized for startling her and we had a little laugh over it. She came out into the machine room and proceeded to give me a demonstration. WOW! I want one!!! :D Yeah, right. Like that is going to happen. But how cool! Some ladies stopped by to talk about the quilts they had left there and then were on their way. The other owner came in and the three of us talked about my quilt-to-be and the possibilities for it. I left there with some instructions and excitement. Armed with the opinions that you left for me and their opinions, I think I am going to have them do the quilting for me. I might even have them do the binding. If you have any opinions on that let's hear 'em!

Oh yeah. These two gals encouraged me to attend the quilt guild meetings here. They said they go to them but would miss the August meeting. They said if I was shy about going alone that they would let me sit with them at the September meeting. I thought that was so sweet of them. I just might take them up on it.

I headed back to the Festival in time to listen to two speakers that I wanted to hear and in time for the raffle drawings. I liked how they did the raffle. Each item had a little bag in front of it and you dropped your tickets into the bags that were for the items you were interested in. So I didn't have a chance of getting a book or a pattern that I wasn't interested in. Even more exciting, my name was called! I forgot to take a picture of my prize and hubby has already gone to bed. What I got was a painted wood sign. It is a dark, barn red with cream letters and it says "Blessed are the children of Quilters, for they shall inherit the quilts" :D

Praise that my friend got here safely yesterday bringing 5 kids and a dog along and that her hubby and a son got here safely tonight.