The General Rundown

It was super great having Sophie here for the Quilt Show!  We had a very flexible approach to the show so we viewed it how we wanted.  Along the way we met up with Irene Puzinas (from Canada) and that was a blast.  We walked around and evaluated various sections of quilts.  It's great fun with another quilter & her particular input.

Friday night we met up with Deborah McLaughlin and her cousin for dinner. I loved every minute of that meeting too--Tex Mex and conversation.

Saturday Sophie and I played in my studio. Sophie wanted to see if her feather skills on her domestic machine would transfer to the longarm. She warmed up on a twin sized top that she left for me to donate.  Later in the day she started working on the baby quilt with feathers.  By the late night, we were both exhausted and the machine was squacking at us so we finished up Sunday morning before going to the show for the final day.

I had chatted with the APQS rep Thursday asking if I could have all the practice rolls from the longarm machines so we were ready with plastic bags when the show closed.  I'll be using them for the batting on donation quilts.  Once they are covered and quilted, no one will ever know.

The show itself was excellent.  Nothing particularly new; most of it was predictable.  I enjoyed the scrap quilts the most.

There were more than a few "What's the Point?" pieces; as in, if you have a photo of something, what's the point of reproducing it onto fabric and covering it with thread to match the original photo?

Lots of the quilts have become immediately identifiable (which even Wes mentioned a few years ago has to sway jurors) as a "XYZ's work".  More than one or two were classic ripoffs of originals without any credit and Sophie and I thought that maybe the jurors thought they were from the original quilters. 

There were also a few quilts that were really not on the level of other quilts but we decided they had photographed much better than they were in reality.  Most of the judges' decisions were sound except in the applique division, IMHO.  One that puzzled us was a cut and fused mandala in the "traditional applique" division.  It didn't place but it seemed totally out of place.

I'm very close to very done with the Japanese quilts.  They are phenomenal but they are very predictable.  They are on their own level; as are the Best of Show quilts.  The hierarchy is probably Best of Show, Japanese, the rest of the show, special exhibits, charity exhibits.  (Although one of the most exquisite Best of Show quilts was Japanese.)

A few of the special exhibits were really wonderful but a few were blech.  We did enjoy the Texas themed exhibits, the Text on Quilts exhibit, the 12 x 12 exhibit but the Hoffman Challenge was so predictable it wasn't even funny.

We discovered & loved 2 new quilters (to us--they are not new to quilting): Janet Stone who often wins in the Embellished Division.  Her work is impeccably perfect.  You would have to get up very early in the morning to beat her in that division.  Just exquisite attention to detail & so refined and elegant in her execution. She clearly understands how to edit.

Some links to her award-winning work: here, here is a slide show.  She's working on an alphabet series & these quilts are winning at all the shows.

And we loved Kathleen McCrady's work.  She's a Texas quilter and has some quilts in the Quilt Index and an interview with the Alliance.  One of her quilts that I loved on a very whimsical level was her basket quilt where she fussycut the floral prints to represent bouquets in the baskets.  We stopped and admired that quilt twice!

It's getting to the point that it is not enough to bind a quilt.  Now you need an elaborate multi-layered binding or some kind of freeform appendage, like prairie points or corded celtic knots. 

Not nearly as many crystals as previous years but certainly still a serious design element.  Paint is still front and center on lots of quilts.

My big purchases at the vendors were 100 longarm needles, a pair of machine embroidery scissors and a circle template for the longarm.  From what I heard, the vendors had a good show; although, I didn't see lots of packages walking out the door.  We spent 2 days with the quilts and Sunday afternoon with the vendors so buying was not my priority.

Sophie and I had lots of time to talk about the Retreat Idea for 2012.  I'm very stoked to be able to offer my friends a way to connect, see the show and enjoy some workshop or leisure opportunities.  As the time gets closer next year, I'll work out logistics.  If you want to be included in the emails for preplanning the Retreat, drop me an email. I am going to keep the attendees right at 10 with 15 as the absolute max.

Join in the Discussion! I would love to know what you think.

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!
 

Sophie's quilt on the longarm!