frenchtown fiber

Chris Mundy and Kate House try to make art while navigating the crap life throws at them.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Quilt Show Anxiety

Or, Wow, I really suck at this!  That is kind of how I feel after a day of looking at some of the best quilts ever produced. I can understand reaching perfection when you hand quilt, but how do you make no mistakes, not a single one, when quilting with this crazy fast monster at your fingers? (That would be my sewing machine.) But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Alas, I have no pictures of the show. I searched for my camera just minutes before trying to leave (I had been meaning to locate it for a couple of days) I could not find it anywhere. Finally I peeked behind the computer. It had fallen down, and was still attached by it's umbilical cord to the computer. Unfortunately, the battery was sucked dry. Kate said hers was dead, too.  I don't want to dwell on it, this is just how it is with me sometimes. I said, "Screw it," and we left.

If you've ever been to a big quilt show before, you know there are all kinds of things on display. We also saw dolls, wearable art, different challenges and themes. There was some kind of Hoffman challenge with peacock fabric. Some were really good, but nothing I wish I had done. There was a large section of black and white quilts, some of which were absolutely great. Dog quilts, orchid quilts. But, there is always a section running up the middle of the show area with some of the most stunning quilts you have ever seen. One was a pale yellow quilt, the quilting was so tight it was just ridiculous, and the border... how to explain? Individual tubes if fabric made connections to the outer area of edge of the quilt, kind of like a fence?  Here is an on-line picture of the damn thing. You can't go in close, so I don't know if it will help in understanding it. I just had the idea to search around to find pictures of these quilts on the web. I'm a bit surprised at how few of these quilts I can find. So none of these people have blogs?!?

On to the vendors, that was fun. I spent a bunch of hard earned Etsy cash. Lots of fabric. I was disappointed, because I could not find any paint or oil sticks or fibers, or printable sheets of fabric... things I have been wanting to try. Although there were a lot of art quilts in the show this time, I think everything is aimed at traditional quilters.  Kate bought some fabric. She has her own stash going now. She promises she will make a quilt with me soon.

Remember I was all into reading about old fabrics a few posts back?  I scooped up a couple of charm packs of 30's feed sack style squares. Looks like I have 2 or 4 of each pattern. I have blues purples and greens, and a set of pinks, reds and oranges. I will use these in the "depression quilts" I dream of. I know I said that I suck at quilting, and I do, compared to what I saw at that show, but I also can't wait to make more!

Yikes, I've been here so long my husband woke up and came down stairs. Let me go say hi to him.

1 comment:

Queenie Francie said...

i took lots of photos of the quilts at the show if you want any. i especially loved that Arabesque! wasn't that gorgeous?? after the show i also felt like i could NEVER do that kind of work. oh well, we have to keep moving forward! :)