Chicago IQF 2018

I was glad I had the day to go to the International Quilt Festival in the Chicago area this year.  It isn’t a huge show so I just went for the day.  I was there from 10 – 3:30 and was satisfied I had visited any vendors I wanted and saw the quilts.

Here are 3 quilts I liked.  I can’t post all that I like so just chose these.

I love house quilts! This one was paper-pieced.  Lovely work and I like how she quilted it.

 

 

Beautiful quilting!

And this goes with the several Four Seasons quilts I have floating in my head as well as more houses.

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Quilt Show with Friends

I was able to go to a quilt show with the added bonus of seeing some friends that I don’t see very often.

A few quilts from the show …

Song Birds ???

 

I ♥ the miniatures!! (note standard size rosette ribbon)

 

Love the farm scene!

 

Yes, I gravitate to house quilts… by a group, pastels, and vines over the thin sashings. Great work!

 

Modern is another favorite along with all the quilting here.

 

A whole wall with a whole year of quilts and then close-up of the last one. Stunning!

 

Favorites – flowers, pinks, black & white, texture, different fabrics, 3-D, spectacular quilting

 

I took a class and just got this far…

The class was instruction to make the center to either hang on point or straight of the part inside the squiggly yellow line. The instructor had many examples of how she had used this same pattern for a medallion on other quilts. My tiny triangles for the star points are on the table at the end of the class!

It was a paper piecing class but I like to do paper piecing.  I’ve done a lot of methods and will still stick with “mine”.  But we had a good instructor and I enjoyed meeting my table partner.

To a sponsored pajama party….

…and had a blast with cheering and laughing until our sides hurt.

our table princess ~

 

Seeing special friends that came for the show too! ♥

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Local Quilt Shows

I am a member at 2 local quilt guilds and both of them had guild shows this year.  One weekend and then the next.  I gave more of my time and resources the first weekend to the smaller guild and where I attend more regularly.

Here are some photos from the first weekend ~

Beginning of set-up.  We rent a church gymnasium and then have quilt hanging poles and all the system to make the show a go in a gym!  These workers are so smart and speedy.  I need to get trained to help out for next time, I guess.

I’m guessing there were about 4 more rows than the 5 you see here.  Quilts are able to hang on both sides of a rod across the top that is covered in clean fabric.  I appreciate the good care the quilts are given with this display.

Here are some quilts I liked and could get photos —

 

 

The smaller quilts are pinned to a carpeted wall or displayed on a table.

This guild offers a challenge area for each show and here is a photo of all the quilts entered in the challenge.
I thought there were 10 entries but maybe just these 7 I got in my photo.

Here is a collage of the quilts I took to show —

Top Row L to R: My signature quilt from 2009 of guild members and some quilting friends. Infiniband Encased is made for a hanging in JP’s room. My scalloped Christmas tree skirt. Bottom Row is me with my challenge piece and K’s signature quilt from her high school graduation.

 

I spent most of the first day there.  In the morning, I was a white glove volunteer… keeping an eye open all around and letting others see the backs of quilts if they wanted.  I had 2 of my quilts appraised in the early afternoon.  The ladies in the guild are so sweet to hang out with for the day!

I didn’t take many photos at the other show with limited time and I took the same quilts for display.

Beautiful wool applique blocks above

I liked seeing the contrast of lights & darks in this quilt as well as the lovely feather quilting.

I decided in the middle of these shows that whenever it randomly happens that both shows are in the same year, I’ll only participate in one.  Both had different rules for entry of quilts, neither followed the rules, and it was another plate I didn’t need to spin during harvest!

But meanwhile… I love quilts and seeing what others are making locally without the big time of an international show.

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AQS Quilt show

My friend and I made our annual trip to a nearby quilt show in Iowa the first weekend of October.  A friend of hers has joined us for the last 2 trips and the 3 of us are good travelers together.  #3 delights in the back seat and does hand work on bindings and hand quilting and shows us what fun magazine she has all while never getting ill in the back!  Plus she brings us super yummy jumbo-sized cookies!!!

Our favorite reason to go to this show is to meet-up with an east coast friend of mine from college days!  Oh the joy and tears to reunite each year!!  We then get a few meals with her as well.  It is never enough time. She is super loving as always!

Me, EHB, SL

I spent a lot of my time at E’s work area and while she made business contacts with some at a table, I helped others register for the iquilt.com site.  The iQuilt site has quilt shows that you can buy and download and watch & re-watch as often as you like!  Let them know I sent you.  😉  J/K  — there are no kick-backs!

The national show is smallish but the local guild has a large show every year that is all included in one ticket.  A beautiful break away!

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Quilt Show

Another quilt show… more friends!

Some of my favorite quilts but we didn’t see all the quilts nor did I photograph or post all of them!

This is a quilt… fabric & thread but even in real life looks like a photograph!

 

My friend was really drawn to this within our first 30 minutes. I know the maker (have met her) and she isn’t far from me.

I love the miniatures category. When I went to view that area, this quilt’s maker was there visiting with any of us. You can see the size perspective with his hand in one photo and his casual attire and personality in the other photo. He had on his veteran hat. Great moment!

Saturday morning, we gathered with me & the TX quilting gang at a local Mexican (real!) restaurant.  I was a little apprehensive in the neighborhood and the outside of the building but I understand their decorating now.  The food was aMAZing!!

 

Together at the show!  Oh my what fun to spend the day with these loved ones!!

Delight!!

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Quilt Inspiration – Various

More quilts that I liked from the quilt show….

Beautiful quilting in a wide border

 

From Judy Martin’s book, Scraps. Great use of scraps!

 

Churn Dash blocks = 4″

 

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Quilt Inspiration – Houses

Quilt shows are so great for inspiration!

One local quilting friend & I have had a good annual trip to Des Moines for the AQS show each October.
These are some house quilts (one of my favorites) from this year.

Kaffe houses! Great show of his fabrics!

A barn quilt! Fun and the details (windmill) are great!

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Pieced Pineapples

Another section of the Des Moines Area Quilt Guild show section that caught my eye were the many pineapple quilts.  I like the pieced pineapple so here are some of my favorites.  We never figured out if it was the guild theme or the show theme as some of the quilts were made quite awhile ago.

This quilt is TINY! It is probably only 12 – 14″ square so you can imagine these little pieces. It is paper-pieced.

Just nice soft colors, albeit a bit ’80’s, but I liked it.

Wonky & fun! About a lap quilt size.

Large quilt – so scrappy. I’d love to work on one of these some year…

Paper-pieced pineapple star points… love, love, love!!

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Wanna See Some Quilts?

I like panel quilts like this; either sewn together or hanging as separate pieces.

Here are some quilts I like, some I love, some just because maybe you’ll like them, or some to show you what might hold a ribbon…..  Some comments too.

I love wonky houses but I’ve not been to Miami.

I don’t have an Auntie Jean and neither were playing cards allowed in our house growing up, but something like this WILL be made in my lifetime. We’ll even make-believe there is a Tiffany lamp above the breakfast nook.

Quilts like this hold even 2nd place ribbons. And some readers here like celestial themed quilts.

Just wonderful tiny blocks…

Lighthouses & the sailboat in the background. Fascinating!

A quilt for Kansas…

and isn’t the ear of corn cute?

This quilt is made from 196 four-inch blocks that are done by reverse applique’. Stunning! And no ribbon.

close-up

The whole quilt & a close-up…. squares that are shaded with paintsticks or fabric paints???

More another day….

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Honored

Last weekend was the American Quilter’s Society’s international quilt show in Des Moines, Iowa.  I was HONORED to be juried into the show.  That is a huge honor!!  I assume it is tough competition though maybe they take them all.  ??? I don’t think so and will continue to believe they chose mine over others.

The show was Wednesday – Saturday and on Tuesday, I was listed as one of 168 semi-finalists!!  YAHOOOOO!!  (So even if they did jury all the entries in, at least I moved up at some point.  🙂  )  Never did I expect anything.  Just being accepted was a huge honor.  This was thrilling to be a semi-finalist. I didn’t win a ribbon, only 25 were given and I’m totally OK with that!!  Seriously, I’m not at ribbon level.

My dear friend, Sue, took me there & back (her new car gets amazing MPG!!) and we had a great time together.  She was a great photographer too.  🙂

Not exactly “my name in lights” but you know what I mean!!

Its real name is “A View Outside My Window” but I was a dork (and in a hurry to meet the deadline) when I entered it and named it “Farm Quilt” because that is what we all call it.  Whatever!  🙂

Me & my cool nametag & special ribbon!  This gave me free admission every day and several people asked about my quilt when they saw the “Contestant” ribbon.  That was so fun!

• The shop owners from nearby… but I doubt they went to see it since they had a booth there.
• Some people that saw us take the photos asked about it.
• A volunteer in the Des Moines guild show in another room asked me about it.
• And a book author from AQS asked me which was my quilt.  I started to say it is the aerial view of our family farm and she remembered it!  She compiles the yearly calenders so would have walked the show many times looking for new quilts for her books.  I heard her speak at one of my guilds this summer and also have 10 – 15  yrs of her weekly calenders that I keep as sewing journals.  She is an older lady and grew up in Wisconsin so has some farming background.  🙂

Once inside the show, we noticed that the skywalk (how we walked to the show!!) was overlooking the whole show floor.  DUH!!  We were so busy chatting and finding our way, we never looked out the windows there.  Mostly we walked passed the back of buildings & loading docks so had given up on the view, I suppose.

So that evening on our way back through the skywalk, we stopped for photos.  Plus Heather wanted to see “the whole show” so this is also special for her!  But I was excited  my quilt was placed on the correct side to be viewed.  So really for free, one could view from the windows and see a nugget of the quilts.  (but you’d miss the shoppppping – snicker, snicker!)

There were more quilts on the totally other end and the side.  The center are the vendors… did I mention the shopping?  🙂

I’ve been quoting the advertisements of “over 1000 quilts” on display.  Well, that is after you do the math.     Forgive me, I didn’t me to overstate the numbers.  There were just over 500 quilts juried into the AQS show of which I was apart. 🙂 🙂     Then in another room was the Des Moines Area Quilt Guild and they had over 500 entries there.  However, I can’t find the final number because they are not listed in numerical order.  #quizzicalface#  Who thought of that???

There were also special exhibits by various AQS authors and a special exhibit of Egyptian quilts which didn’t interest us at all.  (sorry)

More quilt photos to come and some results of visiting the vendors.  I’m trying to keep up with my husband’s schedule.  He still wants to eat!!

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