Quilt show

This weekend was the Austin Area Quilt Guild show.  So many beautiful quilts!  I belong to a very talented guild.  I ended up not entering a quilt this year.  Maybe next time.  

Loved this quilt.  It was made by a different local guild.  

Great composition!  The colors, the spacing, the blank space filled with quilting, I loved everything about this quilt.  

This was another great art piece!  

I know this quilter.  She's gone on to show nationally and I couldn't be more proud of her for putting her art out there for larger and larger audiences.

Perfect combination of pattern and quilting.

I swear y'all.  It was like being there.  I had to wait in line to get a picture of this quilt.  Some quilts are so wonderful that they cause a roadblock and this was definitely one.  It's a smaller art quilt.  

Another quilter I know and admire!  The judges at this year's show were able to hand out some special national NACQJ merit awards and this won one.  I saw the quilter at the show and she was sooooo excited, and well she should be.   

It's all about perspective.  I love this pattern and the quilter used great contrasting fabrics to make it sparkle.

That's a lot of devotion to appliqué!  And, the quilting was spectacular!

Love this shadowing effect.  The quilter cut prints and framed them and shadowed them.  What a simple idea to give such a strong impact!

Another great picture quilt!  I wish I had that kind of patience!

I could go on and on and on, but then this post would take forever to load.  I'll probably show a few more next week.  

I did really well in the vendor's booths.  All the fabric, plus the snips and hemostats came from the guild's boutique shop and cost a total of $40.  The sock yarn came from a different vendor and was expensive, but so beautiful I couldn't resist.  The shop owner dyes it herself.  The penny rug was my splurge for the day.  We walked away and continued to shop and when we got to the end, I mentioned it and Rob, good quilter's husband that he is said 'Go buy it.  Enjoy the splurge!'  (We even joked about buying a long arm and strapping it to the top of the Prius to get it home.)

The penny rug is not my first experiment with wool.  I bought this little kit for practically nothing at a guild boutique shop and excitedly started it and hated it and tried again and hated it.  I was using black floss which the pattern recommended and every little inconsistency showed up like a beacon.  I looked at the website for the designer of the new kit and noticed she always uses a matching thread, not a contrasting one, so I tried that and I like it much better.  You can see the black compared to the matching thread in the medium brown blocks at the bottom right of the pic.  

Rob bought this table runner.  Yes, I'm a quilter and yes, I could have made this.  But look how perfect it is for the foyer.  I would never have come up with this simple yet beautiful idea.

It was a very joyful weekend.  We did our chores and went to the show and I played with fabric and thread.  Quilt show weekend is too relaxing and exciting to let it be shadowed by politics.  Quilting is above politics.  I don't know what these quilters support or worship or believe, but it doesn't matter.  I was able to enjoy their beautiful work and laugh and smile with other quilt enthusiasts as we walked through and marveled at the beauty.  

Everybody have a great week!  

Lane