Well, back to NC Quilt Symposium....

Once we got through the ATV trail and discovered the very nice real road that led to the house, everything went smoothly.  I owe my very generous friends for allowing us to stay in their wonderful home for the weekend.  It was a wonderful place - quiet and peaceful - sitting in the woods on top of a mountain.  I REALLY didn't want to leave.

Laura and I are both on the NC Quilt Symposium Board of Directors so we had a few meetings to go to once we check in on campus.  I had a few extra meetings because I'm the incoming President...I know...who's big idea was that?

First thing, I had a big surprise.  I had entered my Southern Album in the quilt show and got a first place ribbon!  I was stunned.  Best of all was I got one of their beautiful handmade ribbons.

There are so many great things about Symposium but one of the greatest is seeing quilting friends from all over and meeting new friends.  I always come back inspired and recharged.  I'm already looking forward to next year!

Busy Weekend

It's taken me nearly a week to recover from the festivities of last weekend.  Wait...who am I kidding?  I'm not recovered yet!

Last weekend was our guild's quilt show.  Laura and I were co-chairs, though i must admit she did the lion's share of coordination work.  As with all shows, some things went like clockwork and some things were a nightmare.  Luckily, from the outside looking in, all I have heard were positive things about the show.  It did end up being a beautiful show.  How could it not?  We have some of the most talented quilters in our guild.  The quilts were incredible.  Here are a few...

Tim Rickman's original design - a Civil War tribute to New Market

Anna Reich's beautiful sunflowers

Ava Lewandowski's original design for the red & white challenge

Mariana Morgan's Carolina Lilies (hand quilted and you should see her poor fingers!)

Tomoe Minami's "Drooping Cherry".  Her color sense awes me.

And, here are the ones I had in the show...

Southern Star (glad THIS one's finished)

Miniature hexie quilt

Scraps from the miniature hexie quilt

A blog signature block exchange

 A signature quilt from my friend and former neighbor who I miss very much

I also had my monster quilt in there but forgot to take a picture of it.  (Did I mention I was FRIED this weekend?)

In the midst of the quilt show, I also had to be at a N Quilt Symposium Board meeting on Saturday in Asheboro.  It was a long but very productive day.  When I got home Saturday night, we had a dinner for eight gathering at a couple's house.  We just had to show up and eat (thank goodness because I was toast by then).  Everything was incredibly yummy but let me just tell you about the dessert...homemade chocolate cheesecake with white chocolate irish cream sauce on top.  I almost passed out.

Sunday was the last day of the quilt show which is always hectic (you know...with everyone wanting their quilts back for some reason).  By the end of the day, I was not fit for anything and was asleep by 7:00.

Sad.

I've spent this week catching up at the shop and getting a little quilting done.  I have one more hurtle to clear next week then I'll be set to work at the shop and sew when I'm home for a while.

I know...there's always more hurtles to come but a girl can dream, right?

Come On Down!!!

This weekend is the Forsyth Piecers & Quilters Guild Quilt Show.  As registrar for the entries, I've got a little inside information for you...it's going to be a FABULOUS show!

So, if you're anywhere near Winston-Salem, head over to The Village Inn in Clemmons, just off I-40 so it's easy to find.  There will be about 145 quilts, 15 vendors, a great guild boutique and silent auction...not to mention that unbelievable raffle quilt Gina Boone created for the guild.

So...come one and see us!

Friday, March 16, 10:00 a.m - 7:00 p.m.
Saturday, March 17, 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Sunday, March 18, 1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Mid-Atlantic Quilt Fest

I still remember the feeling of walking into the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival for the first time almost 20 years ago. It was nearly enough to make a newbie quilter swoon.

The quilts were incredible.

The vendors were temptation beyond my willpower.

The shear number of people was overwhelming.

It's all still true today except I do have a bit more willpower and the masses of people has become more like a family reunion.

Today I'll share a few of my favorite quilts. I'd be hard-pressed to pick a very favorite.

The cleverness of quilters just amazes me.

Longarmers and Fall Festivals

Fall is my favorite time of the year. There's something in the air that I love. It also tends to be unbelievably busy. Lots of shows, fairs, festivals - there's no way someone could complain of boredom around here, that's for sure.

Last Wednesday, Laura and I had the privilege of judging the Carolina Longarm Association's annual quilt show in Clemmons, NC. They had 95 wonderful quilts and were so great to work with and so organized. It was a tough show to judge but we enjoyed ourselves immensely. In this particular show, we judge only the quilting - not the piecing or applique or binding appearance or workmanship - just quilting. You would think that looking at just one aspect of the quilt would make it easier to judge but the opposite is actually the case. Plus this is such a talented group of quilters, we literally had to look at the quilts with a magnifying glass. By the time I got home, I was pooped.

I did get a chance to go by the show on Friday to see the quilts hanging and get to enjoy them as a spectator. It really was a wonderful show. Here's just a few.

Friday afternoon, I helped Nane and Go Postal set up for the quilt show at the new Yadkin Cultural Arts Center. We got all the quilts hung and then met Dave at The German Restaurant in Yadkinville. (It's really out in the middle of nowhere but worth the drive if you like German food.)

Saturday I walked through the Yadkinville Harvest Festival to get to the Cultural Arts Center to hang out with Nane, kb, Quiltkeemosabee and a few other folks that paid visit. The arts center is incredible. It'll make you wish you lived in Yadkinville.

We were set up in the classroom space at the front of the center.

Here's the front of the building - right on Main Street.

The real action is to the side of the building. There's a stage and a courtyard and art studio rental space...which I covet deeply.

The building is a work of art all itself.

Just one more thing to share...Congresswoman Virginia Foxx came through the quilt show and just loved kb's quilt. I asked if I could get a photo of her with the quilt because I knew how much it would mean to the quilt maker and she very kindly obliged. (If you know anything about my or kb's political views, you know just how priceless this photo is.)

This and That

Things are busy!

On Friday, I met Mrs. G., Quiltkeemosabe, and Quilt Teacher at the Asheville Quilt Show at The NC Arboretum. The quilts were beautiful, of course. Here's a detail from one commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Blue Ridge Parkway...probably my favorite quilt there.

Walking though the gardens to another building, I became obsessed with these Concord grapes. They remind me of my grandfather. He had all kinds of grapes in his backyard but these were the best...and the hardest to get our hands on.

This weekend we got to go to Lake Lure. It was beautiful and very nice. We stayed at Rumbling Bald Resort because that was where Dave's meetings were. I would love to go back and stay at the old inn...you know the one from Dirty Dancing. One of the guys kept breaking into song all weekend - "Well, I Had the Time of My Life". It was hysterical. It felt very much like the hoidy-toidy feeling in the movie. I was a fish out of water - though I tried...Here's what Saturday was like for me - get up late - meet another surveyor's wife for breakfast at the clubhouse - have a facial at 11:00 - pick up lunch at the pro shop - have a massage at 1:00.

Oh yeah, I tried. I could live like that.

On Saturday afternoon, though, we hiked up Chimney Rock which wasn't as hard I thought it would be...but it was hot!

With help from my friends I've been cutting out a million Andinkra symbols for the 14 quilts we're doing for the DJembe Project. I had a cutting frenzy a few days ago and left the scraps by my chair. Shelby decided they looked like a good nest so now I can't bear to move them.

Work is nuts. I've got 2 grant proposals due tomorrow so it's been a few long days. Yesterday, though I got to visit Charlotte Hawkins Brown which is finally under construction!

I did get a quilt finished last night though! It's a sample for Sew Original and it was so fun to FINISH something!

The Dedicated Quilter

According to the new Quilting in America survey, the Dedicated Quilter is defined as one who spends more than $600 per year on quilting-related purchases.

$600?

per YEAR?

Obviously, they haven't met me.

So, how would they define me?

Perhaps the Extreme Quilter?

Someone who can drop $600 in a couple of hours...

...which is why Mrs. G. will be holding my wallet at the Asheville Show this weekend.

Adventures in Ohio

For the second year, LauraQuilts and I served as judge's aides at the NQA Annual Quilt Show in Columbus, Ohio this past week. We worked like rented mules (as Laura likes to say) but we had a blast too. We got to catch up with folks we met last year and meet new friends.

We took off up the road last Saturday, stopping at The Woolen Willow in Williamston, West Virginia on the way. Sunday morning we were in the judging room at 7:30 a.m. and helped out by doing such wonderful jobs as scribe's aide, fanner, reader, runner, and holding room aide. Here's what the holding room looks like...kind of like a morgue actually.



It's amazing how they get through 400 quilts in two and a half days. Judging finished up Tuesday afternoon and then we helped with photography. This part is brutal work but we have a blast. Every one's more relaxed because the judging is over and the show is about to begin.

After the photography was done, a group of us treated ourselves to dinner and a beer together at Barley's Pub. My sides hurt from laughing by the time we heading back our hotels.

Wednesday morning, we helped hang ribbons and then Laura and Rosemary, a CJ Candidate from Maryland, and I went on a road trip to Marion, Ohio to visit Good Wives Company. Afterwards, we had lunch at The Warehouse in Marion. Yummy.


Rosemary knew of another little quilt shop along the way back called Serindipity. It was very sweet and I found some cool novelty prints there.


THEN, heading back into Columbus, I saw a sign from Graeter's Ice Cream and the car just served right off the highway and into the parking lot. (Our long distance bee member, OhQuilter, introduced us to Graeter's a couple of weeks ago and we just couldn't pass up the opportunity to corrupt Rosemary.)


Wednesday evening was the Preview Party, which starts out with a banquet then they open the doors to the show so we can see the quilts and shop. Here's me and Scott Murkin actually behaving ourselves at the banquet.


Here is one of the Best of Show quilts. They were all incredible.


Here's the highlight of the week though. I entered a quilt in the show...the first really national show I've entered. There were 40 quilts in the Duets category (Theresa DeWalt, the quilting goddess quilted this quilt for me). My quilt won an Honorable Mention.



No, I have not stopped grinning yet.

Asheville Quilt Show

On Saturday, a carload of us took off to Asheville for the annual quilt show. It is always worth the trip but this year, even more so. One of my bee members won 2nd for her quilt (a really huge deal since there were 38 quilts in the category) and our raffle quilt from last year's show won 2nd place in group. Here are some highlights from the show.

Here are my lovely traveling companions, Mrs. S., KB and KB's Mom standing outside before we entered the show. The venue for the Asheville Quilt Show is the North Carolina Arboretum, which is worth the trip even if there's no quilt show. It is beautiful BUT in August, it is HOT.


Of course, this was one of my favorites. You know how I am about bears.


It is true that once you begin to go through the NQA Judging Candidacy process that quilt shows never quite look the same. They are even better than before because I take notice of things I would have just glanced over before. Not being a garment maker, I don't (or didn't pay much attention to them before) but now... and this jacket was gorgeous.


I just loved this one.


Here's KB's Mom checking out our bee member's prize-winning quilt. It is stunning, isn't ?


This morning glory quilt was lovely.


Check out the sweet birds in the border.



This miniature was insane. I love it.



I just kept coming back to this art quilt and studying it.



Those little pieces inside the rectangles are rolled pieced of fabric. Cool.



And, finally, here's KB with the prize-winning raffle quilt. She designed all that applique and got all of us to do a little bit. She should look like a proud mama.

Also, on this trip, we took in the auxiliary show and vendors sponsored by the Asheville Rotary Club. The show was held in an empty storefront in the mall and was quilt nice. And, there is a great discount shoe warehouse nearby with great buys on Merrills, Birks, and other great brands. The deciding factor on stopping at the show store was whether we got a good parking spot. Saturday I had very good parking spot karma. Everywhere we went, I got a front row parking spot....everywhere. Plus, when we got out of the car at the quilt show, the shuttle van was sitting there right behind the car, waiting to take us to the door. My passengers were amazed at my parking karma.

Sometimes you're just living right.