Quilt shows!

Updated list:
Apr 23-26: AQS Quilt Show & Contest, Paducah, KY
May 1-4: Denver National Quilt Festival, Denver, CO
June 19-21: NQA Quilt Show, Columbus, OH
July 12: Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show, Sisters, OR
July 24-27: Quilt Odyssey, Hershey, PA
July 25-27: International Quilt Festival (new summer edition), Long Beach, CA
Aug 20-23: AQS Quilt Expo, Nashville, TN
Sept 4-7: Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza, Harrisburg, PA
Sept 18-21: World Quilt and Textile on Tour (whatever that is!), Manchester, NH
Oct 8-11: AQS Quilt Expo, Des Moines, IA
Oct 16-19: Pacific International Quilt Festival, Santa Clara, CA
Oct 30-Nov 2: International Quilt Festival, Houston, TX
Nov 13-16: Greater Chicago Quilt Expo, Schaumberg, IL
Jan 15-18, 2009: Road to California, Ontario, CA
Feb 26-Mar 1, 2009: Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival, Hampton, VA
April 2-5, 2009: Quilters' Heritage Celebration, Lancaster, PA

Annnnd I have to pimp my own quilt guild's show: Lakeview Quilters' Guild's Mayfest, which is this weekend in the major metropolitan area of Alvin, Texas (south of Houston). Hours and directions and stuff here. C'mon by, it's usually a very, very good show for its size.

It's Pink

It's Pink, originally uploaded by Mellicious.

This is a bit blurry but I think you can get the idea.

Quilt above made by Betty Carpenter and Kim Shalom. From the 2004 Dallas Quilt Celebration.

I guess the Dallas quilt show is coming up soon, actually. Anybody going?

Upcoming quilt shows

This is an expanded (but not necessarily complete) edition of what I started in the last entry: "major" US quilt shows in the next year:

Feb 21-24: Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival, Hampton, VA
Feb 28-Mar 2: Quilt Festival of New Jersey, Somerset, NJ
Mar 27-30: Quilters' Heritage Celebration, Lancaster, PA
Apr 11-13: International Quilt Festival-Chicago, Rosemont, IL
Apr 23-26: AQS Quilt Show & Contest, Paducah, KY
May 1-4: Denver National Quilt Festival, Denver, CO
June 19-21: NQA Quilt Show, Columbus, OH
July 12: Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show, Sisters, OR
July 24-27: Quilt Odyssey, Hershey, PA
July 25-27: International Quilt Festival (new summer edition), Long Beach, CA
Aug 20-23: AQS Quilt Expo, Nashville, TN
Sept 4-7: Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza, Harrisburg, PA
Sept 18-21: World Quilt and Textile on Tour (whatever that is!), Manchester, NH
Oct 8-11: AQS Quilt Expo, Des Moines, IA
Oct 16-19: Pacific International Quilt Festival, Santa Clara, CA
Oct 30-Nov 2: International Quilt Festival, Houston, TX
Nov 13-16: Greater Chicago Quilt Expo, Schaumberg, IL
Jan 15-18, 2009: Road to California, Ontario, CA

I didn't link these individually, but here are the links: Quilts Inc (which is IQF), AQS, NQA, Quilt Odyssey, QHC, road2ca, Sisters, and QuiltFest for the rest.

(I'm sure I've missed some things and I will gladly take suggestions - but please don't everybody send me the dates for their local quilt show, or this will get out of hand fast!)

Seagrapes - and quilt shows

"Seagrapes" (above) made by Sarah Louise McClean of Fort Lauderdale; entered in the judged show (category: Art-Naturescapes) at the 2007 Houston International Quilt Festival.


I was thinking about making a list of upcoming big quilt shows, and I haven't really gotten very far yet (and you don't know with me whether I ever will!), but FYI, here's the ones for this year from the quiltfest.com people:

Feb 21-24: Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival, Hampton, Virginia
Feb 28-Mar 2: Quilt Festival of New Jersey, Somerset, NJ
May 1-4: Denver National Quilt Festival, Denver, CO
Sept 4-7: Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza, Harrisburg, PA
Sept 18-21: World Quilt and Textile on Tour, Manchester, NH
Oct 16-19: Pacific International Quilt Festival, Santa Clara, CA
Nov 13-16: Greater Chicago Quilt Expo, Schaumberg, IL

I seem to have the jones to go to a quilt show. I actually went so far as to look up how much the fare would be to fly to Norfolk on the 22nd. (The cheapest on Southwest was $357 round-trip, which isn't TOO too horrible, but I'm not sure how my husband would react if I decided just to fly halfway across the country all suddenly like that!) What I think I'd really like to do is to plan something for this summer. Then I'm like, do I want to ask my aunt to come with me? Do I want to go by myself? I don't really mind doing stuff like that by myself. Sometimes it's easier - you can just do what you want to do and not worry about pleasing anybody else, you know?

Anyway, that decision can come later, if I ever even get that far. I came up with summer because we're going to Ohio in April already and I don't want to schedule myself too heavily. What quilt shows are in the summer? I know Columbus is, but my mother-in-law would kill me if I came to Columbus and didn't go see her. What else? Sisters, but that would be awfully expensive. And I guess there's that new Quilts Inc one in California, too. Is there anything else I'm forgetting? (Is there someplace where there's already a calendar?) I may have to do some more research!

Tepee Dreams of Buffalo Wings?

Unknown (but possibly very oddly-titled) quilt from Sisters 2001.

Romantic Fancy

Romantic Fancy, originally uploaded by Mellicious.

Look, this is that same block, isn't it? (See two entries down.) Even the name is similar.

(Added: I am dumb. That pattern was published in 2002, so presumably this quilt was made from that pattern.)

Quilt above made by Diane Glover; shown at the 2004 Woodlands Quilt Show.

More watercolor

The (award-winning) quilt above is by KarenD, who - not really coincidentally - just wrote an entry about her watercolor period and this quilt in particular. (This picture is one I took when I went to visit her.) I noticed that she called her entry "Colorwash Quilts" - which may get at the difference of opinion that there seems to be between me and everybody else on this subject. Because to my mind, "watercolor" quilts are not exactly the same thing as "colorwash" quilts, even though I know most of the time they are used interchangeably. Sometimes my brain just refuses to work the same way as everybody else's! I guess I would say that "watercolor" is a somewhat more broad term, and that's why I said this sunflower quilt qualifies to me as watercolor, even though nobody seems to agree with me. (See the comments to that entry for the discussion.)


On another sort-of-related subject, Joan of Lazy Girl Designs wrote an entry about the NQA show, and that got me thinking that I really need to start paying attention to where the quilt shows are up north, considering that we go to see my in-laws in Ohio at least once a year. Sooner or later I might be able to coordinate one of these trips with a show. NQA was in Columbus this year - which is where we normally fly to - but it's the show that moves around, right? So it won't be there next year. -- Ooh, no, it is in Columbus again - did they change that policy? Hmm, well, anyway, I will have to bear that in mind next time we start talking about visiting Rob's parents. June 19-21 are the dates for 2008, so it says. (I could also think about going to IQF in Chicago in the spring - but since a lot of the quilts in the show there seem to be the same ones that are in Houston in the fall, that makes it a little less intriguing to me.) Food for thought, in any case.

Why I will (probably) never go to Paducah

You can't post pictures of the quilts.

I have expressed my views on this subject before so I won't go through all that again. Anyway, the link above is to KarenD's entry about her trip, and here's the pictures she did post. You can see the winners on AQS's own site, and I was especially pleased to see that the Galveston quilt guild's lovely group quilt won a ribbon in the Group Quilts category. (Actually I have to admit that I don't currently belong to this guild; I have belonged in the past and I keep intending to join again but so far I haven't gotten around to doing it! I am a terrible procrastinator.)

I really am most jealous of the fact that Karen got to go to Hancock's of Paducah and root around in the back room for bargains. That is something I might truly do something drastic in order to get to do.

Oh, and perhaps I should point out that you can buy a book of pictures of the AQS quilts.

Mom - watercolor seminole

Mom's seminole quilt, originally uploaded by Mellicious.

(Is seminole the right word for this? I've never done one, and I'm not 100% sure. I'm pretty sure it's a seminole variation, at the very least.)

This is one of the fairly rare quilts that my mother did straight from a kit, although she did do a good many blocks of the month, which amounts to the same thing in the end, doesn't it? Anyway, she and my aunt went to the Sisters quilt show somewhere around 5 years ago - I think I was invited but I was too broke at the time - and she bought this kit there. If you like it enough to want your own, I'm pretty sure it's been in the Keepsake Quilting catalog very recently, although I couldn't find it in my current copy. You might still be able to get it there.

(I need to dig in my mom's quilt pictures, and scan some of them. I'm pretty sure she took a lot of pictures in Sisters that year.)

How Big Is Your Can?

I have to add this one. It's great.

(Not that I expect to be dieting in Michigan or anything.)

How Big Is Your Can?
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.

Radiance

Made by Linda Ramundo.

This is a gorgeous lone star. It's quilted either with metallic thread or with Sliver, I'm not sure which.

(Ugh. I have quilted with both. Neither was easy to work with, but the metallic thread was the worst. Total nightmare.)

Radiance
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.