The show must go on...

     ...Even if I couldn't. I had the whole quilt show in bags. All arranged on a map, identifying cards in every separate bag, all stacked by row on tables in my basement.

Just part of the bags of quilts

    Set up was Wednesday, Oct 5th for the racks and Thursday, Oct. 6th for the quilts, tea room, boutique, baskets, etc.  On Tuesday afternoon while at the vet with my cat, the ceiling opened up and a ton of bricks fell on me- metaphorically speaking. By the time I got home, I practically crawled to bed in body ache pain and a whopping sharp headache. I started the early treatment Covid protocol treatment that I all prepped. By next morning, I had 101.7 fever and lots of body pain in every joint as well as the sharp headache and I tested positive. My husband stepped up, as he always does, and went to the hall to help set up the supports and tables for the quilt show. The next day, he loaded the whole minivan with the quilt bags, delivered them, and helped hang the show that I had laid out. I was on another planet, but bitterly disappointed. The show was Friday, Oct 7th and Sat. Oct 8th. On Saturday, real early before anyone was there, I went over and viewed the show, taking photos of my two quilts and trying to get a sense of how the show looked.

Our quilt show people love to add all sorts of decor stuff to the displays,
so you never know what you will find around your quilt.

    My fever broke Friday night. For days, I was so despondent about not participating in our every three year show. People tried to be nice by saying things could be worse. Not helpful. I am much better with it now, just sad about it, but it takes time. I was extremely fatigued, brain fogged, and lost my taste and smell after 6 days with it. Today, it is 15 days after it started, and my brain is better, most taste is back, and just moderately tired. Paxlovid is not good for cardiac patients on certain medicines, so I opted out. Thank God I was prepared with early treatment and knew what to do.
    I am going to say only little, but after being vax injured at the first round in February 2021 and being gaslighted by every local doctor I tried to get help with, I spent a lot of energy in research for help. It was confirmed my reaction was not in my head and I needed medical help to recover. Fortunately, I found a group who enabled me recover in May 2021 and prepare early treatment should I get Covid. I have spent countless hours researching and following reports and data from VAERS, V-Safe, the UK and Israel among other experts. I grieve over the deaths and injuries. Most will disdain me and feel anger having the narrative challenged, so I say no more. If you are one of the few who want to know what I learned and how I prepared, email me, otherwise please just pass by I wrote. Don't write to me in anger and nastiness- I already got loads of that.

Chock full of quilts

     On October 7th and 8th, our guild is having its triennial show. In order to hang the show cohesively and in good order and time, I take all the entries into my home and long arm studio basement. I photograph each one, crop the photos and then print them out. I take these photos and lay out the show on a large map with the help of my co-chair. Then, we label all the quilts with the place it goes, like (A10)- row A, spot 10. Each quilt is in its own clear plastic bag. Right now, my basement is chock full. It makes me nervous having everyone's quilt here, big responsibility.
    I will be so relieved when they go home from the show.

More show photos

     The guild show, Oct. 4th and 5th, was the result of a lot of members doing a lot of things well. Here are some more photos of what went on.

Home Dec

Basket raffle

Fabric pool- a wading pool filled with scraps- ziploc bag full for $1.  Other fabrics bagged: fat quaters, yardage, orphan blocks, holiday fabric, etc. All donated by members and bought by show attendees. I bought some floral yardage.

Boutique

Tearoom with one member's legacy of quilts. Served tea, coffee, salad with chicken, beef barley or chicken chowder with bacon, just salad and plates of delicious tea breads and cookies. All served on real china plates, cups, cloth napkins and vintage cloth tablecloths. I did lots of dishes.

Quilt Challenge, art quilts

Voted best of show. La Passagalia;

My quilt on the left

Art quilts, floral colorwash and lower one mine

Small quilt wallhangings

Ready to show

     The quilt guild I belong to, Kenmore Quilters, has their show on Oct. 4th and 5th. For the past weeks, I have been photographing, organizing, and arranging all the quilts with my co-chair. We are talking over 120 quilts of various sizes. The show is once every three years. Today, we are labeling all the quilts keying them to where they will be hung and bagging them by rows. Yikes.
     A couple of mine are in the show, although not enough room for the OBW, sigh.

Sadly, no room for this

The back is a French fabric with a piece added

All the color pieces I auditioned for the back fill in stripe

The floral colorwash is in

The back

Organized Chaos in in, check out the pieced striped binding

The back

More Lancaster show quilt inspiration

    The Cherrywood Challenge this year was spell binding- I couldn't stop going back and gawking. Other years, I went through once (Wicked, Lion King). This challenge was based on Vincent Van Gogh's work and the creativity was stunning. Of course, the ribbons are all the ones that execute his paintings as is, most realistically. They are beautiful, but so many others did grand interpretations and innovations. The online information is http://cherrywoodfabrics.bigcartel.com/van-gogh. They did allow pictures, so are the winners, followed by what I thought were original ideas inspired by Van Gogh. Once again, the crappy point and shoot camera did not capture the colors as well as the display area was poorly lit. The quilts are 20" x 20".

Why go to a quilt show?

     I hear this all the time. I have been fortunate to be able to attend some large shows, like AQS, Houston, Quilt Canada, and other regional shows. It takes time, money, and energy. So why go?
     Because quilting is something I treasure putting time, energy, money, and effort into, I need to look beyond myself at times to see what others are doing who are not like me and are much better. I need to hear what other quilters are dealing with, solving, or discovering. If I was content to make one designer's quilt pattern line or focus on one type of quilt or kits, maybe I would not need to go. I have a pretty clear idea of what types of things I want to design/work on, but I would be foolish to think that others have nothing to teach me. Creativity is often putting together disparate ideas and distilling something new. 
     I have no desire to compete in a show. I have observed that nine times out of ten, I can predict what wins: complicated traditional patterns, photorealism, and supercomplicated piecing/applique in a traditional vein. The innovative or unusual ideas do not win. Ok, I get it. The problem is when viewers only look in awe at the ribbons and not the gorgeous others in the show.
    Getting to AQS Lancaster was costly, had difficult snow conditions (no restaurants open on Wed.), and was fatiguing. Yet, the quilts inspired me, taught me, new products were tried, some bought, new fabric lines, met quilters of all stripes, and was a bigger step in my quilting journey.
     Because I took my little point and shoot, the photos are not great due to low lighting, so I apologize. If anyone has a small camera that shoots great photos in low light, let me know. My big Canon DLSR was too heavy to lug around, so it stayed home. The photos below are a few of those that inspired me. The next post will have some of the Cherrywood Challenge Van Gogh quilts and Korean.

Quilt made into a plaid by color stitching

Improv quilt with sections

Improv quilt detail

Wholecloth quilt all in black thread

Dellightful quilt called Carrot Breath

Neat idea of a colorwheel

Happy coneflowers, cool background

Gorgeous multiple methods quilt

Confetti detail

Quilt made by someone I know locally, Karen Sienk

Not sure how the spools fit in, but a very fun quilt

Detail

A cut work tablecloth layered and quilted by Cindy Needham, who had an extensive display.

Pretty amazing wall quilt

Another amazing scene and fabric

Extra special quilting made this quilt unique

Over the top piecing and detail

Detail

Such a unique perspective on vases on glass shelving

Detail

Karen Kay Buckley applique- she taught our fall workshop

And finally, the one quilt that I thought truly deserved a ribbon-
a difficult perspective on an old block done exquisitely, also not a tall enough display hurts the look