This year’s Quilt Expo did not disappoint. The crowds were even bigger than last year! The quilts were spectacular! The vendors well stocked and oh, so tempting! What a great show!
I especially love immersing myself in the competition quilts. I enjoyed them all, and here are a few I found particularly captivating:
When I wasn’t on the show floor admiring the quilts, I was sharing my passion for quilting in lectures and workshops. I’ve been invited to teach at the show every year since it began, praise the Lord! And the teaching kept me very busy this year (so busy I tended to forget to take pictures). Each morning at 8:30 I presented my lecture “Friendship Quilts – Then and Now”. The antique quilts and their stories were very well received and I hope the patterns I shared, along with the contemporary signature quilts themselves, inspired quite a few of those present to plan for a future autograph quilt of their own.
On Thursday and Saturday I taught 3 hour workshops on Beginning Fiber Art (formerly named Parallelisms). It’s such a joy to encourage quilters who haven’t done much artsy style quilting to give it a try. I just hope the students had as much fun as I did :-).
On Friday I shared my Seminole Sampler workshop to a full house. The students enjoyed the fact that the kit provided all the fabric strips cut and ready to sew.
A highlight of the class was having Delores show us the skirts and apron she had purchased from the Seminole Indians for her daughters.
She was kind enough to let me pose with the apron. Isn’t is lovely?
On Thursday night my roommate Laura and I were invited down the hall for a Tyvek™ painting/burning party.
Linda provided all the supplies and showed us how to make leaves with this fun technique.
Not bad for a first effort, and it was a lot of fun. Thanks Linda!
Spending time surrounded by quilts and quilting friends – it doesn’t get any better than this!
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And one more quick note for those of you in Southeastern Wisconsin. My friend Jodi told me about a “Quilter and Crafter Bonanza Sale” being held this weekend between Williams Bay and Elkhorn. Here’s the flyer she gave me:
Maybe I’ll see you there!
patgi says
What’s on my mind, is sadness. Sadness that I can’t participate in all of this anymore. Happiness though, that I have had many years of friendship, experiences, and classes with you, Chris, and other quilting friends. Thanks for the memories.
Jodi Grzeczka says
Wow! Chris! Thanks for featuring my little set of samples! And the plug! See you soon!
Bernadette Martin says
Thanks, Chris.
I really enjoyed your class on Seminole piecing.
Now I have even more samples to use when I’m wondering what border to use.
You are such a treasure.
Nancy Carney says
Thank you for posting my quilt to your blog. I’m glad you enjoyed it as it is very special to me. I will look for your classes next year!
Linda says
I’m looking for a bag pattern that one of the vendors had on display at the 2017 Madison Expo quilt show. All I remember is the vendor was towards an inside corner of the main vendor hall. It was a very large bag with many pockets on the inside – like a built-in organizer inside it. I’m fairly certain it was NOT one of Annie’s Bags patterns.Any help/guidance is better than my memory:(
clkquilt says
I don’t recall it, but maybe someone reading this will :-). If anyone does, please let me know and I’ll pass is along to Linda.