I went to the Dallas Quilt Show this past Saturday and enjoyed my time there, but I came away with some thoughts about it and what I saw there and how it relates to quilting. Quilt pictures will be coming later because I haven't been able to do any work with them. =)
The show is one of the largest, all volunteer produced shows here in the US. And the Dallas Quilt guild really does do a great job at putting the show on. There were lots of great quilts entered and a lot of vendors, not all from TX.
The show:
1. Lots of quilts in a lot of categories. Some I liked, some I didn't. Over all tho, more that I liked than I didn't. The vast majority of which were not modern quilts like those at QuiltCon 2 weeks ago. Group, individual, junior, senior, art, pictorial, 2-person, and master class were some of the ones at the show.
2. The quilts displays were in two different rooms - the ones entered for judging were in the same room as the vendors and were totally surrounded by the vendors. There were special exhibits that were in the room with the food vendors. I almost missed them because I wasn't buying any food at the show. As it was I didn't look at them like I would have liked because of my back and legs hurting.
The vendors -
1.Total different make up to the vendors than was at QuiltCon. There was only on manufacturer there instead of multiple ones. The one that was there had to do with cutting templates, but for the life of me I can't remember the company name.
2. Many of the booths that had brought fabric mainly had quilt panels - lots and lots of them! Made me wonder if panels are really that popular these days in quilting. More panels than regular fabric in most of the booths that had them. Not as much in the way of fabric as I'm used to seeing at shows (and now I wouldn't have been shopping it anyway).
Takeaways -
Got lots of inspiration on what I can do with some pre-fused scraps of fabric. Just need to think about what I want to do. And yes, I did buy a bit of fabric - two panels of sayings and some light colored batik FQ's and remnants.
Gratitudes:
1. My new sewing machine made it here to work today - woohoo..........
2. Sun is peeking thru the clouds outside.
It is interesting how each show has its own "flavor" and feeling. Some are a better fit for us individually, but they all show quilts made with the best efforts and love of a quilter. As diverse as quilters and their quilting is, we are all united in our general love of creating with fabric and thread. From a little show put on by a young man as his senior project or a little county fair to the insanity of the Birmingham International Quilt Show in England, I have seen quilts that amaze me, make me drool, puzzled me and made me ask "why" and "how", I enjoy them all but smaller, more intimate and less over-whelming fits me best (unlike this insane run_on sentence!).
ReplyDeleteInteresting comments on this quilt show. I think seeing it s soon after QuiltCon really showcased the differences in the ways things are done at shows. It seems they should at least have had signs about the food court, though!
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