Sometimes It Works Out Better

Well, the NCW 2015 Quilt Show was this weekend. I took my quilts down to Wenatchee on Monday for drop-off {it's an hour drive}. Practically shaking when I handed them over, I managed to leave them instead of gathering them all up and making a mad dash for the door. It felt a little like dropping a child off for the first day of Kindergarten.

X's and O's

I took all my pics with the flash off which makes the lighting seem not as good as it actually was. My X's and O's quilt had a really lovely glow about it {which I always knew it had} and made me feel very proud. Spring Forward looked soft and approachable {another proud moment}. I so loved being able to see them both hanging tall and proud--happiness in good lighting. It's always such a thrill to see our quilts hanging up for once instead of being wadded up in a ball at the end of the couch.*wink

Spring Forward

Forgive me for not remembering to get the full names of all who made the following quilts. Photo taking is not something that comes naturally to me and I often forget why I even have the thing dangling off my wrist. The quilt below was a wonderful example of wool up-cycling. I felt positively inspired to start combing my local 2nd hand stores for possible quilty uses.

A beautiful up-cycled quilt

The vintage/antique looking quilts caught my eye as usual. I'm beginning to think a hexy quilt might very well be in my far off, distant future...

Lovely hexies

The Dresden quilt below was quite possibly the most inspiring quilt in the whole show to me! The coloring is very bad in this picture, but if you could just imagine the various prints in this quilt looking spunky? Paired with the crhome yellow, lets just say that I was completely enamored of this quilt.

A gorgeous Dresden quilt

I had to smile at the quilt below. It gave off a very fun vintage vibes that I well appreciate.

A bit of a vintage vibe

I really enjoyed looking at this applique quilt although I'm quite positive yours truly would never be able to make something turn out quite this polished looking. And another great border idea!

Interesting applique border

Had to smile at this little quilt in one of the vender booths. Shades of my Sunburst quilt! There was so many good quilts that I simply forgot about taking a picture of.

Reminds me of my Sunburst quilt....

I did remember to go back and take a picture of these great mini quilts? So gorgeous. I adore the stitching details.

Fabulous detail...

 Incredible work ladies!

And stitching....

And this is such a fun, folksy flower quilt--I couldn't resist. I'm often tempted to make another big {one} flower quilt after seeing something like this. And there very far back in the picture on the right corner?

Fun folksy flower and waaay back in the corner?

Yep, it's my fire quilt. And the entire quilt was on display. In very good lighting {tho the picture doesn't do it justice}. My heart was about to beat out of my chest.

My fire quilt

And I just about started crying, blinking away tears as fast as I could--trying to control my emotions and not act like a weirdo.

Is the picture a bit fuzzy?

 'Cuz they gave me Best of Show. I know. Pretty insane huh?

'Cuz that must be you.  I can see it all perfectly....

My dad said it's validation. I just think it's amazing. {Still very unreal feeling}. And so naturally, I had to act like a stalker and go back and stare at it, over and over, for I won't tell you how many times. And I took like five? pictures of the ribbon because surely I had to be hallucinating......

Another Finish for 2015

Another finish for 2015! I had this quilt done in time to enter an application for the Primitive Quilts and Projects quilt show in Texas later this year. Alas, it did not get accepted. Apparently I'm not primitive enough, nor modern enough, honestly traditional or really, anything you can put a label on. Oh well. I do love my quilting and am quite happy with whatever it is that I do!

X's and O's--the LV log cabin quilt

And this quilt was enormously fun to make. It flowed from the very start in a constant stream of 'what if's'. Nothing about it ever seemed to be those major risk taking types of  'oh no! I could be ruining my quilt right now' decisions. You know the ones--they that cause us to chew on on fingernails until we can see positively that it was the right and good decision.

Looking at the stitching

The color isn't just right in these pictures {a little too much sun and not enough time to do it up properly} but I think you can see the bit of whimsy I added to my quilt. It makes me smile, these busy, busy birds. I love the big stitch quilting too as it adds to the primitive, antique, perhaps vintage look. And those floral fabrics I added.... swoon....  I really need to get in the habit of buying more of them.

The scalloped border probably seems a bit odd to some persons as it sort of blends into the large floral fabric, but it was one of those ideas. I really had no choice because it just had to happen. Yep, and I love the way the color in the big flowers adds unexpected energy around the outside of the quilt. And in such a 'formal' setting too! So interesting to me for some reason. Because of the whimsy? The unexpectedness?

My busy birds

I do so love those quilts that make people question 'what was the quilter thinking, anyway?' So happy to add my quilting to that part of history!

And the quilt below is my second entry, finished sometime last year. I've always thought it had a slightly primitive vibe even if the color isn't quite true to the genre. I don't regret trying at all.

The red and blue 'My Tree' quilt

Oh well. On to the rest of my week which is crazy busy. You probably won't be hearing from me until sometime next week as I have a funeral and a wedding to attend and all the family that is coming into town to take care of, feed, and keep stocked with clean towels. Some day soon I will have more time to quilt. Some day soon I will have more time to quilt. Some day soon I will have more time to quilt.......