Girls Trip to the International Quilt Festival

When my mom asked me to attend the Quilt Festival with her last year in Chicago, I happily agreed to go along.  Visions of sweet little old ladies with snow white hair, shuffling around and fingering ancient quilts came to mind.  I knew that I would enjoy doing just about anything with my mom, but assumed there wouldn't be much for me to get into.

Ok, I was completely wrong!

Quilting is such an amazing art form.  The crafty revolution has brought on board a whole new generation of sewists who are trying their hand at quilting, or stitching in some other form. 

The International Quilt Festival is now an annual girls' outing for us.  This year we made it a day trip to Cinncinnati, OH.  It was a gorgeous day for a drive.  We attending on the last day of the show, and were able to totally avoid the crowds.

This is a shot of 1/2 of the show floor.

I took my camera along  hoping to snap up tons of pictures to share.  Turns out there are some pretty strict rules about photographing booths and quilts!  My mom was convinced that my Canon and I were going to get us kicked out of the show.

We were greeted in the main hall by this beautiful quilt.

"Crossing to Freedom"  Jane Burch Cochran

It's difficult to tell from the picture, but it is covered in a rainbow of buttons.  It was breathtaking!

There was such a huge variety too.  Many of the modern quilts look like paintings or portaits from far away. 

And then there were the antique quilts.

Note the tag on the side of this one.  It is 130 years old.

So. Many. Tiny.  Squares...

And I love to think that all of these little squares came from scraps of fabric used to make handsewn clothes.  The tradition of hoarding scraps seems to date back quite a ways.

I love the grass and cherry colors in this antique quilt.

And the stunning applique work in this recently completed piece. 

That was the shot that almost got me kicked out of the show!  These folks taking pictures very seriously!



One last shot to share.  We came across this antique Singer sewing machine.  It is just like the machine that my Nana used when my mother was young.  Oh how we wish we had that machine back!

Our late afternoon Starbuck's run gave us enough pep to get home.  We came home with tired feet, full shopping bags, and big smiles! 

Oh, and I forgot to mention the fun shops we discovered.  Another blog post to follow with those!

Happy crafty,

e