Monday, August 5, 2013

(pic heavy!) Four County Quilt Show

So I didn't write up a Sunday Stash yesterday, but I have a good reason :)  My friend, Abigail and I went to the Four County Quilt Show at the Frederick Fairgrounds yesterday.  It's not a modern quilt guild, but I was still able to find a lot of inspiration in the hundreds of quilts that were exhibited.  The show even almost made me a Batik convert.

Here are a few of the quilts that I really liked.  The uncaptioned pictures are quilts that I either forgot to snap a picture of the label, or the label was blurry and I couldn't make out the name.  If you see your quilt and would like me to add your name, or if you would like me to take down the picture please let me know.

Medium and Large Quilts

by Laura Schwartz
Laura Schwartz embroidery detail
Laura Schwartz quilting detail
The quilt by Laura Schwartz was one of the first quilts we saw.  Each block featured a different quilting style and the whole quilt had lovely machine embroidery pieces.

by Sharon Harris
by Cindy Leonard
Cindy Leonard quilting detail
Ms. Leonard had several quilts entered in the show, and each one was quilted beautifully with hand quilting.

zig-zag quilt
zig-zag quilt detail
Sorry I neglected to snap a pic of the tag on this one.  I love the effect of the monochromatic zig-zags!

Celtic design
great scrap buster
This awesome scrap buster was made out of 1.5" strips.  I remember the tag saying that she still had a bin full of leftovers.  It was a lot of fun picking out all the novelty scraps in the quilt :)

by Laura O'Neal
This quilt was HUGE.  I believe the tag says 90"x107".  The ladies who made these Civil War reproduction quilts hosted a 4 patch block swap, so there were 5 or 6 of the same block quilts on display.  This was by far the largest, and my favorite layout.  Also, I think this is a block we'll be making in the Penny Sampler class, so I am excited that I may be able to make a quilt like this in the future!

9 patch quilt
This last large quilt was my favorite (I voted for it to win best in show).  It's made of 9 patch blocks set on point.  I don't even think the picture does it justice, it was absolutely gorgeous, I'm sad that I can't make out the artists name on the tag :(

Lap, Mini and Art Quilts
by Susan McDavid
by Joan Watkins
paper pieced teapots
I think I'm having a love affair with 30s and 30s reproduction fabrics.  A lot of the vendors had 30s repros for sale.  I'm proud of myself for having good willpower and not buying any!

by Joan Watkins
by Cindy Leonard
Another beautiful example of hand quilting!

by Olga Schnde
As a gardener, I loved this one.  It even had little ladybug beads, and there was a lovely glistening spiderweb under the beet leaves!  I wish I would have taken some more shots of the details!

by Etta Stewart
Etta Stewart quilting detail
This ZentangleTM, quilt was awesome, I especially loved the ZentangleTM quilting.  

The awesome art quilt wall
by Libbi Driggers
This last quilt (which was actually the first quilt in the exhibit when you walked in) shows all that is "famous" about Frederick, MD.  If you've never been there it's a really great place to visit.  Also, if you watch Top Chef, it's where season 6 and Top Chef masters contestant Bryan Voltaggio's restaurant is ;)

This was the first quilt show I had the opportunity to attend.  It was definitely worth it, and it definitely won't be the last!  I even got to play with the Cadillac of embroidery machines.  There is no way I'd ever  be able to afford a $5,000 machine, but it was neat to see everything it could do.  A girl can dream right?!  One final little funny to wrap up the experience.  This was a sign at one of the vendor booths:


6 comments:

  1. My grandmother recently decided to live up the last decades of her life and bought a $7k embroidery machine. Some ladies cruise; my grandma sews. Maybe someday you will have one! Thank you for sharing quilt show photos. I am hoping to drag my toddler to a quilt show this week...and I am watching for your Penny Sampler pull! This is going to be so fun!

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    1. Thanks Laura! Right now I really want a machine that does free motion quilting (I've had my eye on the Janome MC6300)... Maybe once we find a house or for Christmas, whichever comes first, lol. I hope you and your little girl have fun at the quilt show, I'm sure all the colors will keep her entertained!

      Just posted my preliminary Penny Sampler fabric picks in the Stitched in Color pool. Will probably do a blog post tomorrow once I get back from the quilt shop :)

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  2. wow!! those quilts are amazing, especially the scrappy one! What a fun experience!

    :) Kelly @ My Quilt Infatuation

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    1. It really was a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to going to more shows in the future... definitely tons of inspiration :)

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  3. Wow, some amazing quilts here! I especially love the one with the birds, as well as that art wall quilt.

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    1. The birds quilt was super cute, and the hand quilting was impeccable... lots of inspiration in that room, for sure :)

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