It’s been a few years since I’ve been to the International Quilt Festival but since I needed a good up lift and a heavy dose of inspiration I decided to go today and see what’s new. Boy was I not expecting the crowds and the number of displays and vendors. This festival was HUGE! Holy Cow! I just smiled from ear to ear! I took quite a few photos and will need to make a few posts to cover my day so I’ll start with some of my favorites.
Upon entering the convention hall you are immediately drawn into the gallery of quilts on display. There were several exhibitions and competitions to see all the quilts. Every size imaginable and every type of genre was on display. For some reason I seamed to be drawn to several quilts that had animals as part of their theme. A cat, a chicken and a rat.
You really couldn’t miss these beautiful quilts. From a distance their compositions just drew you in closer. First up is the cat quilt by Sandy Curran of Newport News, Virginia titled Fatal Attraction
Then there was this beautiful Chicken that won Best of Show by David Taylor of Steamboat Springs, Colorado titled I Ain’t No Spring Chicken. Looks like a painting.
Then this really adorable Rat by Ruth Powers of Carbondale, Kansas titled Packrat Palace.
All of these quilts had just TONS of stitching on them in addition to lots of extras added on such as beads, buttons or interesting thread work. What I love about this series is the ability of these artists to just paint with fabric. The transition of colors and the highlights/contrasts really made these quilts stand out. These I suppose would be considered pictorial quilts to be placed on a wall for display. These really aren’t those softies you’d want to curl up in. Because there is so much quilting these actually are very stiff. Nonetheless, they were my favorites of the whole show.
Tomorrow I’ll post up so more highlights. Enjoy!
Sewing.for.Life! 
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