There were a lot of quilts at the show including a Hoffman Challenge exhibit of wall hangings, small quilts, and soft sculpture dolls in bright colors. The dolls were fun to see even though they were not my cuppa tea for a sewing project, and included a fairy, fisherman, and mermaid. Those bright Challenge quilts were all amazing to see because they were all so different from each other yet made of the same prints.
As to the quilts that were entered in the show, there were several that I liked a lot. The quilt I liked that surprised me the most was a Turning Twenty Again that had really well chosen and placed fabrics. I don't ordinarily like patterns like that because the quilts often look too busy having been made from all busy prints in nearly the same scale, but I wanted to carry this one home with me. I think it was the combination of using 2 scales of prints along with one solid bright blue and one nearly solid spring green--giving my eyes a place to rest, that made me like it so much.
There was a lovely raw edge applique of Roman column ruins overgrown with lush greenery with the columns doing a ghost layers effect so you could see the greenery through parts of the columns; a crisp blue and white applique WH of birds and curlicue leaves with loads of nooks, crannies, pointy points and thin tendrils all marvelously hand worked; a bed quilt of a wonderful life-like peacock at a fountain with embroidered water flying through the air. One inventive quilt was a stack and slash type fan quilt that also had alternate fan blocks made of sections of a large round antique hand made lace doily. There were several other versions of stack and slash quilts, including one of the 4-patch type that started a long discussion several weeks ago. There were two blue and yellow sampler quilts, one with pieced stars and the other a mix of all sorts of blocks. There was a sweet applique sampler quilt with all the blocks based on a heart shape, another sampler with stars in country colors, and one a mix of traditional pieced and applique blocks. There were three mariner's compass quilts and they were each a different style, but all with very pointy points: one with a single giant compass rose, one in a medallion setting with 4 mini compasses per corner, and one with several compasses arranged in a large cross pattern.
For those who love charm quilts there were two large bed sized Tumbling Blocks, one old fashioned curvy Apple Core, and a Triple Irish Chain with white background and no two print pieces the same. For the scrappy lovers there was a string quilt made of men's ties, a Roman Stripe, and a Scrap Happy strip quilt. There were two leaf quilts, one a nice scrappy maple leaf quilt in autumn colors with several sizes of leaves, and the other an apple leaf shape, with the leaves and backgrounds split, mixed up then re-joined in new pairs. Oh, and right at the show entrance was a huge display of quilted Postcards hung in clear display bags so you could see both the front and backs of the cards.
I haven't listed every quilt I saw, but that was a good cross section of them. I was a bit surprised at what I didn't see. No Double Wedding Rings, no Cathedral Windows, no Dresden Plates, and no sign of a hexagon quilt of any type. I have seen at least one of each at every other quilt show or display I've viewed, even if it was a small
5 quilt display in the local library glass display cases. Debra in VA See my quilts at