I loaded up the car last Wednesday and headed south-east-ish to Bloomington via Indianapolis…about 250 miles. Two cans of the new flavored Diet-Coke and an unlimited supply of Werther’s Originals helped 🙂
Quilts were being hung over at the Convention Center, the vendors were almost ready, I unpacked my supplies in my class room and everything was looking good.
I was booked for three days of classes at the Indiana Heritage Quilt Show.
Thursday started with Walking Foot Quilting – Beyond the Ditch.
Pressing matters!
Smiling is good.
Lots of straight lines,
spirals of several varieties.
Bloomington is a college town and the class was full of great students!
We changed pace on Friday with an Introduction to Folk Art Embroidery. No machines, everyone settled to hand stitching.
Well, most everyone… at least part of the time!
See… there was some serious concentration in the very full class.
No project pictures. We were too busy sewing.
Time for some Happy Scrappy Improv on Saturday.
The design walls were soon put to good use. These were the first units on display.
There was lots to see at our pre-lunchtime gallery walk.
The curves seemed to be a hit.
Skinny inset strips made an appearance.
It’s always fun to see other people’s scraps.
All sorts of good things on this design wall.
We took a break for lunch and returned ready to move on. We talked about elements and principles of design and alternative gridwork.
What do you think of these blocks with black sashing?
Or how do you feel about green?
I’ll be waiting to see what happens to this,
and this.
Do you prefer these units set close together,
or with more space between them?
and how about using three different grey fabrics in the background?
That’s just a sample of the work displayed on the walls. I took lots of pictures so when people send me pictures of their finished quilts (?) we’ll be able to see where they came from.
While I was busy in the class room there was a quilt show taking place. There are pictures on the show’s web site so here are just a few.
The show attracts entries from all over the country. The winners’ row had some familiar quilts on display.
That’s Sherry Reynolds’s Eternal Beauty quilt in the center as Best of Show. It is flanked by Jan Hutchinson’s First Frost (Exemplary Machine Quilting) on the right and Barbara Clem’s Spring Dance (Exemplary Hand Quilting) on the left. No touching but you could get up close for a good look.
There were several special exhibits besides the judged show.
Mary Ann Van Soest had a whole wall of quilts in her Inspired by Nature exhibit.
and there was a nice selection of little quilts by SAQA artists.
All good things come to an end. I packed my bags back up again on Saturday evening and drove home on Sunday. It was no shorter in reverse…
It was a super show to be included in. The committee did a great job of seeing to all the details so everything ran smoothly. If you ever get the chance to take a look, go for it!
And I’m told that there will be an Interstate all the way to Bloomington sometime in the next ten years…
