Batavia Quilt & Textile Show

This weekend, my mom and I went to the Batavia Quilt & Textile Show. Other than an art museum, I can think of few places on earth where you can gather as much inspiration in one place than a quilt show. There were quilts of all kinds, mostly new, but some vintage as well, and there were two awards... one for a special "Seams Impossible" quilt challenge that they ran and the other for viewers choice. Each visitor got to pick one quilt for each award.

Not only did we see lots of great quilts, but we also volunteered for a few hours at the Quilts of Valor booth and we got to see my quilt on display. Hooray!

Yup, I finally entered one of my quilts in a quilt show just for fun. Of course, I entered my stained glass quilt, Wright's Windows (it's the only one I've made that doesn't embarrass me). It was super fun to see it up there with all the rest in the show. I especially liked, standing near it (stalking it, really) and listening to what others had to say. I think one pair of ladies actually voted for it because I saw them come back and write down the number. My sweet mother voted for me so I'm guessing I pulled out with a whopping two votes.

Alas, my quilt did not win. This was the winning quilt:

It really is beautiful... this picture hardly does it justice. If you zoom in on it you can see the amazing quilting that Bonita at Prairie Shop Quilts did. Just stunning.

Here is what mine looked like hanging up...

I did not vote for my own quilt, actually. Just didn't think it was right. I voted for this beauty here...

The quilting on it was amazing... all those bricks are not part of the fabric... those bricks and details are all quilted on. Crazy awesome.

My mom really liked this next one. It's a Christmas quilt and the applique and quilting details were insane. This is not a quilt I even aspire to make - applique and I do not get along.

This one, however, I would LOVE to be able to make. Just love the depth of the pattern. I have no idea how you piece such a perfect circle...

And I have been back and forth over whether I want to start collecting 1930's feed sack prints, but this Trip Around the World sold me. Although I need more fabric like I need a hole in the head.The crazy quilt below was made from vintage fabrics. I can just picture myself hitting up my local thrift store to start collecting old clothes and whatnot to make one like it. I just love up-cycling old fabric for quilts.

Thought the next one was such an original design and, again, had marvelous quilting.

Here are just a couple more...

This last one was just too cute. Each square was totally different, but all based on chickens and there were tons of funny phrases all over it... you can see it says "why did the chicken cross the road" in applique on the top right border. The name of the quilt was "Alektorophobia."

That means "fear of chickens." :)