Vermont Quilt Festival - a few faves

David and I live about 3.5 hours from the Vermont Quilt Festival, and we've made a bit of a tradition of going up there, stopping by King Arthur Flour on the way, having dinner in Burlington (there is a fun pedestrian only street, with shops and restaurants), and staying in a hotel.  Early on Saturday morning David will drop me off at the festival, go fly fishing, and pick me up again.

Another great quilt show. 

My vote for viewer's choice - Gladi Porche's We Are Stardust - so dense and colorful, with teeny tiny masterful hand quilting.



This one was very cool - Thanks, Ralph by Dawn Sullivan, all made of recycled shirts:




And rounding a corner, I immediately recognized this as another one of Wendy Reed's amazing pot holder quilts.  I mean, wow!  All made of "orphan" blocks - !!! 



And Laura Lane's Basket Parade - so sweet and quiet, classic: 



DOT by Susan Painting - hand quilted, too -



And this one knocked my socks off - Zoo Bound, by G Wong - and I randomly met the young quilter - but before I'd seen the quilt - wish I could go back to say, well, "Your quilt knocked my socks off!"



And one more - I just loved this one- Indigo and Cheddar by Diane Wespiser -




There was a modest in scale, but nice, show of 19th century applique quilts, but no photos allowed.  Some nice vendor booths... ran into a couple of friendly faces... all in all a good good day in Vermont -

But speaking of photos, I think it's so important to give attribution when we post quilts on line.  Sometimes when I see a quilt image on Pinterest, I'm like, come on!  Name the quilter and keep that name and image linked together, forever, people! 

My simple system is to take one over all pic of the quilt, one close up of the card, followed by a detail shot or shots.  That way, the detail card is sandwiched between photos of the right quilt, on my phone. 

x
Cynthia

Vermont Quilt Festival - indigo dyeing class

I took an itajime shibori dyeing workshop at the Vermont Quilt Festival on Saturday.  Our instructor Cindy Lohbeck  made it fun and fast paced (though a bit too rushed at the end) and the venue was perfect.  Highly recommend, if you ever get a chance to take one of her workshops.   That gal completely knows what she's talking about.

Triangle folds, then clamp on templates for the resist:





Once home, around midnight I rinsed and revealed... totally fun... and I'm ready to order more fabric and dye from Cindy!



And (even though I'm sure these are rough) I'm thrilled with the results!



I'm not going to be too fussy with these - I will probably lob them together into a simple, utilitarian, fun quilt. 




Then.... I hit the crepe stand... I mean, of course!



Cute tip jar.  Which way would you have voted?  I say, one isn't better than the other - just different - but there is nothing prettier than a hand quilted quilt.




And then on to the quilt show, which I will blog about later tonight after a busy day.  I didn't take many photos -

By the way, with your blog, if you are having that trouble in terms of not getting email notifications when you get comments, Barb has clear easy instructions for the fix.   Thanks Barb!

Happy Monday everyone -

x
Cynthia

Vermont Quilt Festival - Gwen Marston "Less is More"

One more post about the Vermont Quilt Festival.

One highlight for me was this striking exhibit of Gwen Marston's small quilts.  Stunning, stunning, stunning, and snapshots don't convey the glowing beauty of these pieces.

I was lucky enough to be around for Gerald Roy's gallery talk through Gwen Marston's "less is more" exhibit.   He was such a good communicator and I came away with a greater appreciation for color theory, and a feeling of wanting to learn more.

My mental notes:  Low contrast.  Interesting texture created by the quilting.  Solids.  Study the color wheel!  Less IS more.  

Totally inspiring!  

If you are making a Gwennie Inspired Medallion, tomorrow is the day we will share our CHILDHOOD borders and learn what the July theme will be!  I will put the linky up here first thing in the morning.  If you aren't caught up, no worries, just share what you have so far! 

xo

Cynthia