My Mini View of the Chicago Quilt Festival

What a fun and inspiring time today at the International Quilt Festival in Chicago (http://www.quilts.com/home/shows/viewer.php?page=SummerFestivalChicago). Due to a change in many of our plans, I chose to drive myself so I wouldn’t have a time constraint on my day. There were thousands of quilters meandering between hundreds of booths as they eagerly and happily parted with their cash or swiped credit and debit cards. 

Here we are gathered together with some friends from quilt camp.

While wandering through the show, I was on a mission to see what artistic ideas the vendors used for quilty signs announcing their shops. With several events scheduled for different book appearances, I’m in need of some creative signage and FAST. I bounced some ideas off Kathy Downie of downiedesigns.com and I think I’m on the right track. I’ll keep you posted as the imagry develops.

I openly admit to being addicted to very small, precise little blocks and I found a beauty of a pattern at the Primitive Gatherings booth http://primitivegatherings.us/shop/. Take a look at the small safety pin for an idea of the scale (the finished squares in each 16 patch are ½”).

Along with enough quilty merchandise to leave your eyes throbbing by the end of the day, there is also a stunning international juried quilt show highlighting amazing work by some very talented people. Following are a few examples:

 

Yeah...that's a quilt!

And one last interesting piece--a yurt made with quilts.

I hope you've enjoyed my little walk through the Rosemont Quilt Festival today. I'm pooped and heading off to bed after just watching the Chicago Blackhawks win their third game of the Stanley Cup Playoff Finals... ONE MORE WIN and the Cup comes back to Chicago! GO HAWKS!!

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