Rosemont Recap

June 20, 2014

Rosemont Recap

The crowd was a little thin the first several hours of the show, but that was fine by me. As always the quilts displayed at the International Quilt Festival Chicago 2014 were exceptional and inspiring. They make me want to scurry home, start, and then actually finish projects on my personal wait list. I'll show several of my favorites from the show at the end of this blog, but first I want to give a big shout-out to a friend and quilter from my area (Chicago Southland) for having one of her quilts hanging in the show. Congratulations, Kathy Mathews--I'm so proud of you!

Kathy with her quilt, Irish in Chicago. Kathy designed this quilt which contrasts the gray of the urban city with the green of the dyed Chicago River on St. Patrick's Day.

For More about Kathy, her fabulous quilts, and great sense of humor check out her blog: Kathy's Blog

VENDORS and MY LOOT:

Yes, I did my share of shopping and purchasing! You can't beat having hundreds of quilting and sewing related vendors under one roof.

There was a lot of wool and wool patterns being shown. In my opinion much more than in the past. While I love the wool projects, my MS has limited the use of my right hand and I can no longer do any type of hand work...so I'm sorry to say that I didn't spend much time perusing the wool booths.

I also noticed, overwhelmingly so, that a good amount of the booths were showing what I would call darker fabrics. ...Not that there's anything wrong with that, it was just an observation.

I bought my first 'modern pattern' and of course can't wait to work on it (along with everything else that found its way home with me).

Vendors, vendors everywhere!!

It doesn't look like much but most of this is just what I was looking for: Five 2 Yard pieces of batiks for a pattern I designed, a yummy giant cone of Aurifil, 12 pre-wound bobbins, one fat quarter, and 2 patterns.

The Modern pattern. So simple yet so perfectly intriguing.

Another pattern with teeny tiny pieces.

As much as the jewelry and other do-dads drew me to their booths, I managed to avoid any purchases along those lines. I had some time constraints, but was on a mission to find several specific items and I stuck to it!

FRIENDS:

This year the group of friends whom I usually go to the show with were unable to attend, so I went solo. I did however meet up with some of my favorite peeps from my quilt guild for lunch.

IMPROVEMENTS ON DRIVING THERE: All of you Chicagolanders and South Suburbanites will know what I'm talking about.

Warning--local drive-time talk:

The exit off of 294 North for Rosemont has always been the River Road / O'Hare Exit. This exit can be confusing at best and when under construction it can bring you to tears.

Last year I almost (and I mean with a fraction of a second to spare) swerved back into the correct lane for the River Road Exit. Now mind you, I am not a wus about driving places and I have taken the River Road exit many many times, but heading to the 2013 Show while going at breakneck speed to keep up with the cars around me and the confusion of coned-off lanes for construction I avoided driving off to who-knows-where last year.

NEWSFLASH: Rosemont now has its own exit just before the dreaded O'Hare exit. it's Balmoral Avenue. Easy Peasy...two quick turns and I was in front of the convention center! ...All I can say is WOW! I wonder how long it will take before this friendly exit is made confusing by the people at the Tollway. Rant and whining over!

And Finally the QUILTS:

Enjoy this smattering of quilts from the exhibit.

Detail of above.

Sorry that this is so blurry. This was a wonder piece from a quilter in Japan. It was only about 12x16" but was so well done using hand-dyed micro-fused applique.