Quilts, Quilts and More Quilts

Dear Friend,

On Friday afternoon I ran away from work! I really did. I finished the one task that has to be be done every day, shut down my computer and ran as fast as I could to the Mesa Convention Center.

You see, it was my only chance this weekend to catch the Arizona Quilters Guild 2009 Quilt Show. I am so glad I went. This was a better venue than they have used in the past and the quilts were awesome, inspiring, and breathtaking. I want to share some of them with you but you will have to excuse some of the poor photography.

I was drawn to these quilts for a variety of reasons. Some for the use of color and some for the technique. Some of them are traditional designs and entail a lot of work like this applique Whig Rose that was hand-quilted.

I loved this one, done in scrappy, colorful squares for the background and the applique motifs on the point where they have used a "drunkards path" in white.

These are both great traditional quilt patterns (bear paw and log cabin) that will always be top on my list.

And as you can tell, I am in a black, white with any other color mode right now. I loved this black and white with the appliqued flowers in bright colors.

How did she/he do this one?

This was a gorgeous pieced quilt. The photo doesn't do it justice.

Where do these men and women get their ideas? When do they have the time it takes to create these works of art? I know I will just have to keep going to quilt shows so that I can find the ideas and inspiration to make my own quilts.

I also know that my quilts will never be "quilt show" works and I am just fine with that, but I do hope those that receive my quilts will know how much I loved making each one and treasure it.

I have more pictures but you are probably putting your pointer fingers together in an "X" and saying "ENOUGH, already!" I had to share some of these with you, though. They were some of the best at the show.

More later. Love, Jan

PS-I'm sorry, I couldn't help it but here are a couple more that I wanted to share with you.

I have a friend at work that loves anything purple and butterflies. I saw this and thought of her. The butterflies were appliqued.








This bargello looked like stairways to eternity. I was amazed at the design and the placement of the color to creat this beautiful quilt.


This was an amazingly simple strippy quilt but the machine quilting was inspired. I wish the photo could show you more of it.

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