Yesterday Barbara from
Cat Patches and I went to the Oregon State Fair and spent most of our time in the Americraft Center where all the quilts and other textile and crafting projects were displayed. The absolute highlight of our visit was seeing Barbara's
You are My Sunshine quilt with its bright red ribbon and Barbara beaming as brightly as all her stitched and appliqued sunshine blocks! This was Barbara's first-ever entry of one of her quilts into a show or state fair. Congratulations to Barbara!
I always gravitate toward the hand quilted entries, and although relatively few of the nearly 200 quilts displayed were hand quilted, those that were entered were beautifully crafted and truly gorgeous. The names of the quilters were on tiny entry cards and in many cases were totally obscured since most of the large entries were hung on the top of two tiers of quilts along the walls. However, here are some of my favorites among the hand quilted entries.
Though it took a blue ribbon in its class, had I been a judge, this quilt would have easily captured Best of Show for the exquisite and intricate hand workmanship throughout.
I believe the album quilt shown above is hand quilted, though not absolutely certain since it was on the top tier and we could not view it up close. The stitches are very tiny and close together and it did appear to be hand quilted. The black/gray/white quilt to the right and also pictured below is hand quilted.
This was another favorite. The appliques are needle turn and the larger ones are hand buttonhole stitched. Beautiful quilting stitches!
Another gorgeous Baltimore album style quilt, detail photos follow:
The following quilt captured my heart, especially after reading its story. Truly a treasure for this family and a wonderful treat to see it and learn its special significance.
Amazing hand embroidery!
All in all a fun day at the fair. And today it's back to the mundane painting chores and getting my supplies organized for some marathon canning sessions coming up in the next two-three weeks. I hope you're enjoying these last days of summer, and looking forward to a quieter season of quilting in the next few months. I know I am!
9 comments:
A BIG Congratulations to Barbara for taking a ribbon on her Sunshine quilt. It's so bright and cheery and very worthy of a ribbon. It's so fun to see other quilters I *know* winning ribbons at state fairs! I'll be entering four on Monday into the Kansas State Fair.
The hand quilting is exquisite! I haven't tackled that, but do have a vintage top that my sister-in-law's grandmother made that I've been asked to quilt and I will be doing that one by hand in the near future.
The story of the hand embroidered quilt brought tears to my eyes. What an incredible treasure for that family and what a lovely way to present it. Thank you for including the text so we could learn the story too.
Thanks for sharing. The quilts are lovely.
What a fun picture of Barbara! I'm so tickled for her!!! Thanks for the mini-quilt show - it's always so much fun to see such exquisite quilts. I certainly won't be seeing them on my walls :*)
Those are some seriously amazing quilts at your fair!
Such fun!
Very happy for Barbara winning a ribbon for her You are My Sunshine quilt. It's especially exciting because it's her first ever quilt entered in a show or state fair. Thanks for sharing your pictures from the fair. I'm entirely too far away to see them otherwise. I'm sure there were quit a few hearts touched by the story of the embroidered block quilt. Thank you for sharing!
Yeah for Barbara!!! I loved her cute quilt. It is always so much fun to see the exquisite work that other quilters do. Thanks for sharing.
Barbara's quilt is just adorable! I like to see hand quilted quilts as well and usually they are few and far between. Probably most quilters are like me and want to get more quilts finished and there just isn't time.
What a great story. Thank you for sharing it. There were some beautiful quilts on display, so much great work to admire and be inspired by!
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