This weekend I went to my first Quilt show. It was a eye opener for many reasons. First, there was very little in the way of hand quilting. Every other booth had those large quilting machines. Now, I don’t have anything against the machines, but I would like to see at least a little tribute to hand work. Second, It was wierd to be in a sea of women (age 35 and up), all wearing sensible shoes, and no makeup. Third, the majority of booths had quilt kits. Very little had to do with quilts as self expression. Still, once again there is nothing wrong with kits. I just wanted to bond with some fellow quilt artist.
To be fair, there was an exhibition of quilts and pretty much all where artist designed. They where all beautiful designed. I took photo’s of some of these quilts, but the photo’s turned out horrible. Maybe on Flickr someone else took photo’s that turn out better that mine.
The only hand work I found where the vintage quilts. And, to be truthful, they are my favorite designs. There where several booths of antique quilt dealers. It’s amazing to be able to see, close up, vintage quilts like I’ve seen in museums.
Every time period was represented at the various antique quilt dealer booths. What is really cool is how imperfect all these hand quilts are! So much in quilting today stresses perfection. Our quilting ancestors created very human quilts.
Imperfect perfection. All hand done and hand quilted. This was a very friendly quilt.
More to come on the quilt show and more antique quilts . . .
Hi Andrea:
I was at the Long Beach Quilt Festival, too! It was quite amazing. My two friends and I took a bus with the Traveling Quilters up from Escondido. Next year we will drive ourselves so we can stay longer and see more quilts. Shopping was great. I, too, love the old quilts and the hand-stitching. I’m making my very first hand-stitched quilt right now. I got some of the hexagon shapes and some vintage repro fabric and made the hexes this weekend. Now I can hand sew them together. It’s fun! Your quilting below is very nice. Can’t wait to see the whole thing.
I agree with you about the current state of the quilt world. too much that is very stressful, finicky and lifeless. Too much joy and freedom has been sucked out. Love that blue and white log cabin quilt with the hints of yellow.
I agree with you regarding the long arm quilting. I do not hand quilt anymore due wrist injuries but I make my quilts from start to finish. I do my own quilting on my regular sewing machine. It takes practice and has become my favorite part of the process. I believe it is cheating when “quilters” send their tops to be quilted by a professional, then enter them in shows for ribbons and prizes. This is not quilting, this is just sewing.