Quilt Festival
This past weekend I attended Quilt Festival. Quilt Market tends to get the majority of the coverage on blogs, but it is a trade show, not open to the public and many of us won’t ever have the credentials to attend. Quilt Festival, on the other hand, is open to everyone. There are hundreds of vendors to buy all sorts of fabric, tools, books and more. They also have the second best quilt show in the world featuring art and traditional quilts (Tokyo is the best show in the world. One day, my friends, one day.)
I have a great appreciation of quilting in all of its forms, modern quilts just happen to be my favorite. Art and traditional quilters often use techniques that I can apply in my modern quilts, so I always find it helpful to be exposed to other quilt styles. While very few if any of the quilts are modern at this show, I always walk away inspired.
I am very lucky to live within driving distance of this great event to enable me to go every year, but you should plan on attending festival at some point, whether next year or in 10 years. It is worth it. Go. Every year, I see old friends, make new ones and generally have a great time.
Modern quilts are very few, at this event. If you are a modern quilter, you need do to this. I’ve seen that modern quilters don’t like to enter shows because they don’t want to be judged, but I think it is great if modern quilters enter the big shows to illustrate why we are different than art quilters or traditional quilters. I do not think this special exhibit is a judged category, so go for it.
I didn’t make the Modern Quilt Guild meetup because my bus left at 7, if you did and blogged about it, please post a link in the comments.
Now, on to the photos! Here are my favorites, not all modern, because like I said before, I like all kinds of quilts. There is more on my Flickr too.
Kindergarten by Tadako Nagasawa, Showa-ku Nagoya, Aichi-Ken, Japan
In Love with Dots and Dolls by Megumi Mizuno, Shiki City, Saitama Prefect, Japan
Falling Sunbeams - Blue Side by Emiko Today Loeb, New York, New York, USA
Reflections by Carol Swinden, Cape Traverse, Prince Edward Island, Canada
Untitled by Joann Balling, Barboursville, Virgina, USA
Finally, if you are an artist whose work I photographed and do not want your work online (either in the blog or on Flickr), please email me (my email is in the sidebar) and I’ll remove it immediately.
