NQA Show

 Today I am posting just a few photos from the NQA Annual Show in Columbus, Ohio. I look forward all year to attending this event. Great quilts, wonderful friends, inspiring classes and fun-filled events: what's not to love?

One of my favorite events of the show each year is the Little Quilt Auction. Several hundred people donate quilts that are auctioned off either in the daily silent auctions or in the rowdier Friday night live auction.  I have participated by donating a quilt for the last two years and purchasing quilts for the last three. I was delighted when my entry - "Shooting Stars" - went for more than $200 this year. And I was even more excited to bring home the beautiful piece above, "Cabins and Roses" by the very talented Fran Kordek.  

 I could not resist signing up for a class by Esterita Austin on adding depth to your quilt. Esterita provided the pattern and guided us on using our fabrics to emphasize light and shadow. I was especially pleased to use my own snow-dyed fabric, along with a small piece of batik, to create the still life above. A small amount of paint was added to bring out the high and low lights of the fabric patterning.

Another highlight of the show was winning a ribbon for the second year in a row in the Sew Batik Challenge. There were about 70 entries this year. This is a terrible photo of my entry. Terrible because I took it face on and the whole thing with this piece is that it is 3-D. The theme was log-cabin and I created 49 houses 2.5" x 2.5" x 3.5" high. The sides are all log cabin blocks and the base of each building is Timtex. I think I can honestly say that this "quilt" generated more interest than any I have made. Every time I went by there was a crowd gathered discussing how it was constructed. I don't think anyone thought it was a beautiful piece - they were just enthralled by the "how" of the creation! Once "Seven Billion and Counting" makes its way home I will post another photo from the side showing the 3-D nature of the piece.

The last photo for today is a shot of the entire length of 21 quilts in the "Sky-Lines" exhibit. These are quilts created by members of TAGY out of Cody, Wyoming and WAV based in Billings, Montana. One of the advantages of helping to hang the show is that I was able to get a shot of the exhibit with no people around and before the name tags were hung. I received lots of good feedback from viewers about this exhibit which will now go on to show at Quilt Wyoming before finally making its way back to the artists.