Happy 4th!

Or as my Star Wars loving friends are apt to say:

“May The 4th Be With You!”

I’m pecking this out on my laptop at the Greensboro, NC airport. Dang, 3:45am came early this morning --- and it hit me as I was drifting off to sleep last night that I didn’t put anything in the blog queue for this morning!

No worries….I have an hour until my flight so I can sit here, go through some show photos from last week’s Vermont Quilt Festival and occupy myself until it is time to board.

As often happens with really early morning posts – my mind starts to wander and ponder about many things.

I have come to realize that I would never make a great quilt judge. Some of the judging I just do NOT understand.

I know it is all about the numbers, and how things add up on "paper". But some things I just have to go with my heart on.

And what I say isn’t “against” any one’s quilt or the judges themselves ---it’s just how I feel.

There was a quilt that won “best reproduction quilt” or something like that. Big award. Lots of applause at the awards ceremony. I hadn’t seen the quilt yet, but when we were allowed into the show and I saw the quilt….all I could see was that yes, it was a beautiful “civil war” array of fabrics, but that the quilting itself was so over the top and the quilt itself so stiff that it in no way represented to me what a civil war era made quilt would look like.

It was “just this short” of having crystals glued to it. And there was a lot of discussion about how many quilts had crystals glued to them, and I hope it is a fad that will go away ----but that’s a subject for another time.

((See, I told you, I would make a BAD quilt judge!))

Too much is too much is too much. I’m a quilter who makes quilts to cover the people I love. Crystals are not part of the equation, and neither is over-the top machine quilting –especially when it comes to a reproduction quilt. How would that Quiltmkaer have quilted her quilt in 1865? That’s what I want to see if it is a true reproduction.

I want to share with you my favorite quilt of the whole show ----it is named “Oh My Stars” by Sue Freeland of Hanesport, NJ. It's perfect to share for 4th of July!

I loved this quilt in its complicated simplicity!

All of this close quilting is done by hand. The quilt has a softness that an overly machine quilted quilt is just not going to have. To me --- this is more in keeping with the time period of a civil war era quilt than any amount of machine micro-stippling and over-feathering can give.

I adore the close diagonal quilting! And the curved design quilted over the star blocks to add another dimension to them. what a labor of love!

((Look Ma! No Crystals!))

The quilting found its way into the border to enhance the flying geese.

My favorite element! The zig zag lines in the open areas of the border.

What great texture!

Here is another shot showing that great border cable with 5 lines ((FIVE LINES!)) of hand quilting!

While I was standing there photographing the quilt, the maker happened to come by and I was privileged to talk to her, to tell her my feelings. It was wonderful that her quilt was recognized as worthy enough for a second place ribbon.

If I were a judge, I probably would have pushed it higher than that. In my book, this IS a blue ribbon quilt ---it got my viewers choice vote! It was quilted to match the era and style that the maker was wanting to capture.

Have a great 4th of July everyone! I’m off to Chicago to go meet my son at his gate – and then we are off for our Idaho adventure.