QBTS 2016 Show

Our Wilmington quilt club did something a little different this year in terms of a quilt show.  We participated in a gallery showing at the Brooklyn Arts Center in downtown Wilmington.  Because of this we had size limitations and had to jury to some extent which quilts would be shown.  They were all hung from wires coming down from the ceiling so they were well above everyone's heads.  This was for two reasons which were that it allowed for more quilt and it also prevented anyone touching the quilts as they offer food and drink at this venue and this is how they make their money.  Many of the quilts were for sale as well.  There were also quite a number of vendors both underneath the quilts and in the courtyard.  You can see here a number of the quilts.  One of mine (I just noticed) is up in the upper right hand corner and is one of my sunset pieces

A view of some more of the quits.

Still more!  In the upper right hand corner is a quilt by fellow dyer Dianne Brisson who was one of the lucky ones who sold her quilt.

A view to the back row.

Two magnificent quilts in the middle surrounded by two of my less significant quilts.  I believe the top quilt is by Pat Mattison. 

The quilt that is on top of this picture evidently won prizes at Houston and it is stunning.  It took five years to make and is all hand appliqued and quilted.  You can see one of my more modest quilts below it -- the snowflakes called Winter in Rochester which was prophetic this year!

Here is a closeup of the above quilt!

All the challenge quilts were up on a wall together.  The challenge had been Circle of Friends.

We had a very short Iron Quilter demo at the show as well into which Pat talked me into participating.  The day before she told us the theme and we were allowed to bring in any fabric we wanted.  The theme was "rain".  We only had an hour and a half to complete a small quilt.  This was the winner (voted on my the audience) by Ann Hope Marvin even though she didn't have it quilted! There were only three of us particpating as there wasn't much room on the stage nor time to be truly creative!  

This was Pat's piece showing the spring gardens and rain.  Lots of bling!

Here is my piece which was obviously a rainbow at the beach.  I thought at the time that everyone would do a rainbow and was surprised that only I did.  One of the parameters we worked under was that we had to incorporate a piece of fabric from each of the other two quilters -- the two fabrics I got were the turtle fabric and the green in the rainbow.  The background is all pieced and the rainbow is fused on and quilted.  It is about 12 inches by 18 inches.  The turtle was my daughter's idea and I really liked it!  There was one woman who watched me almost the whole time I was working and said she had learned so much which was rewarding!

We have already been invited back to this venue for next year!!  It was estimated that we had close to 1000 visitors, many who hadn't been to a quilt show before.