Monday, April 3, 2017

Oh What Heights We'll Hit

On with the show, this is it! The AQS Lancaster Show that is.

 view from our room at the Marriott


What a trip! It was well worth the LONG bus ride (with 44 wonderful ladies from Maine) to experience my first AQS show.

First things first. We unpacked the necessities – Kathy’s strips!

 Then on to the show! I dragged Kathy down the aisles until we came to the most beautiful quilt in the show!! “My Style Log Cabins” by Kathy Boudreau of Gardiner, ME (my friend and roommate!!). It was so much fun to see it hanging. I stood by listening to the comments while Kathy was busy shopping and listening to demos. I am so proud!

As with any show, I found that my choices for winners did always not coincide with the judges. I know it must be mind boggling to have to make those decisions. There is a special category for hand quilted quilts. Twenty seven of the over 200 quilts in the show were hand quilted. Better percentage than most shows these days.

You can go to the AQS website here to see the winning quilts, but I’d like to share some of my favorites with you.

 “Quintal Vases” by Becky Brown of Montpelier, VA was absolutely amazing. No ribbon, but oh so perfect to me, in execution and design.


 “Old Glory Under HIS Wings” by Julee Prose of Ottumwa, IA.


“Decadent Victorian Darlings” by Hattie Williams of Boswell, PA. This had the most amazing hand quilting! 

“Midnight in Taicang” by Nancy LaPointe of St. Albans, VT. A traditional quilt in modern fabrics really does sing!

 “Wrapped up in Fragrance of Rose” by Mizue Matsuda of Kitakatsusikagun, Saitama, Japan. No ribbon here either. See what I mean about difficult decisions for judges!

 “Fun and Fancy” by Zena Thorpe of Chatsworth, CA won third in the hand quilted section. Zena’s quilts are always wonderful!

“Infinite Glow” by Renee Burston of Port Orange, FL was very modern, and oh so beautiful.

 “Stripe Tease” by Jennifer Emry of Arlington, VA was my favorite modern quilt. Most likely because it was hand quilted and it does have a traditional feel.

If I were to give one critique it would be that I would like to have seen the “story” behind each quilt either on the card or in the show booklet. When you enter an AQS show they do ask for a brief description so I wondered where this info was and why it wasn’t on the description card.

The vendors catered mostly to machine quilting so I was beyond thrilled to see the sign for “Lancaster Traditionals” as I rounded the corner. Joe, the owner, used to vend our show in Maine along with a few others in New England. I was always delighted to see him and always spent all my money there. Joe passed away a few years ago and his daughter, Yoko is helping the family to sell his inventory. 
Yoko was a delightful young lady and I was so very happy to do my part to help deplete her supplies.

Another bonus of the trip was that there was another show just down the road with antiques. So, we hopped in the shuttle bus and found these beauties hanging in the foyer. 

I hope your year is full of wonderful quilts and quilt shows!

18 comments:

  1. WOW! Wendy, thanks for sharing your favorites. I was so happy to see your friend's houses with the log cabins. I wasn't able t see it up close before. Just gorgeous!
    Sounds like a most amazing trip!!

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  2. "Old Glory" strikes my fancy. And do like the cabins on the wall hanging.
    What are all the strips to be used for?

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  3. Hi Wendy,
    What a surprise to see my quilt as one of your favorites. Thank you for sharing it along with so many wonderful quilts.

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  4. Thanks for sharing the show with us! Your favorites are stunning quilts. They sure look like the deserve some blue ribbons to me.

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  5. It was a great show and the bus ride was fun, too. I really enjoyed talking to you.

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  6. It's so inspiring to see such artistic creations. The applique work is incredible. Glad you had a great time and found some treasures to take home.

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  7. Thanks for sharing quilt show photos. It is fun to go to a large quilt show were there are so many breathtaking quilts and a wide variety of vendors. I attend the show in Grand Rapids.

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  8. Oh my goodness, that photos from your room made me dizzy! That's a long way down. Thanks for sharing the quilts, and like you, my favorites never seem to be the ones with the ribbons. And to be honest, I LOVE those log cabins!! What a thrill to see it hanging in person. Sounds like the whole adventure was fun.

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  9. It looks like a really great show! That is one I have not attended.
    The antique quilts look fun to see as well.

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  10. You had a great view from your room.
    Your friend made a great Log Cabin quilt--very clever!
    I like the looks of Yoko's booth.
    Did you help lighten the load of the antique dealers, too? : )

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  11. What fun you had, and those beautiful quilts are a sight to behold!! I think I missed why Kathy travels with strips? But I absolutely love her log cabin quilt!!

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  12. Sounds like the perfect trip to me! So many beautiful quilts. Kathy's Log Cabin is absolutely charming! I used to buy lots of fabric from Joe, too :)

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  13. Thank you for all these fantastic photos of quilts Wendy ! I saw awesome quiltings and I agree with you : I don't understand judges decisions....

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  14. Your "view" photo is really excellent, Wendy! What an interesting perspective.

    Thanks for sharing all your favourites! I agree, it would be hard to pick a winner. So much talent out there!

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  15. I just happened upon this site and was surprised to find out I had shared the bus with a celebrity! What a fun time we had in Lancaster. I was glad to see your pictures here as you choose totally different quilts to highlight than I would have. We all have our own favorite styles and I think there was something there for everyone. Hope to see you again at another quilt event. (Mary Anne)

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  16. Thanks for sharing some of the wonderful quilts from AQS! Kathy's quilt is fantastic - the HST sashing adds the perfect amount of sparkle! Glad to hear there were more than the usual half dozen hand-quilted entries. The eagle quilt was most inspiring - of course!

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  17. great photos and congratulations to your friend! we had a chat about her great house quilt!
    the judging stinks at AQS shows because they use the teaching staff who are not judges. sorry not sorry. I think people should know that. The antique display is fabulous!!

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  18. So much fun for you! Thanks for sharing these wonderful quilts. Wish I could see them personally like you did. There's nothing like seeing them right in front of our eyes!

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