Maine Quilts 2023

 No excuses for my bad blogging, I'm simply going to move forward without another word about it. 😏  Our statewide show (Maine Quilts 2023) was (in my humble opinion) the best in years. The reason being, there were two special exhibitions that were close to my heart.

My friend Sue Rivers curated a show of our friend Judy Roche's antique quilts and it was spectacular. They were truly amazing, but these are my two favorites. 

 

I just adore both of them!

 

I would love to reproduce both of them. My dream is that when I am long gone and people see my quilts, I would want them to say, "Oh what fun, I would love to make that one!"  

And, speaking of reproduction quilts, the other special exhibit was a room full of the wonderous reproductions of Hortense Beck. She was a remarkable woman who reproduced many (some famous, some not so famous) antique and historical quilts from private and museum collections. And... she didn't start quilting until she was 60!! These were my favorites.  

 

  

 

 

 

 

You can read more about her online, she was simply remarkable!! 

 

And, for more news... Here is my friend Barb (Fun with Barb) with her outstanding chrome quilt. Many of my friends cornered me at the show and said, "I thought this was a Wendy Reed quilt!". I wish it was!!! 

 

And here she is talking to someone about her "Chernobyl" quilt. This was inspired by a Jen Kingwell pattern. Barb is great at using her quilting to tell a story. This one gives me goosebumbs! This woman was fascinated as was I. 

and this was one of my entries: "Petaluma" was made using Dawn Cook-Ronningen's (Collector with a Needle) patterns called "Fig Leaf and Flowers". I rarely use patterns, but Dawn's fabulous patterns of her antique quilts are superb. This one was in Houston last year so it had until this year to be at Maine Quilts. It is a very patient quilt. The little wool hand means it was hand quilted. I counted them this year and there were 37 (out of over 400 quilts). I am now anxious to see if next year brings more or fewer hand quilted entries. When I first started quilting (before the dawn of time), machine quilting was frowned upon. Oh my how things have changed! Some of today's machine quilting simply blows my mind!

 

And, here is my friend Meliss' quilt sporting her first ever ribbon. It is a Jen Kingwell pattern using 19th century reproductions. Just fabulous!! And, hand quilted! 

And, speaking of Jen Kingwell... She was the speaker for our Friday night banquet and I would have to say that she was the best one I had ever heard. When she started talking about how she was technically challenged and really didn't like using the computer and how she preferred hand work over the machine, I thought perhaps we had been separated at birth. She was so humble and gracious, thanking those who helped her get where she is today in the quilt world. I really enjoyed her. 

The best part of the show was (and always has been) seeing all my quilty friends. A few of them got a little weepy while saying, "It is so good to see you looking so well"! I was so sick last summer, I am just so thankful to be returning to my old self. Now, if I could just get back into Blogland...😊

Have a super day!!!