Festival of Quilts - Heritage Park May 25 and 26, 2013 = Inspiration

Well the day finally arrived! I put two quilts in and only one got into the publication with all the quilts listed. Strange, since BOTH were submitted the same time. The one quilt that I wanted published, actually wasn't published. *sigh* My daughter's birthday quilt is done and it would have been nice to pass along a brochure with it as well with the write up.

As I walked into Heritage Park, I decided to go into the "haunted" house, Prince House. Apparently, it is supposed to be haunted, but if anything it's a beautiful house and I was thrilled that my daughter's quilt was in the room as soon as you enter. One of the volunteers was there and she took down the information on her quilt as it wasn't published.

Here is is! The far left. Great that they allowed the fun back to show. Was very exciting to see it!

Here's the new owner! My wonderful daughter! Can you believe that she's going to be 30? YIKES! Good thing she looks like a teenager, makes me look that much younger! ha! Happy Birthday my girl! You will get your birthday quilt once it's home from the show!

I love how the quilts hang on the line outside! We had a forcast of rain, but it quickly dried up. I was happy to be able to take a couple of photo's of the quilts outdoors!

Of course my trip wouldn't be done without a photo of the quilts hanging off the hotel! The rain had just stopped and the sun started shining. The men on duty were hauling the quilts out along with the ladders and the women were hanging the quilts!

I love seeing the simplicity of the quilts come alive with the quilting! This person did a fantastic jobwith the quilting. I absolutely love the triangles! How splendid! Doesn't this give you the ompfhhh to want to get behind your sewing machine????

Beside my lovely daughter's quilt .. this next one has to be my absolute favorite! Look at all those little muchkins dressed up in costume around the quilt! Fantastic job! Love it!

This one was quite striking. The bold colours topped off with the wonderful hand stitching! I was surprised to see that it was signed in gold right on the front of the quilt with a signature. Something I've never seen before!

I took a close up of this one. It was made from jelly rolls, sewed across in strips. Nothing too outstanding, until you got up real close and noticed that the maker used a different style of quilting for every row! What a great way of learning your stitches and giving your simple quilt some pizzaz! I am new to free motion, but this would be a great way of practicing and getting a quilt out of it!

There were so many beautiful quilts! One, right after another. This one caught my eye. The whole quilt was quite spectacular. The hours that were spent on this one I am sure would add up to months. Just take a look at the incredible detail on this! I think that some thread company out there would be wise to snap this gal up to showcase their threads! Amazing job! Oh one day I wish I could be a touch as good as this person!

Ever wonder what do to with all your scraps? Look how beautiful this scrap quilt is!

I so wish I could have seen these two quilts spread out, or hung from the hotel. Sometimes you want to see the pieces as a whole. Take a look at those incredible points on the round pieces to the left.

The right quilt, great again with those scraps!

I've never seen this pattern. Makes me wonder if this is an original design? (This quilt below is by Wayne Kollinger -- read his comments below!)

I love the bright colors! What really struck me with this were the black and white dotted fabric for the points.

It seemed that there were not as many quilts as last year. They have been advertising there were 800 quilts, but maybe with the rain, it was harder to see them all?

The vendors were the same. Nothing new to see really. I am afraid that I fell off the wagon though and I did buy some patterns and a few things that I needed to replace -- markers, tape measure. I found a cute little snowman pattern in a jar that I'm going to stich up for my desk at work (of course, brining it out when the snow starts to fly! ha ha) I found a great pattern for a baby quilt. I will show you once I make it!

All in all, it was ok. I think that I enjoyed it much more last year, being it my first year to participate. Seems that there was really nothing new other than the wonderful applique collections they were showing. I am thrilled to be completed my daughter's quilt. I am sure it will be a wonderful addition to her new place that she's moving to!

Hope you all enjoyed my little tour and ... Happy Quilting all!

Margo