Wednesday, November 19, 2008

The Greater Chicago Quilt Exposition

Be What You Is Detail
Virginia O'Donnell

I went to the Greater Chicago Quilt Exposition in Schaumburg over the weekend. The show features the "World Quilt Competition" and many smaller exhibits. Mom & I went to this show two years ago and enjoyed it a lot. The previous weekend was the big Fine Art of Fiber show put on by various Chicago area guilds, which I have never been to. We could only go to one of the two and ended up choosing the Exposition because it was a more convenient weekend and easier to drive to. Did anyone go to the Fine Art of Fiber?

Well anyway, it was a good show. I didn't feel quite as "wowed" by it as I did two years ago, but it's hard to say if that's a change in the show or me. But I still thought it was worth driving two hours for. (I've never really felt that way about the Chicago IQF, which I haven't been back to since the first year.) I also feel a little sad that I left the vendor section empty handed. Half the fun of big quilt shows is coming away with something amazing and unexpected or some unbelievable deal. Nothing spoke to me, however. Again, maybe it's me?

I didn't take tons of pictures because I was running out of space on my memory card, but here's a few of my favs, and you can see the rest in my flickr set.

"My English Garden" by Susan Jensen, from the Canada section:

My English Garden

"Little South African Picture quilt by Gina Niederhumer of South Africa:

Little South African Picture Quilt

"North to Alaska" by Anne Joule of New Zealand:

North to Alaska

Oh, one notable thing I saw in this show - a hand quilted all over meander. True story.

2 comments:

jovaliquilts said...

I didn't know this show existed until a month ago, but I didn't make it up there. Seems like there were some nice quilts -- love the ones you showed.

Michael5000 said...

Dude, I KNOW Virginia O'Donnell...

My Favorite Quilt Pics From Flickr Users