RENO IS QUILTOWN (Quilt Show)

Last weekend, I finally got Dan to go with me to a quilt show. Well, sort of. Actually, someone came up with the brilliant idea of holding a quilt show inside the National Automobile Museum. What a genius!! Quilters and their spouses were happy to go together to a quilt show. And that included Dan and I. Dan took lots of pictures of cars and I took lots of pictures of quilts. I wish more quilt shows were teamed up with car or motorcycle shows. It was a lot of fun.

The Truckee Meadows Quilters put on a fabulous display of quilts throughout the museum among the vintage automobiles. I enjoyed both the quilts on display as well as the automobiles.

I have put together some of the quilts in WebShots. Mainly the ones that jumped out at me or spoke to me. I just could not do upload all of them. There were so many and all were wonderful! I added the name of the quilt and the quilter’s name in the album this time. I had someone compliment me once on a quilt I did not make even though the album was clearly marked Quilt Show. I did explain that I could not take the credit for the quilt.

You will probably notice that a lot of the quilts are by Mildred Dort. I will admit I did not look at the program when I started looking around. I was too excited to see the quilts then to read about them. Why read when I can spend the time admiring the beautiful artwork on display, listening to others quilt discussions, and do a little shopping with the vendors. I loved all the quilts, but my favorite quilts are the ones with hand-appliqué work or ones with cats or flowers.

It wasn’t until I got home and started going through the program to match photos with names that I realized I had taken a lot of pictures of Mildred Dort’s quilts. I can see why she was picked as the featured quilter. She does some excellent appliqué handwork. My friends know that I really love my appliqué handwork.

Oh, and I will be uploading photos of the vintage automobiles as well…a little later and in a separate folder. Enjoy!

Black Hills Quilters Guild Quilt Show

Dan’s sister, Kristy took Sandy to Rapid City with only one agenda – quilts and more quilts! Sandy had a blast last Saturday. She enjoyed meeting many of Kristy’s quilting friends along with the owner of Quilt Corral Too. Joan is the most friendly, easy-going shop owner that Sandy has ever met. The Strip Club quilting group showed many new items and material to purchase, but Sandy’s favorite part was the Show-n-Tell by the people attending. So many amazing stories and quilts! Kristy and Sandy spent over 3 hours between the Strip Club and browsing through many bolts of fabrics and patterns.

After re-energizing with lunch, they went to the annual quilt show at the Civic Center. There were over 400 quilts entered this year. There were also quite a few booths filled with quilting merchandise from shops in surrounding states. It was Heaven! Yes, Sandy took many pictures of the beautiful quilts. She has posted them in Webshots under Black Hills Quilt Show.

Here's a picture of Dick & Kristy on their back porch.

But wait! There’s more. After the quilt show, Kristy took Sandy to one more quilt shop - a beautiful 2-story historic building packed full of material. Every room in The Thimble Cottage Quilt Village is filled with anything and everything you can imagine for quilting. From the website here is a description of how this store became a village: Our wonderful new shop consists of a hotel built in 1934 and a Victorian house built in 1917. The two buildings were connected with a huge foyer in the early 70’s. So the Thimble Cottage Quilt Shop became the Thimble Cottage Quilt Village. Sandy did not take pictures of the quilt shops, but you can find both online. She highly recommends visiting both shops if you happen to be in the area.

Of course, Sandy was so inspired by her day out with Kristy that she had to come home and start sewing on her machine. Since it was raining, she had to setup her sewing room in the kitchen/dining area by clearing off her side of the counter and putting on the sink covers for extra space. She has been sewing ever since. Oh yea, and Dan can still sit at the dining counter with his laptop without getting stuck with a pin.

Sandy would also like to note that she did not bring home bags of material. She only brought home one small bag with Batik Fat Quarters for an ongoing appliqué project and a couple of patterns.

If you are wondering what Dan was doing this whole time, he was busy installing a US Gear Unified Tow Brake system in the Subaru in Dick and Kristy’s garage. It was nice to work indoors in a well set-up garage for the install.