2013 Minnesota Quilters Show

Nancy and I are still coming down from the high that we’ve been on since being chosen as "Quilters of the Year" by Minnesota Quilters.   This is such a great honor!  As part of this we were able to have a special exhibit at the Minnesota Quilters Show in Duluth.  We want to thank all the members of Minnesota Quilters for making this such a special event.  Each year we are absolutely amazed that such a huge event can be put on by volunteers.  We can’t even imagine the work and time that goes into planning the annual quilt show.  And you may all have been exhausted, but you all still looked like you are having a wonderful time!  So first of all “Thank You”!

It was fun to set up our special exhibit.  We were able to include some Glad Creation patterns and also some of our favorite quilts from our personal collections.  We had 16 quilts on display—plus a bunch more in our vendor booth.  It was fun to run between the 2 booths and greet so many of our friends.  We got more hugs than we’ve ever had before and it was great to chat with quilters who have made our patterns, taken classes from us or just visited our shop.  We heard so many fun stories about their experiences.  

Just to give you a glimpse , I’ll include a few photos from our exhibit.   I’ll add more photos in the next blog posting.  

We tried to get an overview of quilts we have made during the 37 years we’ve had our shop.  This first quilt is called Harvest Medallion.  Nancy made it in 1981 and it appeared on the cover of Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine in 1982.   It was made using traditional template techniques, hand appliqué and hand piecing.

We also included our family quilt that we made for our parents 50^th Wedding Anniversary.  We had collected family photos and sun-printed them on a specially treated fabric.  We followed the techniques in a book call One of a Kind Quilts by Judy Hopkins.

Our Sylvia’s Quilts were a fun addition to the display.  They were made as part of a club we had at the shop based on the book Sylvia’s Bridal Sampler from Elm Creek Quilts by Jennifer Chiaverini.  This club lasted  2-1/2 years and ended with an exhibit of about 40 quilts at the shop.  We were pleased to be able to share this exhibit at the 2012 Minnesota Quilters Show in Rochester.

The other paired quilts we put in were our Total Eclipse Quilts from the Judy Neimeyer pattern.  We made these for a staff show called Companion Quilts.  These were both made using the same pattern, even some of the same prints, but how different they came out.

So--thank you Minnesota Quilters!  We really appreciate all the work you do in supporting quilting in our state. If you missed the Quilt Show in Duluth, the next one will be in St. Cloud next June.  And if you want to be part of this great group, you can check it out on their website at http://www.mnquilt.org/meetings.html.
 
Watch for more photos in our next blog posting.  
Susan