I went to a Quilt Show!

I was priveleged and honoured to judge at the Marco Polo Quilt Show in Saint John, NB yesterday. They are an incredibly talented group of quilters and fibre artists. Their committee was extremely well organized and facilitated the judging process for us.  Myself, Judy Steeves from Sussex Vale Quilt Guild(an extraordinary quilter who is a font of tips and tricks that would amaze you) and Karen Henry from Dartmouth(it should be noted here that Karen was Canadian Quilting Teacher of year, I believe it was in 2008 I may be wrong on the year) were the overworked and highly taxed judges(wink, wink). We loved every minute of the whole day. It kind of startled us  as to how much we were in sync when it came to picking the ribbon winners. We made a conscious decision to award our 'Judge's Choice' ribbons to non-ribbon winners since we had so many runners-up  that were just as beautiful, we felt it was only fair that they get recognition too.  We also would have liked to have had 'honourable mention' cards/ribbons...whatever they felt would be appropriate since a lot of the entrants had done exceptional work as well. 

 I didn't make note of the quilter's names and the title of their quilts, simply because I gave no thought to posting at all yesterday.  I know, I know...ten lashes with a wet noodle. I think you can do close ups here...hope so.

 This one should have had my name on it since it is SO much like the quilts that I like to do... lots of scraps and then add a little bit of WOW with the applique. 

 This one...a ribbon winner was very poignant..  It's a poppy and a poppy bud beside a head stone filled with smaller headstones and they each have the camo fabric...obviously in recognition of our soldiers at war.  So beautifully done. If she had put names  on it, I think she would have had us all sobbing.  It certainly touched us all.

 I fell in love with this one....a second place winner.  So quirky and eye catching.  Nothing 'lined up ' and yet it worked so extremely well. The technical aspect of it was  very precise and yet the visual was so impressionistic...if that is a word???  I really like this one.

And here is another...a table runner, actually ...the quilter put a sleeve on the back so they could hang it in the wall hanging category and it was a smart move. The quilting is to die for.  The tiniest little stitches.  I remember that this one is called Tulips.  

Well, that's enough for this post. I'll do more on Saturday. Tomorrow I am off on a bus trip for Quilters... could you ask for anything more????  We're going to two quilt shops, then lunch out, off to a quilt show and another quilt shop, Dinner out and then coming home.  My idea of a heavenly day...what's yours?