MN Quilters Show

Every year the Minnesota Quilters put on a 3 day show filled with classes, vendors and (of course) quilts. It rotates around the state between Duluth, St Cloud, St Paul and Rochester. This year was Rochester's turn.  I met up with my friend Sarah and enjoyed a day of wandering through the vendors and quilts. Our day ended with a wonderful meal at Wildwood which is a bar/pub near the quilt shop Sarah works at on occasional Saturday's, Pine Needles. The Apple Chicken Salad was probably the best I've ever had.

So - the one low point of the day was realising I forgot to charge my camera battery before heading down there. As a result, I was convinced every picture would be the last one so I ended up being fairly picky about what I took pictures of instead of my usual - take a millions pictures and edit them later. I also didn't take notes on the quilts so I'm afraid all I can do is give you a sample of the quilts with very few details.

First up - Sarah examining a beautiful quilt. Back when my friend, Laurie, and I used to take trips together (man, I miss her. I can't believe she's been gone since 2004)- anyway, Laurie and I always used to take one picture of each other's back while looking at the scenery or something. So, this pic of Sarah is in memory of all the Laurie pictures...

The Glad Creations Quilt Shop had a Sylvia's Bridal Sampler Club where everyone worked on the 6 inch blocks from the book. They had a huge display of several of the quilts.

This quilt is someones idea of a family tree. Each house has the name of the husband and wife and when the house was established. How clever is that!

I liked the way this quilt added length by creating a pillow piece. Many times I've pondered how to make a square quilt fit a bed better - this would work perfect.

This one wasn't in the Sylvia's Bridal Sampler group but I think it was another quilt made from the blocks in the book. 

I can't remember the name of this quilt but is was by one of the teachers - Ann Fahl. The name was something about Night and Day. It's a reversible quilt with a ton of thread work on it. The sun is all thread work and on the other side is darker as if it were night. We saw the other side first and wondered why the quilt was displayed backwards, then saw the front and were stunned at how beautiful it was.

Sarah said you can never go wrong with a cat or dog in a quilt. The cat in the tree is thread work and the quilting adds to the whole look with leaves and more.

The quilter of the year had a display which includes some Escher inspired quilts.

The camera conked out after this picture but I'm so glad I got it first. Someone took the geology map of Minnesota and transposed it into a quilt. How cool is that!

This was actually the first picture I took. I always love mariner compasses and other circle quilts. They have such movement to them.

So, that was my Friday. Great way to spend a day off. Unfortunately, in typical fashion, my body decided to get a migraine today so I spent most of today asleep. This evening I got out and did a little yard work but not even close to the amount I had hoped to get done. Maybe tomorrow.

Oh - I did make a few purchases at the show, some quilting stencils but, as we are in a project blackout I won't be showing the stencils. You see there's a Layla birthday, new baby birth and Layla & new baby Christmas coming up. I'm thrilled to say I'm actually ahead of schedule for getting things done so I'll be getting back to regular project very shortly.