Machine Quilting Expo

Not a good photo but a very good quilt.  This was best of show at the Machine Quilting Expo last Thursday in Manchester, NH. The excellent, and appropriate, machine quilting doesn't show at all in the photo. I say "appropriate" because in previous shows I've seen too many quilts so ostentatiously over-quilted I thought technology had trumped (or should that be a capital T?) good taste.  I am not a fan of long arm machine quilting -- although I saw many examples of it in this show that were beautiful and pushing me to change my conservative attitude.

Unfortuantely I no longer have my program book to give name of the quilter.  The design, I was surprised to see, is a "Modern" one that, in fact, I like a lot. This artist has a sense of humor andmay be making a statement about the environment, either consciously or unconsciously.

For me quilt shows are almost as good as museum visits. The artistry and technical brilliance of many quilters is amazing, a whole area of art making that is unknown to many, many people.  A one-man show by Mark Sherman had about 15 quilts, showing many styles Sherman experimented with. I understand his impulse to try his hand at portraiture, various takes on traditional patterns, many new ideas. I admire a person who has the time and creativity to come up with a great variety of quilts, and most of them at last 40x40.

I think there were over 100 quilts in the show. Some were  so complex and, at the same time, technically so perfect, that the only word is amazing.  I was glad to have endured a miserable bus ride (8 hours of grayness and continuous rain). The quilts I saw further fired my enthusiasm for quilting, while forcing me to recognize that I am nowhere near their league ... and in fact I don't aspire to be. I enjoy my forays into visual arts in the form of quilt making but i don't have a personality that would lead me to do this kind of quilting.