A Quilty Kinda Day

Spent a lovely Thursday with S'more friends at the Mountain Quiltfest in Pigeon Forge, TN (home of Dollywood).  I thought you might like to see the big winners.  (I apologize for not getting the names of the makers; I thought I had picked up the show list but all I have is the vendor brochure.)

Best Large Quilt

Excellence in Hand Workmanship - Linda Roy, a frequent winner at AQS Paducah.  I know this one because she is relatively local and showed this one at a recent guild meeting where she was the program speaker.

Excellence in Machine Workmanship  - This one was absolutely exquisite with very subtle bedazzling at the tip of each star point.

Best Small Quilt

The local guilds who put on the show always do a stellar job.  They have many talented quilters in their ranks and the show attracts many entries from out of state, as well.  My favorite part is the challenge for local guilds.  This year the theme was "Water in My World" and the interpretations were many and varied.

Unfortunately, the city owns the convention center where the show has been held the last few years and they control when the show can be held.  It used to be in March (4 days) when there were fewer tourists; now it's in June (only 3 days) when everyone in the world is in town and hotel prices are higher.  I estimate there were about half the vendors than past years.  I doubt we will return as it is scheduled for the same week next year.  So sad.

You're probably wondering how much damage I did with the vendors -- I got two really sweet Christmas mini-quilt kits, several fat quarters, and some yardage.  But my big expenditure was at a local quilt shop that was honoring their 20% show discount in the shop.  I bought a LOT of backgrounds.  And then we stopped at a nearby shop on our way home.  Can't wait to show you but it's in the laundry right now.