Minnesota Quilt Show - 2018

We are back from a 3 day visit to the neighboring state of Minnesota where we attended the 2018 Minnesota Quilt Show at St. Cloud. Along with 3 quilting friends, the miles flew by as we drove over and just happened to make a few stops along the way...S.R. Harris - a huge outlet featuring a gazillion yards of every kind of fabric imaginable (but disappointed not to find the old fashioned heavy oil cloth I was looking for) and then onto Grubers Quilt Shop which was filled with eager shoppers.

Of course we did some shopping - although mine was minimal - afterall...I could make countless scrap quilts out of my stash - if only time was there...but I did find a lovely floral that looks like a great piece for broderie perse....And a few odds and ends from the Primitive Gatherings booth. And I just could not resist adding some more Di Ford fabric - these fat 1/4’s from her newest Maling Road collection...

Along with needles for English Paper Piecing...And these nice looking “toothpicks” for tweeking problem areas when doing needle-turn applique...

The 2 highlights of being at the Show -

The Van Gogh Challenge which was sponsored by Cherrywood Fabrics (Minnesota based company) - oh my! Using a Cherrywood provided blue fabric each participant was challenged to create their own mini quilt based on Van Gogh’s paintings or his life...the embellishments and stitching (by hand or machine) were over the top!

The exhibit which really touched my heart was the 70273 Project...I had earlier thought about making a block but until I met Jeanne and heard her story and saw the exhibit, the power of this project was not truly felt. In my next post later this week, I will show you the 4 blocks I made the day after I got home and how I felt while making them. I will also share a few photos from our little group which met Thursday evening for Show and Tell. So stay tuned...

We toured the quilt show and what wonderful and imaginative quilts were on display - these are just a couple, including Best of Show & Worksmanship awards...

And on Saturday, before we left for home, we closed out our visit by attending a very nice lecture about basket quilts presented by Dawn Ronnigen (of Collector With A Needle)It was great to see Dawn again and hard to believe almost 2 years have gone by since she brought her wonderful trunk show to our guild here in Wisconsin. She is so knowledgable and and always has such interesting background information about antique quilts. Looking forward to seeing her new book due out in July...Antique American Needlework Tools.

Thanks for stopping by & come back soon to hear more about our trip to Minnesota.

Happy stitching!

Pat