The Shipshewana Quilt Festival

I mentioned that I had a quilt accepted to the Shipshewana Quilt Festival. Troy and I went to the awards ceremony the Tuesday evening before the show started. I wasn't sure what it was, but as an entrant I was admitted for free and I wanted to do the whole shebang since it was my first time.

Turns out they served a little bit of food (fruit, cheese, crackers) and then we sat as they announced the winners. Then we could walk around and see all of the quilts hanging in the show. (That's what I was really hoping for.)

Here I am standing proudly beside my quilt!

 Here is the grand champion quilt:

"On This Winter Day" by Nancy Prince (Orlando FL)
quilted by Linda French

The background cloth was painted and then the details were added with thread painting (see below)

and the buildings looked like they were printed on fabric and then appliqued on in one piece. It was an incredible quilt.

The show had a special exhibit of antique quilts owned by Eleanor Burns (one of the show speakers/teachers). The show took place in a car museum and the antique quilts were displayed on the cars. They complemented each other well.

 Here's a good one for today, being July 4:

I'm glad those setting up the display noticed the sticker on the car and picked an appropriate quilt to go with it.

Following are some of the other quilts in the show. There were so many more that would be worth showing to you, but we did not have time to see everything properly and I didn't have a chance to go back to the show another time.

"It Takes the Case" by Karlyn Bue Lohrenz (Billings MT)

"A Letter Bit of Baaltimore"* by Janet Stone (Overland Park KS)
*Not a typo--she likes sheep.

"Weather the Storm" by Elizabeth Bauman (Lakewood OH)

"Joyous Hope" by Mary Woltjer (Byron Center MI)
quilted by Terri Watson

"A Long Way from Home" by Amy Pabst (Le Roy WV)

"Best Buds" by Darla Parks (Grand Haven MI)

"Icing on the Cake" by Jennifer Rose (Hugo MN)

 This orange one was hanging next to mine:

"Weeping Sun" by Kathy Koch (Middlebury IN)
quilted by Doris Goins

It was a design from a sweater she had knit a couple times and she wanted to see what it would look like as a quilt. So each stitch of the knitting pattern became a small square!

"Bohemian II: Ferris Wheels and Kites" by Sandra Peterson (Muncie IN)

"Family Nucleus" by Dawn Cavanaugh

"Nantuckety Day" by Wendy Coffin (Rye NH)
quilted by Margaret Solomon Gunn

"A Dying Breed" by Patricia Kennedy-Zafred (Murrysville PA)
a tribute to the American family farmer.

"Perseverance" by Linda Neal (McKinney TX)
quilted by Jackie Brown

 Here is a detail of the above quilt:

Those hexies are barely bigger than my thumb nail!

"Crazy for Log Cabins" by Kathy Boxell (Marion IN)

"Red December" by Gail Smith (Barrington IL)
quilted by Angela McCorkle

"Hibiscus" by Pat Sims (Howe IN)

"Jasper and Emerson" by Karen Penrod (Parma MI)
quilted by Doris Goins

It was an interesting experience to enter a show and have my quilt accepted. I'm disappointed that I didn't get to attend to the show and "bask" in it a little more. On the other hand, I've heard it's a very bad idea to hang around your quilt and hear what people say. I'm not sure I could have resisted, so maybe it's a good thing I didn't return!

Mine definitely had one of the simplest constructions and simplest quilting so in that way isn't impressive. (Not made with 10,500+ pieces or 2,000+ hours like some of the winners!) But it sort of fits into the modern movement with its chevron pattern and limited colour palette and sort of with Amish quilts (Shipshe is big Amish territory) with its abstract design. So I thought it might be the right quilt for this time.

I'll close with something Troy and I overhead when we were at the awards night. We walked past two ladies and the one (who I think won a ribbon this year) said to the other, "This show (the Shipshe show) was the very first show I ever entered a quilt in, years ago. I didn't know any better." By then they walked off and we didn't hear anymore but we independently inferred from the remark and how it was said that it was ambitious (or fool-hardy) to start with this show because it's hard to get into. I guess one day I'll be saying that because that is exactly what I did! And no, I didn't know any better either.