IQF 2011 - It was a wonderful time!

Standing with my Old Alton Bridge quilt

Oh, it was a wonderful time at IQF 2011. The Friday night reception for the quilters in the Lone Stars III book was exciting. I had a wonderful time getting to know some of the quilters, signing each others books and seeing the quilts.

Here I am with my friend Amy Walker

Saturday we have spent the day looking at the quilts with our wonderful friends, and former neighbors, Dale and Amy Walker. Amy is my dear friend who introduced me to appreciating antique quilts, which led to me deciding I could make traditional quilts, which led to me getting board with piecing and discovering art quilting. So to the day with her was icing on the cake for me.

After we looked at all (close to all) the quilts, I reported for my interview with the Alliance of American Quilts. Treat for me, I was able to meet Amy Milne. What a wonderful woman! I have an admiration for her energy and excitement about the "Save our Stories" project and the work they are doing.

Okay, how much shopping did I do at festival? Well, not as much as I usually do! I had my list of dyes to buy from ProChem, the Masters and Masters 2 books from SAQA, my annual splurge on fudge, and Jeff bought me a bracelet. That's it! Believe it or not! This trip was about seeing the quilts with Amy, spending the time with Jeff, the book reception, and the interview...shopping was not too high on my list and I know that is hard for some of my "dye" hard friends to imagine, but it's true.

Saturday we were going to go to the Gala on the Green, but we just couldn't get the energy to go. I had awoken Friday morning with vertigo and it was just about gone, but still teasing me a bit.  Sunday we  drove home, listening to a Nickolas Sparks book and I loads of ideas stitching around in my head. I always have more ideas than I have time to make art quilts, but it is the passion that gets me up in the morning and into the studio each day.

Today I worked on some charity quilts and will finish them up tonight while, hopefully. Tomorrow, well it will be a day to "dye" for and working on the background of a new little quilt I'm testing out.

Happy creating everyone and enjoy your creative brain more than that other side!