Quilts Galore AT The Fair

There were some stunning quilts at the County Fair this year. It is the first year that I did not enter anything in the quilts division (sigh). The fabulous news is that the Quilts - and, of course, other fabulous things like cross-stitch, garments, beaded items etc - won the coveted black and white award from the State. It is given yearly to ONLY one exhibit in the Fair and is awarded for overall excellence. Kudos to Superintendents Krispi Staude & Christy Hinkle ! Richly deserved!

The first quilt pictured is a stunning beauty from the "Quilted Diamonds" book by Linda Franz. The book was sort of a spin off from the "Dear Jane" book by Brenda Papadakis. I loved making my Dear Jane and thought, briefly, of making a quilted diamonds quilt too. This quilt was one heck of a lot of beautiful hand work - unfortunately I don't remember the name of the talented person who made it. Apologies. As you may be able to see it did get a Special Award. It blew me away. Fabulous work - and a lot of it !

Below is the quilt that won Best Of Show. Created by Trish Lehman. Grandmother's Flower Garden is all hand done - it's one of my favorite traditional quilt patterns and Trish did a lovely job with vintage fabrics. Again - this is one heck of a lot of beautiful hand work. I love seeing hand work well rewarded. I think we all tend to rely on our machine a lot ... but hand work has it's own tranquility that is special. Hooray for Trish!
The next quilts below were two my personal favorites....though there were many others that I did not photograph. Friend Janet Wright did a color study that was beautiful - but I was rushing through and did not get a photo of it. Apologies J ! Once again however, I must also offer apologies to the artists of these two quilts. I neglected to write down their names. I better get better at doing that huh?! Everything about these quilts tickles me...just fabulous.

The little children's quilt below was made by friend Dot Merlino. For good reason it won a Special Award. Dot not only did a great job on this "I Spy" version but her machine embroidery skills were highlighted in the wonderful & creative way that she added "I Spy" hints embroidered in the border. This is one of the more joyful quilts I have seen & what a lucky child it will be who receives this quilt!

There were so many more quilts that I loved - I just did not take photos of them all. We have an amazingly talented quilt group here - and each person is a fine example of what quilting should be about. Talent, warmth, friendship. Great going Island Quilters !