Liquor is Quicker at the Quilt Show!

Northwest Quilters added a surprising vendor to their show this year: Eastside Distilling, which creates and sells small batch spirits–rum, bourbon, and vodka–using local ingredients. When I asked one of the salesmen how they happened to be at the quilt show, he said he wasn’t sure but added what a great idea it had been. Eastside had to be the most popular vendor yesterday based on my observations. If you go to the show, they have samples for tasting. I recommend the Marionberry Bourbon.

Getting back to the show itself–I judged on Thursday along with Helene Knott and Majorie Post, although I would call it “judging-light.” We offered no written evaluations and were asked to award only first place in each category. I’m recommending if the guild judges the entries again next year that second and third places be given, as well. I feel one of the purposes of quilts shows is to recognize as many quilts as possible, especially when an entry has been a close second or third.

A shot of Eastside Distillery’s booth, recipes included.

The guild received numerous donations of vintage quilts, fabrics, and tools for sale with proceeds going to fund guild activities.

Here are some of the first place winning quilts along with a few others I found visually intriguing. Cosmic Curves was first in the Mixed Technique category. The quilt combines curved piecing with hand-painted fabric for the stars. I think Tony Haas, the maker, has done a great job with the air-brushing. Colleen Barnhardt is the quilter.

What a visually textural quilt with well-balanced quilting designs created by Collen Barnhardt.

While the quilt below was not a first place finisher, I thought the quilting created strong movement and visual interest.

First Place–Large contained beautiful quilting, while the placement of color and value created exceptional movement, especially when viewed from a distance.

I very much liked the graphic nature of this quilt created through color choices.

I did not find the name of this quilt, but it’s a good example of how to create luminosity with a sense of vibration.

The somewhat simple piecing on this quilt is elevated by the variety of circular quilting designs. I studied each one for the creative detail. Kazumi’s quilting reminds me of a DVD I recently viewed by Claudia Pfeil who demonstrates many circular design fills.