Back from a Friday in Lancaster

The first AQS show in Lancaster was very satisfying. Lots of vendors (though quite a few of the big ones usually in attendance were missing), nice quilts (I really expected there to be a lot more on display--maybe there were, but because they were interspersed among the vendor stalls it just seemed like there were more vendors than quilts), and a lot of ground to cover, as it was spread over 2 locations, and 3 floors in the Convention Center (which is really just a large hotel with big ballrooms).We weren't able to speak with anyone who had taken classes, it seems that everyone we ran into on the shuttle bus or at lunch was there for the day, as we were, but it was defnitely the go-to show for March and next year I'll look into taking classes.

As in Houston, the lovely Eleanor Burns was in her booth demoing her technique and signing books, bags and patterns. The show was super crowded, and this was on Friday, I can imagine that today you will barely be able to move on your own accord, instead, being herded with the rest of the cattle past the vendor booths and the exhibits.

The noncompetitive exhibits were fabulous. In the secondary Liberty Hall building, where you parked, which seemed no more than an afterthought, or overflow of vendors they overbooked for the initial space at the convention center, there hung an exhibit of wallhangings including some made by famous quilters (who do not have any long stitches or little burps in their machine quilting).  Also, the Coastal Quilters in New England had panel landscape quilts where they would take a photo, chop it into panels and a person would make one of the panels and then they would hang them all together. These were amazing. Below is Fenway Park, just one of about a half dozen or so on display.

Over at the Convention Center the main area was where the majority of vendors were located along with the competitive quilts. I'll pepper my next few posts with quilt shots, but mostly I was taking close-up shots of machine quilting done on everything. (I was in student mode yesterday--in addition to shop mode).

If you can zoom on the alphabet sampler, you'll see embroidered in the border are the names of the quilt blocks. And I hope you can see the detail in the begonia as well.

What did I buy? Did I say I wasn't going to buy any fabric? I lied. This is the first show I've been to with an abundance of Australian textile, so you know that came home with me, as did a Kaffe Fassett jelly roll (which I am dying to throw caution to the wind, discard every other project I am in the middle of and start working with), and 8 one yard cuts of the most fabulous traditional prints by Batiks by Design (that the hubs immediately latched onto saying 'we could put some of those in MY quilt'...um, yeah, sure hon....HANDS OFF!!!).

Batiks by Design haul

Right now I'm off to grab a last cuppa Joe and work on some of my need to be finished projects (blowing off car shopping today---shopped out after yesterday). I think I also need to run out to the beer and wine for something that will soothe the apparent chemical burn suffered to the roof of my mouth from what must have been thousand-year old sauerkraut or possibly Russian dressing thickened with lye on the Reuben I had for dinner at some fifth-rate diner we stopped at for dinner on the way home last night (on the recommendation of one of my travel companions.). It's as if I had drank a cup of boiling Draino tea.  If you're ever headed back from Lancaster on Rt. 30, STAY OUT OF DINERS!! Stick to McDonalds and Wendys.