Maine Quilt Show

Aisles of Talent!

July 24, 2015 was a great day – a super day – one of the best days!  Traveling to Augusta with friends for Maine Quilt Show 2015 was just what I needed for quilting inspiration.  There were so many stunning quilts and such varied patterns, uses of color, even mediums of all sorts blended together.  This was my FIRST time at the Maine Quilt Show.  Summer’s are crazy, and I always say “next year”.  This was my “next year”!

My goal was to challenge myself with something new by way of long-arm quilting.  I was not disappointed!  The first quilt that jumped out at me – and everyone in my group – was a black, red, and white quilt.  Where the bird in this quilt didn’t excite me, the quilting sure did!  No offense to the bird.  Check out the detail!  There are hidden treasures, literally, in the quilting.  Notice in the second photo the quilted treasure chest.  See it?  Great use of quilting to enhance the quilt without detracting from the whole quilt.

Here are more examples of quilting that excited me.  I wish the quilters had displayed the amount of hours it took them to create these masterpieces!

Next show stopper for me was this woman.  She’s beautiful.  The colors grabbed me.  The quilting awed me.  Perfection.  I want to do something similar to this….someday!

Had to take a close-up of her.

Next up:  Landscape Quilts.  I’ve been on a quest for the “correct” way to make a landscape quilt.  Guess what?  There is no correct way!  I saw lots of examples of landscapes and they all varied.

Simple Quilting, Textured Tree. The orange in the blue fabric is achieved with thread!

Love the Four Season Idea!

Awesome Use of Borders

This was made from a photo. Foolish me – didn’t get a picture of the photo. Great colors!

I LOVE THIS ONE! Makes me feel like I’m on the forest floor….

Speaks for itself, right?!!!!

Inspired…

Wonderful stitching!

And if that wasn’t enough, check out these flowers!  I really checked out these sunflowers.  Lots of beautiful threads create the effect, and I think the flowers were attached with some type of fusible.  How many stitches????

Color, detail, stunning!

3D flowers!  Amazing!  I’ve seen books on how to do this, but I’ve dutifully walked past telling myself I can’t do it, I shouldn’t do it.  But I WANT to do it!  Maybe next time, I’ll pause and at least take a peek….

My head is still whirling.  I’m hopeful the ideas stay sharp until I can create something with them.  And there’s always next year’s Show to inspire me!