All Fabric, All the Time

Love.Love.Loved the Lowell Quilt Festival. It was so much more extensive than I expected, so I only had time to skim the surface of the city-wide exhibits. Next year, I'll plan a two day trip.

I went alone, which was an incredible gift from pregnant-Wifey. She's so tired all the time, so releasing me from my Mommy duties for several hours was very sweet. I whipped up her favorite ginger snap cookies as a Thanks.

I wandered. I thought. I tried to connect with Kat With A K, but despite swaping cell #s and identifying clothing choices, we never found one another. Did I mention that this festival is huge? My first stop was the main juried show at the Tsongas Arena, followed by the New England Quilt Museum, the Whistler House Museum, the Brush Art Gallery, and a swing through the American Textile History Museum with plans to return when I have more time to see the quilts from Quilt National '05.

There were many many stunning quilts at the show, and I ran out of memory on my camera long before I finished taking pictures. Still, there are a lot of pix, so I'll post my favorite here and the rest on my Flickr set.

Frida Kahlo: Embrace of the Universe
by Brigitte Otto (Germany)


Brigitte Otto created this quilt as part of Marilyn Belford's "Artists Revisited" class. Marilyn Belford is an amazing quilt artist who had several pieces on display at the show and I fell in love with every one of them. I'm dying to take the Artists Revisited class from her. Dying. I've already emailed her and hope.hope.hope I can make it happen.

After drooling over the quilts, I walked the plank vendor loop. Oy. It took every ounce of my being to resist spending an obscene amount of money that I don't have. So I walked around one time, fondled everything and thought through the options. Then I hit the Valley Fabrics and Portsmouth Fabric Company booths hard.

For a baby quilt


Stash-building: for 30s-repro-fun & to represent Little Man's white kitty; for fall trees in the distance of a landscape quilt; and for crazy-mod-fun


Stash-building: because I love Kaffe; and I love batiks with strong geometric lines; and I love green and I LOVE swirls; and there are so many different uses for the blue pods


Stash-building: love Kaffe; good basic purple; teeny pansies will certainly come in handy someday


Stash-building: because I love words on fabric, and the sage accents almost glow


My original intention was to find a bit of this fabric that I've been oogling for months:


It's Alexander Henry's Countdown and I must have it. Also, I'd like to get the multi-colored version too. He also does one of my favorite prints (seen in Nina's wrist cuff-the panel that says "Grace"), the Buckerettes.

While at the Valley Fabrics, I asked them if they carried it. Of course they do, and they offered to drop a yard in the mail. I love them! Go patronize them. They're very very sweet.

Several months ago, I discovered that the folks at Marimekko will send you little samples of the fabrics for FREE! A week after discovering this, I received these in the mail.


Wanna see what happened while I made Wrist Cuffs?

I swear it's not posed at all. Everything is just as I left it.

The craft room is all cleaned up now, ready for more action.