2024 AVQ Quilt Show Favorites

The 2024 AVQ Quilt Show with over 300 quilts and small wall hangings had a lot to take in and admire. I can barely do it justice in this blog post so I will cite only seven of my favorites. There is no competition here. This subset is made up of my choices for various reasons... not necessarily because of exquisite workmanship nor unique original design ... but just because each appealed to me due to color or mood or inspiration. My own entries to the show are not in this post but can be found in my previous post dated 6/14/24.

I liked the Tannenbaum Christmas Tree by MaryAnn Soby for its precise checkerboard bands near the top and crisp pointy star bands near the bottom. The red outline of the tree sang out gaily for my attention and the inset band of alternating white/red/white/green made me smile.

The arched band of navy blocked stars added surprise and interest to the other straight row layouts of blocks on Alaskan Journey by Laurie May. Flying geese are one of my favorites and to see them in such abundance was fun. I liked the corner treatment; it was particularly eye catching yet not overpowering. Color choices throughout were bright and cheery, appealing to my personal taste palette.

Give Thanks by Barbara Grimes caught my eye since I have this very panel mellowing in one my drawers waiting for inspiration. I now have the courage and incentive to slice it up and spread out the whimsical images throughout a larger Thanksgiving quilt. The different FMQ pattern in each block is fun and creative and I am inspired to stitch this treatment in one of my future quilts.

I have had a Hunter Star Quilt & Beyond book for years intending to make a quilt from out of it. This two-tone green version of the Hunter's Star design by Liz Stroud resurrected my urge. Plus, the quilt had such a cute name: Celery Juice.

There are many, many novelty children's panels lingering in my drawers. For one reason, I am weak-willed and overbought; but, for another reason, the grand kids have been growing up so quickly they are outgrowing them even faster than I have been buying them. Storybook Friends, with its expanded use of a particularly attractive novelty panel, caught my eye. The artistically portrayed cartoon characters and delicately inked drawings are very striking as shown in a closeup of a bunny block. The intervening rows of churn dash blocks, each look so different and refreshing in four different colorways, although they are same block pattern. I am sure this community quilt by Laurie May, Carol Earhart and Pat Hove will be well-loved by whoever is fortunate enough to receive it.

I love the itty-bitty HSTs surrounding and infiltrating the large star blocks in Starry Ladies by Teri Clevelend. The six main colors, although six distinct hues, are well chosen to be the same level of intensity and play well together.

I have always loved ombre fabrics and Birthday Tulips by Rosanne Slingsby certainly set off the gradual blending to great advantage. The detail where the stems are represented by columns of tiny diamonds gives a delicate, whimsical feel to the "bouquet". The colors also sing to me - big time!

I took over sixty photos at the show and put them in dropbox to share with my out-of-state quilting daughter. We spent over an hour and a half on the phone the night after the show sharing our computer screens and revisiting the show together. We reminded ourselves what projects we have waiting in our respective stashes and renewed our enthusiasm to start, complete, or, in some cases, never start them. (What ever were we thinking!). This mother-daughter interaction was a super great bonus to the show for me. It was like reliving the experience all over again.