The World Quilt & Textile Show--WPB

The Mancuso Brothers ended their quilt show tour this year in West Palm Beach, and the Sunshine State Quilters Association decided to hold the Annual Meeting there as well...so it was off to South FL for me & Cherry-Cherry, hardly having un-packed from being at the Campbell Folk School!

We shall cut right to the chase and show the very best...

"Flower Market, Chichicastenango, Guatemala" by Meri H. Vahl of the USA.

The back is covered with beautiful Guatemalan fabric...I know, because I worked 4 shifts as a White Glove Hostess, and I got my hands on lots of wonderful quilts!

This quilt is the Best of the World!

Mancuso shows is made up of the winners from many different countries, plus special competitions for the various tour locations (go to http://www.worldquilt.com/ for the 2010 schedule). The show is filled out with lots of other special exhibits, so there is more than enough to see. I'm glad were there for 3 days.

Here's the Best of the USA: "Fragrant Memories" by Rachael Wetzler.

Oh, my...you really need to see this one, no photo can do it justice. You can practically smell the baked goods in this fabric kitchen. It is a perfect balance of fabric art & realism. If you have enjoyed (or obsessed) over chosing printed fabrics to represent real things, this quilt is a textbook of perfect choices!

The special competition was for Florida Quilts, and they had 90, all different kinds.

This is the Best of Show (FL): "Wings and Feathers" by Mark Sherman. The fabric is hand-dyes, turned-edge applique, and a whole lot of crystals, though applied with more restraint than a lot of others!

Speaking of applique, here is a detail shot of Robbi Joy Eklow's "Nifty Nine-Patch". This is raw edge applique, covered with loads of quilting to hold it all down. She gave a good talk about her quilting life, though I'm sure she was tired after teaching all day. This exhibit was like a one-woman show, and it was fun to see so many of her pieces up close.
The show included several lectures each day and lots of classes.

I am not naming any names in the following pictures...you know who you are!

Since the location was West Palm Beach, who but the Palm Beach Quilters would get a special exhibit, not to mention a chance to sell raffle tickets. The exhibit had quilts covering 1985 to 2009.
The Sunshine State Quilters Association had the raffle for this wonderful house blocks quilt, "All Around the Town". You can see it on YouTube ! Blocks were made by quilters from all over the state.

Guilds were invited to show and sell tickets for their raffle quilts, in return for 32 hours of white-glove service. A couple ladies at the show were doing duty for two guilds.

I may have to do a whole posting about hostess duty! Obviously people are blind to this sign:

SSQA held their Annual Meeting to elect officers and have other generally good fun. Pat Yamin of Come Quilt With Me gave a brief show & tell of her quilts.
The out-going President received a complete quilt made by the board members...it matches her living room!
Members were invited to make blocks for Quilts of Valor. The blocks were divide between two guilds who volunteered to make them into finished quilts for this very worthy program.

These are only a few of the ones made by attendees, or sent in by members who could not attend the meeting. While red, white & blue are a popular color scheme, QOV suggests not all veterans want patriotic printed fabric, and asks us to remember that 10% of our service people are women.

While I was sitting at the SSQA booth, chatting with the public, I actually heard that a few people felt disappointed by the vendors...80 was not enough! They had expected more! Appearently Mancuso shows elsewhere have had well over 100.
Hmmmmm...do you think there will be more next year? They have signed a contract with the WPB Convention Center for the same weekend (Nov. 12--14) in 2010.

I know you are really wondering about just what I bought at the show...and that will be my next post!