Monday, November 10, 2008

Viewer's Choice

My friend Susan and I went to the Champlain Valley Quilters Guild Show yesterday at Shelburne Farms. What a beautiful place!
I had commented yesterday that there wasn't usually anything especially inspiring there, but this year, oh I was wrong. This first quilt was my Viewer's Choice selection for large quilts. While the Trail Mix center looks like just about every other Trail Mix quilt I've ever seen, I find the colours cozy and inviting. But (and I apologize for the pic) the quilter used a different print for the left side border than she did on the other three sides. I love that! Was it intentional, or did she run out? Don't care! I think it's great. I wrote the number in on my ballot.

Then, a little further through the show, I was made thankful for the fact that pencils have erasers.

This quilt was made by the dear lady, Patricia Egan, sitting to the side. She has Alzheimer's Disease, and doesn't remember sewing it, though she does think it's beautiful. As I understand it, her daughter found the top in her mother's home when it was determined she could no longer care for herself. The top was almost, but not quite finished. Her daughter Carol, who I don't believe was actually a quilter finished the top, had it quilted, and displayed it in the show on her mother's behalf.

I'm not generally a fan of Baltimore quilts, though I do appreciate the talent involved in creating one. And this one is a beauty. How could I, or anyone who took the time to read the message attached not make this their Viewer's Choice?

5 comments:

julieQ said...

I love both the quilts you featured. That really struck a chord in my heart about the Alzheimer's quilter. What a wonderful thing for her daughter to do! Thank you for sharing this...

dee said...

How touching. All that work and no memory of it. Her daughter did a wonderful thing finishing it for people to see.
It deserves to win.

Anonymous said...

Beautiful quilts, and a touching story.

I was drawn to the trail mix one--it was unusually done and I thought the border was intriguing.

Irene said...

Those are both stunning but the story behind the Baltimore Album is so touching it would have received my vote too.

Anonymous said...

And just to report the results:

The Baltimore Album quilt entered by the mother/daughter team DID win viewer's choice this year!

And the first quilt you photographed is the quilt that won viewer's choice in last year's show. The previous winning quilt generally comes back the next year, so attendees can see which quilt won.

Both quilts were really beautiful!