Circleville Quilt Show

The quilt show sponsored annually by the Goodtime Quilters of Circleville, OH, was held this past weekend. It's hands down one of the best local quilt shows around and has been for a long while.

I wish I could say how many I've attended over the years - I know I'd have to go way, way back to figure it out. I can't say that I've had 25 years of consecutive attendance, but I know I've gone for over 20 years.

I want to tell you about a new vendor (new to me, anyway)  at the show this year - Ohio Barn Quilts. What a sweet lady! I had such a pleasant visit with Joan White about her company in Oregonia, OH (near Lebanon). I was so interested to learn how her business has evolved over time, and her care in insuring that her products withstand wear and tear of both the mailing process and a variety of weather conditions. 

 Joan's booth was so colorful! The variety of blocks she offers is impressive, and after studying her website a bit, I learned that she offers custom colors to match particular color schemes.

As I've shared here in previous posts, I have made 2 barn quilts - one for our house here in Ohio; one for our house in Florida. I have considered making more, so I was particularly interested in seeing her variety. If I make more, I would want to keep it super simple. Joan has some very complex designs!

If you know of anyone who'd love a barn quilt on their home or barn, Joan would be the perfect person to contact. It would be a great gift for someone, quilter or not. The barn quilt craze is not waning; we see them everywhere!

Another vendor I visit every time I attend is Sewing The Good Life with Annette and Craig. I visited with them in Daytona this past winter; I knew I'd see them again here in Ohio. They are practically neighbors! Their Jeffersonville, OH, home is only about 30 minutes from me. And, yes, I bought more Tilda fabrics while I visited! *wink*

Now here are a few pictures I took of quilts at the show. I mostly took pictures of quilts made by friends. Enjoy the pretty quilts! I wasn't as fastidious about taking pictures as I was in Daytona.

Pieced and hand quilted by Frankfort Girlfriend, Sheryll.

 

Pieced and hand quilted by retreat friend Lisette.

One of the winners. I'd love to make this someday.

 

 

Another of the winners. Gorgeous, but not one I will make.

The quilting on this one is amazing.

Wouldn't this look gorgeous as a wall hanging?! 

Okay, that's all. I didn't allow myself to dilly-dally, with our reunion planning in full swing last week. We had 20 here yesterday, and despite the heat, we had a wonderful day. 

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne 

The Quilts at the Quilt Show

The quilts on display at the Good Time Quilters' Quilt Show last week did not disappoint. Rather than do a lot of words, I will focus on the eye candy - quilt pictures! This collection of quilts represent the ones I found attractive, interesting, or unique for any number of reasons.

One quilt in the show has a very personal connection. Remember when the Frankfort Girls did an Ohio Star block exchange? The only rule was that we should use reproduction fabrics on off-white backgrounds. Sheryll finished hers and won a ribbon in the show!

I studied this quilt quite a long time trying to remember which blocks I'd made. Six or seven blocks in this quilt are mine, but I could only definitively identify five. Here's a link to a post about our exchange. 

I included this final picture in the previous post, but I did not elaborate on the fact that it, too, was made by Sheryll. At a recent Frankfort Girls gathering, we 'oohed and aahed' over this beauty live and in person. Click back here to get the quilt's history and to see it as she had just gotten it back from her quilter. 

I plan to do one more post about the quilt show. The guild conducts a BOM challenge, and while I don't know all the rules and guidelines, I do look forward each year to seeing the variety of the finished quilts. That will be the focus of the final quilt show update.

Have a great Monday!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Good Time Quilters Quilt Show

Oh my goodness, I sure wish I'd done a post earlier this week to remind you quilters in reasonable proximity to Circleville, that the quilt show is this weekend. It's too late to even tell you to GO!! Unless you live super close.

This beauty by my quilting friend Sheryll was amongst the offerings.

I contend that this is the best quilt show in Ohio, although, to be honest, I don't really go to many others and don't, therefore, have a true comparison. My opinion is balanced against all the previous places I've gone for quilt shows - in and out of state - this one consistently ranks right up there with the best.

Since I am so tardy in sharing this, I will just tell you to plan ahead to go next year - last weekend of July. 

First, I will give some props to the vendors by sharing some of their booths. I didn't spend a lot (my stash is already out of control!), but I sure did enjoy visiting with many of them.

First shop inside the door was Annette Williams and her sweet hubby, of Sewing The Good Life. I got such a lovely welcome from them both. I've been a long-time customer of Annette's, and I so admire both her work and the massive growth her on-line business has made. The photos above don't do it justice! I follow her on both Instagram and Facebook just to see all the inspiring new projects she comes up with.

The two photos above are from a new-to-me shop in Maysville, KY, called Apron Strings Quilt Shop. The two gals manning the booth were tons of fun and laughter, so I imagine a trip to their shop would be quite the adventure. They are on Facebook and Instagram and say on their card to call for current hours as they vary by season. Location is 113 W. Second Street, Maysville, KY 41056; phone: 606-584-7414

Side Stitchin' Quilt Shop is a new shop located in Belpre, OH. The owner greeted me with a big smile as she handed me a pen and a business card. She said she bought out a shop there (which I was familiar with), and has put her own stamp on things. She features a lot of bright, happy fabrics, which definitely matched her cheery welcome!

Neff's Country Loft has been coming to this quilt show for years and years. The Frankfort Girls and I have visited the shop frequently. Beverly has a lovely variety of reproduction fabrics and patterns and always has fun decor items to enhance the reproduction vibes. Click on the link to go to their Facebook page.

The shop featured in the two photos above was quite unique in that they sold heavy-weight materials useful for bags and rugs. It was really fun to peruse all their samples. Note that there are rugs on the floor for visitors to walk on. I was really fascinated at all the potential projects one could create using the fabrics and patterns available here. The shop is called Felts or Handbehg Felts.The website offers a plethora of ideas for the creative stitcher. I fear I could so easily be pulled in yet another stitching direction after seeing all the options they offer.

I got a big hug from Kathy Skinner-Shaw of Homestead on the Hill when I got to her wool booth. Kathy is an absolute master at rug hooking, and she specializes in primitive colors, designs and patterns. The three photos above are from her shop. Contact Kathy at tswool1959@gmail.com.

These two pictures (above) feature Janet Miller of The City Stitcher. Her specialty is selling the tedious (to some) parts of a quilt to makers who might prefer to get to the rewarding finished part a lot faster. Let's say you don't rightly relish the thought of making 100 9-patch blocks measuring 3" finished. Janet has you covered! She makes such things and has them ready for your next project. I can see where that is an attractive option for some quilters. Her contact information is jmcitystitcher@yahoo.com. She also has a page at Quilter's Warehouse (click on The City Stitcher).

Last, but not least (it just happened to be the last shop I visited on my way out!), I browsed through Kari's Custom Quilting. She is located in Anna, OH, and her booth had a wide variety of samples to inspire shoppers as well as kits, patterns and precuts. The temptation was real, I tell you, because her samples were eye-popping!
 

Of course, there were other vendors present, but I couldn't talk to everyone. I hope this gives a decent overview of the quilt shops represented however.

In some upcoming posts, I will share some of the quilts on display, a couple of which have personal connections!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Meeting an Instagram Friend

Life is full of wonderful coincidences, have you ever noticed? Earlier this summer, Sheryll, one of my quilting buddies, mentioned that I'd be interested in her guild's speaker in September. It was to be Carol Shriver, a fellow Ohioan who lives in Coshocton, my husband's home town. Small world, right? 

But there's more! The reason Sheryll knew to mention it to me is that she knew I followed Carol on Instagram, and that Carol's work is impressive.

So, Thursday, she and Terry, another quilting buddy and guild member, attended the meeting with me as their guest. Fun! I was really eager to meet Carol and hear her speak to the guild.

I first heard of Carol from fellow Ohioan Annette Williams of Sewing The Good Life. Annette is a frequent vendor at quilt shows, and is just the nicest lady. In one pre-pandemic conversation I had with Annette, the subject of DH's hometown came up, and she knew of Carol from there, and proceeded to tell me all about her. I began following her on IG and the rest is history. (A convoluted story there; hope you were able to follow it!)

So let's go to the guild meeting. The Goodtime Quilters are known in these parts as a guild who puts on one of the best quilt shows around. It's a very active guild with retreats and shop and hops and speakers, in addition to the annual quilt show. Several of the Frankfort Girls are in this guild and I hear of their activities often. I'm glad they welcome guests, as I am not in a 'joining' frame of mind since retiring. 

After the business meeting, which was handled in quick order, Carol took the microphone and shared a trunk show of mostly applique quilts she has made since she retired from teaching Home and Consumer Sciences. She'd never quilted before retiring, but had a strong background in needle crafts. She told the story of taking her first quilt top to her LQS and asking if it just needed to go to the garbage can. Assured that "it would quilt out" - she didn't have a clue as to what that meant at the time - she has gone on to become a prolific quilter and often garners "Best of Show" when she enters her works in quilt shows.

Let's see a few that she shared. I did not photograph every quilt Carol brought, and these that I am sharing are amateur quality photos taken during her talk. I hope you'll pardon the distractions and focus on the quilts. All these will be linked to better pictures on Carol's IG account, so you do have a chance to see her exquisite workmanship more closely. My guess is that once you go to her IG, you will soon be following her, too. There are some gorgeous squares on her feed, for sure!

 

This album quilt is a pattern by Blackbird Designs called Fresh Picked.

 

This quilt is Granny's Garden by designer Lori Holt and was a block of the month project awhile back. Carol had it custom quilted; both quilt and quilting are gorgeous!

 

This is a Quilt Mania Mystery Quilt from 2019 called Marshal from designer Jen Kingwell.

 

This Kim Diehl pattern is an early quilt from Carol's quilting career and it illustrates how quilters evolve through their work. Carol explained that she was firmly into darker, reproduction quilts early on, and largely made pieced blocks. However, she grew tired of the monotony of making the same block over and over, so moved into applique and "happy colors" which afforded her the variety she desired. 

The variety in this quilt speaks to Carol's preference for "busy, happy quilts." I found the colors in this one particularly appealing. It's called Midnight at the Oasis by designer Jen Kingwell.

Here we have another Jen Kingwell design, a very whimsical quilt called Spring Fever.

Carol and I talked briefly both before and after her talk; we plan to meet up in Coshocton the next time we go to visit DH's family, and there's a good chance we take in some fabric shopping. Looking forward to it!

Happy Quilting, Friends!