International Quilt Festival - Cincy Style!

Deb and I went to Cincinnati last weekend to take in the sights at the International Quilt Festival.  The weather was beautiful and Deb drove.  Amazing how many things I've missed while driving - houses built that I'd never seen, trees blossoming out (dogwoods were particularly beautiful), picturesque lakes - just wonderful to sit and be chauffeured.

After arriving, we spent the first few hours walking through the vendor mall, waiting for those items we had to have to jump into our arms.  I was looking for a few things but couldn't find them.  Did see some lovely vintage quilts but they were out of my price range.

On to the quilt displays.  Here's just a sampling of what we saw.

I really love the idea of small quilts that add up to provide a picture of what's special about an area, like "The Great Cincinnati Landmarks Quilt Project" pictured here.  How many of these landmarks do you know?  I had to refer to the key they had posted for several of them.  But you may recognize the old Union Station in the upper left corner that is now known as the Music Hall.  And of course it wouldn't be Cincinnati without reference to a riverboat.

My guild laughed at me when I suggested this type of quilt challenge.  Perhaps it was my unifying theme:  Indiana Route 46 - admittedly not the most exciting topic.  I ran into several friends from the guild while I was looking at this and they caught the bug!  So we'll give it another shot in the next year or so.  

I was intrigued by this quilt - relatively simple design but stunning result.  The star in the lower right hand is beautifully executed with thread.

On my list of quilts to make is a landscape quilt.  This has a wonderful calming feel to it - I loved it.

Another landscape quilt framed in this larger quilt.  Interesting setting, don't you think?

This quilt brought back memories of the Greek Isles and the Mediterranean sea.  While I love the idea of making a quilt with all of those houses on different levels, I don't see that as a part of my quilting future - too many tiny, tiny pieces!

Always on the lookout for possible quilting designs, I saw this on the Cincinnati Bell building while we were waiting for a light to change.  I love the idea of overlapping petals of flowers.  That's going to make it into a quilt in the near future.

We did finally buy a few things and then went to the next big stop...Graeter's, the best ice cream in Ohio!  Just what we both needed to fuel us up for the ride home.

What an enjoyable way to spend a day - with a wonderful friend at a quilt show.

Cheers!
Margaret