Willamette Valley Quilt Festival Recap

This is gonna be a long one. 

So y'all are in for a treat.  If you didn't get to go to the Willamette Valley Quilt Festival, you get a little peek at the fun!  

The Basics

When: February 2-3, 2018

Where: Linn County Fairgrounds in Albany, Oregon

What can I say?  Great venue and a great turnout, especially for the first year of the event. 

Shameless Self Promotion

Check. It. Out. 

Naturally my questionable picture taking abilities makes it look a little shit, but I am very happy with how it turned out.  We always need bright colors in the grey Oregon winter, though happily the weather held up during set up and breakdown time! Basically, victory was mine.

I really like this one, so it got its own picture. It's my original design, and I have a pattern written for it, just not PDFed yet.  

The Show

I only had time to snap a few pictures of the walkway we were in at the very beginning of Day 1.  We got very busy, very fast, so it ever occurred to me to take more.  

Here's what strikes me here.  LOOK AT HOW SHINY THOSE FLOORS ARE.  Would you even believe that last weekend there were a bunch of hot rods in there?  They keep it up impressively well.  Our State Fairgrounds could learn a thing or two on facility upkeep from Linn County.

My Picks

There were a TON of quilts.  Way more than I ever expected for the first year of a show, and it was impressive.  They were all so different but all just magnificent.  I really, really wish I had time to get pictures of them all.  What follows are my favorites from the Quilt Walk.  I tried very hard to get the names of the quilters and their long arm quilters (if applicable) in all cases so appropriate credit could go to them for their work.  

 Celestial Dragon by Jan Bressler, Shirley Scott, and Lou Schafer. Quilted by Nancy Stovall.  

 Clam Clam by Shari Stewart.  Quilted by Lisa Taylor.

Creatures Great and Small by Debbie Garvin. 

 Creatures Great and Small by Debbie Garvin, detail.

 Gypsy Wife by Ginger Cadwell. 

  Gypsy Wife by Ginger Cadwell, detail.

 Happy Daze by Cindi Nofzinger.  

 Howdy by Dot Rohner.  Quilted by Janis Workman. 

R&R Bound by Judy Clay.  Quilted by Sharon Sauser.  I wish I took a picture of the full quilt; I thought I had, but I guess not.  I really loved the spiderweb quilting over the scrappy, non-Halloween blocks!

Rumely, m'Boy by Bett Kearl.

 Xaviar's Dragon by Cindy Bridges.  Quilted by Barb Schoonover.

Xaviar's Dragon by Cindy Bridges.  Quilted by Barb Schoonover, detail,

Quilter's Gnomes by Elnora Dyer.  This won Viewer's Choice, and made me chuckle.  So cute!

 Quilter's Gnomes by Elnora Dyer. Detail. 

Now for my very, very favorite!

Village by Sharon Hoyer.  Quilted by Jean McDaniels.  

Village by Sharon Hoyer.  Quilted by Jean McDaniels.  Detail.  It's a little hard to see, but the background is actually a green/white polka dot, which of course I LOVE.  Many of the prints in the appliques are Kaffe Fasset/Collective prints.  

 Village by Sharon Hoyer.  Quilted by Jean McDaniels.  Detail.

Village by Sharon Hoyer.  Quilted by Jean McDaniels.  Detail. 

 Village by Sharon Hoyer.  Quilted by Jean McDaniels.  Detail.

I definitely walked out of the show inspired and ready to sew.  They will be doing this again next year, and I can't wait to be a part of it again!