It Really IS Cooler In The Mountains!

We left Saturday morning to go the Asheville Quilt Show. On the way, we stopped in Columbia to see our grandson's first competition tennis match. He was nervous, of course, and at 13 still has a lot to learn about moving around the court and all those other things that make one a winner against a strong opponent. (I guess you can figure where I'm going with this). Yes, he lost but I can tell that he has what it takes to be an above average player. He was very upset that he lost and didn't want to go on with his other match that day. My son walked him down the sidewalk and had a private moment with him to calm him down and encourage him. I captured that moment with my camera and I think it is one of the dearest pictures of them that I have ever seen. Some of our greatest accomplishments are born out of failure and I have no doubt that that will be true for him.
And then we traveled on up to Hendersonville. Our yard hadn't been weeded all summer, so that was my main task of the afternoon. And I also went to My Quilt Shop to finish up using a credit I had there (I CERTAINLY wouldn't want to waste it!) The next afternoon, we went to the quilt show. Since I was going to bring my quilts home rather than have them mailed, I had to stay to the end and, so, I had plenty of time to look at all of the quilts several times. This is really a very good quality show and the members if the Guild work very hard to put it on each year. I was very excited to win a first and second place. I won't post the pictures because they are posted on my website, www.judithheyward.com. They are Lowcountry Musings (1st) and Magical Thinking (2nd). But I WILL post several of the quilts that I liked.
The first one is by Diana Pickens from the upstate. She has been working with stripes for the past year or so and this is one of her efforts. She has a very analytical mind and is very good at rearranging objects to form a different object.
This next quilt uses the same technique that I used in my Althea's Waltz quilt--only better. And the quilting was great on it, too. This quilt of the fish was handpainted (I think) and really captured the movement of the fish jumping out of the water. It won a special award (which I don't remember). The angle on the photo is a little strange because it was hung so high up.
Each year, the Arboretum (where the quilt show is held) gives a special award for the quilt that best expresses the feeling of nature and this is the quilt that won it this year. There is a lot of broderie-purse around the bottom using fabrics that include animals and other elements of nature and many of the leaves were 3-dimensional. And this was all put against a log cabin background. It was very well done.
This next pictorial quilt was really amazing with all of the piecing (which I guess was foundation piecing). It really captured the moment . You got the sense of a hot summer afternoon and maybe the old man was telling the young girl a story while they sat.
And,finally, this last quilt was done by Nancy Prince, a well known, award-winning quilter who makes quilts with intricate scenes (and the ones that I've seen all are somewhat nostalgic). The quilting on this was quite extensive.
All in all, it was a great show and I really enjoyed seeing some of the Asheville quilters I know and also a lot of quilters from the upstate. The Arboretum is such a beautiful setting for the show and really adds another element to the experience. I can hardly wait for next year's!