Mighty Distractible: Quilt Expo

The Wisconsin Quilt Expo is this coming weekend. Last year Alex and I had a blast meandering the vendor isles, admiring prize-winning quilts, and chatting with other crafty folk.

One of the things that really caught my eye was a colorful map of the world, baby-sized quilt on display by one of my favorite local quilt shops, Stitcher's Crossing. It was adorable but I couldn't justify another small blanket at my house. About a month later I realized we could use some car lap blankets for the kiddos so I ran over to Stitcher's and bought a couple of their last "Map of the World" kits.

Cuteness overload I tell ya.

The fabric is "What A World" by Jill McDonald for P&B Textiles. I can't seem to find the entire line available anywhere (must be the end of the run for this design) but you can find bits here and there.

I'm not one to usually buy a quilt kit (I fancy myself some kind of designer dontchaknow), but I didn't hesitate with this one. It was perfect because of it's simplicity. The fabric really needed to be the star anyway.

I did make some of my own modifications to the pattern. I added some ties so this quilt could easily roll up for storage in the car. I also complicated the quilt back by adding another fun panel from this line with a border instead of the all-over print included. It was REALLY frustrating once I went to quilt these suckers...but in the end, they turned out great.

I can't believe it's taken me this long to share these finished little cuties with you!

–Cassandra

Weekend before last, Madison hosted the annual Quilt Expo, sponsored by Wisconsin Public Television and Nancy Zieman of Sewing With Nancy fame. This four-day extravaganza of all things quilting was something I'd always been fascinated by but never attended because, you know, it's not my hobby. However, as you all know, it HAS become Cassandra's hobby this year (The Year of the Quilt, remember?) and, being the lovely, supportive friend I am, I agreed to go with her this year. This served double-duty as it meant that her husband didn't have to get dragged along for once. :) And, truth be told, I'm sure I'll end up making a quilt at some point. I just haven't gotten there yet.

And, speaking of husbands, I wish I'd gotten a photograph of the "wall of husbands" sitting in folding chairs, waiting for the wives to scour the aisles for fabulous quilt-y goodness.

Interestingly, the Quilt Expo helped pique my interest in this particular craft because, holy cow, these quilts were A-MAZ-ING. Plus, it helped me to define what I like in a quilt and what I don't - thus, getting me closer to actually picking a pattern and fabric. The one thing that both Cassandra and I agreed upon is that, regardless of whether a quilt was done in a style we liked or not, we could really appreciate the craftsmanship and work that went into each.

So, we played hooky from work on Thursday afternoon and basked in the glory of gorgeous quilts and amazing talent. One high point of the day was as we were leaving the Expo hall, I was looking at something and Cassandra suddenly said, "It's Nancy! You're Nancy!" and then we proceeded to go all fan-girl on Nancy Zieman and I think we scared her. She sort of smiled and backed away (in horror). So, herein you'll find our photo-essay of our day at the Quilt Expo 2012, minus a picture of us with Nancy.

The first thing we saw, above, was a bunch of women tailgating outside the entry to the Expo Center. Yep, if there's an event and a parking lot, a Wisconsinite will tailgate...

An understated entry for such an majestic event.

One of our favorites - Blue Underground Quilts - doing wonderful, graphic, modern designs.

Buttons, buttons, buttons

We were, honestly, at the young end of the demographic.

A basket of wool quarter-flats.

We really adored Cottage House Primitives wool quilt designs. Very different from most of what we saw at the event.

Well-crafted and great use of technique.

This woman was doing a latch-rug. Very cool process.

We fell in love with these quilters - Sew Mod. Their style sense, fabric choices, and modern variation of classic design was outstanding. It really set them apart.