Lots To Do!

Today we attended the Winners' Luncheon, and heard the top eight winners share about their quilts.  It was wonderful.  One woman won with her very first quilt.  Two of the winners had only been quilting for 6 years.  I really liked what one man said.  It was something to the effect that "Do what interests you, and it will make you happy.  Share your work with others, and maybe someday they'll shock you and put you on stage, too!"

 This is my absolute favorite quilt, winner of the Founder's Award.  It's all hand applique and hand quilted, by a woman from Japan.  Each and every stitch is absolutely stunning!

If you click on the above photo, you can see her name.  Junko Fujiwara. 

 We had three hours between the luncheon and the IQA preview.  We took a peek at the vendors, prepping for the onslaught.

Finally, the doors opened, and we were ushered in.  Look at that!  They hung my quilt!

 This year they had a photo op tree, covered with handmade flowers.  It's quite lovely in person.

We stayed until they kicked us out at 10pm.  That was fine.  My feet HURT, and I was more than ready to call it a day.

Tomorrow we go back and visit the vendors and see some/all of the special exhibits.  We only saw the competition quilts this evening, and visited one half dozen vendors.  Only 2000 more to see...more or less.  Stay tuned for the next report, perhaps some time tomorrow.