Last weekend, I finally fulfilled one of the many things on my quilt bucket list. I visited the La Conner Quilt Museum in La Conner, Washington, to see the 2012 Quilt Festival. For decades, I’ve lived about 80 minutes away from this gem of a museum and always wanted to make the trek out to this little town in the heart of Washington State’s Tulip Country, but never managed to make it there. Well, this time I did it.
When I got there, I was floored by the amount of creativity that flowed from the many venues of this small but very impressive show and museum. Come join me as I share some really great and inspiring quilts from my tour.
The juried and judged quilt and fiber arts show was just for the weekend of Oct. 5 to 7, and was in held in two separate buildings near the museum. During the week leading into the event, there were many classes taught by a dynamic mix of teachers: Robin and Thom Atkins, Joe Cunningham, Sharon Pederson, Elly Sienkiewicz, and Jane Townswick. Pictures were not allowed during the show, but I got a few shots of the museum facade and foyer to share with you and Geoff Hamada, President on the Board of Directors, shared some photos of some winning quilts with us here:
Judge’s Choice (Kathie Kerler) Moonglow Anemone 2 (Carla Stehr)
OPEN DIVISION: First Place, FIber Art Quilted Bukonyan Elder (Virginia Greaves)
OPEN DIVISION: First Place, Traditional Pieced Chopsticks (Steven Lennert)
BEST OF SHOW: Masters Division, First Place Masters Appliqué Zion (Melody Randol)
The Museum will exhibit the Best of the Festival for the next three months in the Museum itself, so if you want to see the best of what I saw there, you have that much longer to enjoy them!
Part two of the story…..
The following quilts are just some of the quilts going to be up for the next three months in the Museum’s Material Men exhibit which kicks off this weekend with a lecture by the incredible Leslie Gabrielse on Saturday October 13, 2012. The Museum is still taking reservations by phone ($10 for Museum members, $15 for non-members) @ 360-466-4288. Mr. Gabrielse’s lecture will be followed by an Artists Reception from 5:00 to 8:00 honoring the artists of Material Men and all of this year’s Quilt Festival Award Winners. (There is no charge for attending the Artists Reception which will feature light refreshments.)
Erick WolfmeyerThese four artists are just a few of the great quilt artists with that Y chromosome featured in the exhibit. If you can swing it, you should try to make it to this incredible Museum in this tiny little town. On a side note, the above quilt, Lionfish, above was on display at the Museum while I was there–words and this photo cannot begin to describe the incredible detail poured into this work.
COMMENT #1
I’ll have to drive up. I’m not a crowd person, so I missed the big event. The Museum is truly a gem of the Skagit Valley!
COMMENT #2
I didn’t realize you lived up here! I’m in Vancouver, BC. I drove down to the show in La Conner on Friday and truly loved it. It’s fun to see a show that features quilts from all over the world made using so many different techniques. It was amazing to see so many gorgeous hand-appliqued quilts since those are a rarity at guild shows now. I also loved American Quilts: The Democratic Art show at the Whatcom Museum in Bellingham. I was so bummed that photography wasn’t allowed at either venue, though (totally understandable, but still a bummer).
COMMENT #3
Wow! Thanks for sharing some of those quilts with us Scott! I’m glad you made the trip & jealous that you were there in person. 😀