It's that time of year again where quilt shows become a road trip excursion I venture to around the region. Tri-Cities is 42 miles away from Walla Walla, WA, consists of three separate cities, Kennewick, Pasco, and Richland, that the Columbia, Yakima, and Snake Rivers flows through the middle. There is about 300,000 people that live in the Tri-Cities area.
Tri-Cities is best known for the Hanford site, aka Manhattan Project, bordering Richland, which is where the nuclear bomb were made for Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A little regional history.
Back the the quilts!
 |
| Black abstract log cabin |
|
 |
| Tiny log cabin detail |
 |
| Abstract wall hanging |
These mini log cabin blocks were very interesting to see up close. I love the white version best.
There were a couple of quilts that I really enjoyed at the Tri-Cities
Quilt Show this year. The theme of the show was "Stitching Stars" which
some of the quilts are shown below for this challenge.
 |
| Love the colors! |
 |
| Love the trees and colors |
The Tri-Cities Quilt Show generally has the
Hoffman Challenge and the 2011 challenge fabric was not that inspiring to me this year. I'm not sure why, could be the more muted palette? So I didn't take any pictures from this year's traveling exhibits.
The National Featured Artist was
Sally Schneider. I didn't take pictures of the quilts because they were a little too old fashioned for me. I encourage you to google her name and see some of the patterns and quilts she's made.
 |
| Sue White's Landscape |
|
|
 |
|
|
| Sue White's wall hanging |
 |
| Sky Detail |
 |
| quilting detail |
Sue White is the Featured Tri-Cities member and I enjoyed some of her
great wall hangings. Some had great quilting detail, such as the
goldfish with the ripples. The diamond background was very creative, the 3D effect with the foliage, and the great quilting.
 |
| Mountain detail |
Her landscapes were great too! There are different layers to create the shading, the netting for texture, and quilting for more movement through the different layers in the picture.
 |
| Sue White's 3D tree |
 |
| Three Sheets to the Wind |
|
She had an
amazing tree trunk that was 3D (the lighter trunk) and creates shadows
behind, creating a realistic looking tree in addition to the shading and
quilting.
I had to take a picture of the Inuit ladies with this wall hanging titled "Three Sheets to the Wind." I would tell you who made this quilt if I could find it in the quilt program.
COLOR CHALLENGE
 |
| Color Challenge -- Yellow and Black |
The color challenge was an interesting concept for the show. A group of quilters picked a color card and the challenge was to design a monotonic wall hanging following the color card. About 4 colors were duplicated by two different members, while others had one person (for example, one white, one black, etc.)
 |
| Color Challenge -- Yellow Greens |
You can see the subtle differences in the pink/orange range as well as the green range. These covered one side of the exhibit hall and was my favorite part of the entire quilt show. Each of the wall hangings also had size restrictions, creating a uniform appearance to the panels.
I hope you enjoyed these as much as I did in person. It is hard to see
the great details of these pieces of art with a varying degree of
experiences of the quilters.
The quilting group meet regularly to teach and learn from each other
how to do quilting techniques, which is more creative than the business
of a quilting guild.
 |
| Color Challenge -- Green/Chartreuse |
Quilting Guilds
I've been a member of two different
guilds and attended another guild meeting. Guilds are a great way to
learn from other quilters, build a social circle, etc. However, the
guilds are there to conduct business during the meetings and the
workshops they provide for their members help teach new quilting
techniques (paid by the dues). Not all guilds host a quilt show
either. It depends on what the group wants to do as their yearly
project or activities.
 |
| Color Challenge -- Aquas |
One guild I was part of in Bishop, CA, we did a monthly block exchange, we worked on a quilt show that is scheduled during Memorial Day weekend, and we also worked on some group projects, like round robins. Bishop is a town of 4,000 and there was not a lot of excitement or entertainment. The guild had some great ladies and talent, helped spark my creativity.
So there are some pros and cons to guilds. I am not too jazzed about my local guild, but it's been about 9 years since I attended a meeting here, so maybe I'll give it a whirl again.
 |
| Color Challenge -- Aqua/Blue/Turquoise range |
My
friend and I enjoy meeting once a month to do a "sew-in" to visit, eat, sew, discuss, etc. She roped me into doing an online bee this year,
SewBeeIt, that I really enjoy. It's been awhile since I did monthly homework assignments.
The Shopping
 |
| Color Challenge -- Pink/Salmon range |
The best part about the quilt show was seeing the increased number of vendors, which there were more selling bolted fabric than previous year. I rarely bought anything last year because all they had were kits, pre-cuts, patterns, which I generally do not buy. However, my hobby is getting a little too expensive for me when prices have jumped to $12/yard. For cotton. The batiks used to be the most expensive thing to sew with, but not anymore.
 |
| Color Challenge -- Orange range |
I checked out online if there were any sales that I could go to instead. Craft Warehouse had all their bolted fabric 30% off, so I spent my allotted budget there, plus, if you showed them your quilt program, you get a free $5 gift card. Even better!
Craft Warehouse has really good quality of fabric than JoAnns and great prices when it's on sale. They have the new Kate Spain "Good Fortune" line, not all the prints and colors, but I snagged the
magenta bamboo print. You can still find some of the "Terrain" and "Central Park" fabrics.
 |
| Color Challenge -- Terra Cotta range |
There was a nice collection of Moda's Modern Half Moon fabric, which I got the
grey modern leaves. There was some Mary Engelbreit fabrics for the "Kitchen Kapers" line with aprons, panels, etc. and I splurged on
this too. I have plenty of the black background with cherries, so I resisted. Mary Engelbreit is about as "cute" as I go with my novelty fabric.
I got 15 different fabrics, about 20 yards of fabric for about $120, that includes sales tax. Yes, I am the type of person to buy random one yard cuts of fabric.
 |
| Color Challenge -- White/Beige range |
They also have a huge table full of flat folds for $6/yard but those weren't on sale this time. Sometimes you can snag some Patty Young 2009 fabrics, so it's usually a good idea to check it out once in awhile when you have the time. You never know what you will find.
First, the new project. This is a picture of my new quilt project that I'm working on during my sewing days with a super-duper BFF, inspired by Freckled Whimsy's geese posted on the Moda Bake Shop. I've changed out a couple and added some more aquas. I have to say, Kate Spain made some awesome fabric, too bad there is only the cobblestone print in the grey-brown color. I'll manage to live without finding the color at the moment. *sigh*
