Quilt Show!

Well, shoot. I just wrote nearly everything I wanted to say about today's show, and then there was a "glitch" in my wi-fi hot spot and it all disappeared. That will teach me to save my work. So, as I was saying . . .

Today's post will be picture heavy, although leave it to Ms. Verbosity to write plenty of words to go along with it.

I just want to start off by saying that my trip has been nothing short of marvelous so far. I'm having the time of my life. The quilt show was wonderful today. As with any quilt show, some of the quilts were unbelievably spectacular. Others, less so, but all well worth seeing.

With that preface, I feel I must say just one word about the organization of the quilt show . . . and I'll get to my one word description after I write a whole lot of other words, verbosity being what it is. Approximately every other attendee at the show would agree with me in this one word description. I know because we had a group rant about it. Virtually every person I spoke with (and there were many) felt the same way about it.

A lot of thoughts ran through my head today as I considered how to desribe the organization of the show without getting off on too much of a personal rant. I considered alotting myself ten words or less, most of them being words ending in "tion". But then something even more astonishingly egregious would happen, and I would need to increase my word alotment once again just to capture it in its perfect essence.

So with that said, I'll share with you the one perfect word I came up with, credit to my husband, Mike, for teaching me this word among words to describe things like the organization of today's quilt show: "Clusterf*ck".

Enough said. Enough except to say that the clusterf*ckishness of the show has been so entirely perfectly bad, that it has been an amusement in an of itself. Fortunately, I am in good humor, and so I am amused. Otherwise, I would be hounding someone's backside from Galway to Dublin (which is quite some distance, I'll tell you). And that person would not be in good humor. But they would definitely know my name.

Okay, enough of my personal rant and on with the pictures of the quilts. I only took pictures of 98.4% of the quilts. As for the others, well, someone must have been standing in front of them, or maybe I blinked or something. Some of them had stunning details, and so I'm saving them for when I get home and I'm able to offer up some explanatory narrative.

For now I'm posting a number of my favorites . . . the ones that require little or no explanation. I do have a few notes to make, however. (You'd be disappointed if I didn't, wouldn't you?) So here are just a few editorial comments.

The large courtyard and entrance is the building where my quilt was on display. The show was held on the campus of a university, the initials of which escape me now. I would appreciate it if my Irish readers could help me out here. And I just have to say that it was an absolute thrill to find my quilt on display. I'll admit to hanging around and stalking people as they looked at it. I was curious to see how close they stood to it, what details they looked at more closely, and what they would say. Nothing really to report here except that I had to laugh at myself while I was doing this. The pictures you'll see of quilts with flowers are some of the other quilts in that particular exhibit.

Padsworth: There is an image posted here especially for you.

I only saw one cat today . . . a soft, fat cat. It will be obvious to you when you see it. Despite the lack of felines, I did see quite a few paw prints.

There was one exhibit of 3-D quilts and so 3-D glasses were required. Personally, I didn't see the 3-D, nor did anybody else I spoke with. Nevertheless, I think I'm looking smashing in my 3-D glasses. If I were a more dishonest person, I would have pocketed some of them so that I could wear them home on the airplane. Do you think I would have looked like a menacing terrorist? Sadly, we'll never know.

The horse quilt was a part of an exhibit that included quilts made by prisoners.

For those of you who were disappointed that I didn't post a picture of the ticket taker, I did post a picture of the men in kilts who were there to give massages. I didn't get a massage myself, however, I strongly considered asking one of the men in kilts to take off his shirt. I decided against it. He is cute though, don't you think? I flirt, though I am old.

May I just say here that I seriously need a grandchild.

The quilt pattern of Miss Poppy is currently residing in my suitcase.

The green and white exhibit was such fun. It is a Cead Mile Failte exhibit which I think means "Welcome". (Irish readers, please help me out here.) I took lots of pictures of these little individual quilt blocks.

Attendees were asked ahead of time to make one of these quilts blocks. Since I already had a quilt entered in the show, I decided against it. After seeing these fun blocks, I wished I had made one. Honestly, some of them were so precious.

(My internet just crashed again, but I saved it! To quote "W", Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, you can't get fooled again. Or something like that. I sort of miss those "Bush-isms" even if I don't miss the man.)

So, as I was saying again, I made an astute observation while I was looking at these quilt blocks. The fact that it was astute was something in and of itself since I am not noted for my astuteness as much as I am noted for my astoopness . . . as in "stoopid". Here it is:

Being of a very young or a very old age is a badge of honor and something to boast about. Being my age is a burden. I think you know what I mean. I saw it on display in these quilt blocks, and you will see it too. Since my very young days are long gone, I now find myself looking forward to the day when I can boast that I'm very old, and others will think it's cute. Knowing that makes me feel much better about growing older, shorter, and more decrepit.

With that said, on with the pictures. Enjoy!