MQX West 2012: First Batch

Oh my goodness!  What a gorgeous day I chose to attend the MQX West quilt show.  My plan was to do my grocery shopping after the show, and so I knew I had a long day ahead.  I started my day with breakfast at my favorite little breakfast cafe, the South Store Cafe, which is just a mile or two from my house.  They make the best oatmeal.

I paused before going in to take a couple of pictures of these little repurposed toasters, coffee pots, and sifters planted with annuals.  Cute.

After eating my oatmeal, I headed off to the Oregon Convention Center in Portland for the quilt show.  I love the Oregon Convention Center as a venue.  It is a fabulous structure.  I've lived in Portland long enough to remember when the convention center was built.  Its twin glass spires are visible all over the city and they have become an iconic part of the Portland skyline.  I tried to find some articles about this, but I was unable to verify my memory of the events.  As I recall, however, the original intent of the spires was simply to house the cranes used to construct the convention center.  When it came time to remove them, the spires had become a popular part of the skyline, and so they were incorporated into the design of the building.

Here are a couple of closer-up images I took, and look at that blue sky!

But you want to see the quilts, don't you?  Well, I'm just about to show you.  I took so many pictures, I couldn't possibly show them all...especially in a single post.  So, as is my usual way of doing this, I'm going to show you a few each day until I've run through all my favorites.  The quilting was nothing short of amazing.  After a while, my eyes glazed over staring at it.  A complete stranger was standing next to me and said aloud exactly the words I was thinking, "Not only do I not have the talent to do this, I don't have the patience!"  So true.  Some of the stippling was so tiny that it was practically microscopic.  And wait until you see the quilt that won best of show at the bottom of this post.  Simply amazing.  So with that intro, I'll get to the quilts.  This is just a tiny preview of what is to come over the next several days.

There were more whole cloth quilts at this show than I've seen at other shows.  I enjoyed them very much, and the quilting really stood out.  By the way, these pictures are not in any particular order...other than the order they were in when they came off my camera.

Trying to give you some scale on the tiny stitching.

I love quilts that have little quilts mixed in with them.  These were three dimensional, as if hanging on the clothesline.  I would like to try this some day.

Look at this pretty border and the beautiful applique...another thing I would like to try.

These next several quilts were made as a part of a challenge that you can read about in the image below.  Sorry for the glare.  I tried to minimize it as much as I could.

As you look at these, be sure to notice the color card the quilter was working from.  I think they all did an amazing job getting the quilt to "read" as the colors on their card.  

Some people are so clever with their embellishments.

His hair was nappy!

This next quilt won best of show, which it well deserved.  As you look at the quilting, keep in mind that it is completely hand-guided.  Amazing.  And I have just two words for the quiltmaker:  "Show off".  Actually, no.  "Gorgeous work".  I suppose that seems more friendly.

So that's all for today.  I'll show you a few each day.  Stay tuned.