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Quilt Shows At State Fairs

Summary

Quilting Contessa has had the privilege of seeing the wonderful quilt exhibits and attending some of the trunk shows and classes.  They are shared here.

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Quilt Shows At State Fairs

Do you miss the state and county fairs as much as I do? In past summers, this Contessa has had the privilege of traveling the country to work at some of the state and county fairs. Because of shift work, I have also had the privilege of seeing the wonderful quilt exhibits and attending some of the trunk shows and classes.

Quilt Shows At State Fairs

 

Two delightful past presidents of the South Dakota quilters gave a fabulously hilarious trunk show a few years ago.

South-Dakota

 

First, they took apart an old quilt to see what it had for batting. I have no idea whether this old wool blanket really was the batting or if this was just a good story, but it was a good story! Obviously, the ladies designed their own costumes and had done the show many times before.

batting

 

Next stop was the County Fair in San Mateo County, California. They had a display showing the true nature of miniature quilts. A miniature quilt is defined as being of the same pattern as a bed size quilt, but with smaller dimensions. My daughter-in-law carefully picked out a Judy Niemeyer pattern that she wanted me to make for her. Not in this lifetime!

mini

 

At the Indiana State Fair, they not only had a full adult quilt show, they had 4H quilts, fiber arts, and more. The hit of the fair for me was the Pioneer Village where they had a donation quilt in a frame and were teaching passers-by how to hand quilt. The teachers were patient and had all the supplies needed, except that I brought my own thimble. They took all comers!

Indiana

 

In Kansas, they were trying to add quilting classes with their show for the first time. My boss and I went to a morning session before work on how to dye with rust. The teacher was a chemist by profession and a quilter by avocation, so she showed us how to take rusty objects and dye fabric with them.

Kansas

 

The best idea I ever brought home from a show was from Rapid City, South Dakota. This was a quilt that showed different techniques for quilting but was made to be TOUCHED! For all the quilt shows we see that say "Don't Touch", that was a great idea and a welcome change.

touch me quilt

 

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Glossary

Batting
The layer in the middle of a quilt sandwich between the Top and Backing layers consisting of wool, polyester, blends, silk, or cotton.

Same As: Stuffing, Filling, Wadding, Filler
Frame
Four strips of wood that supports the layers for quilting.
Miniature Quilts
A quilt made in miniature of a full sized quilt. Paper foundation piecing is often used to make the very small minis.
Thimble
A small, dimpled cap, usually of metal, designed to fit over the end of the finger to protect it from injury as it repeatedly pushes a needle through cloth during sewing or quilting.
Author
Debi Warner
Author and humorist, Debi Warner, retired after many years as a clinical librarian and information specialist. She has her Master’s in Library and Information Science and achieved a Distinguished level in the Medical Library Association’s Association of Health Information Professionals. She has worked on teaching physicians to use computers and electronic resources. She also worked on several grants teaching the public how to use the National Library of Medicine’s MedlinePlus public database and is co-author of several articles on health literacy. She took up quilting after retirement in 2012 and chaired the Rio Grande Valley Quilt Show in 2019. She currently teaches several quilting classes over Zoom and writes for QuiltingHub.
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