In my last blog I did show and tell about some of the quilts, clothing and handiwork in the Varied Industries building at the Iowa State Fair. Here is a sampling of the best of show quilts displayed in separate room on the first floor.
I would estimate there are about 30 quilts, all receiving the highest honor in their category. There really are no words for the quilts and the quilting on them. I am unable to truly show you the beauty of these quilts through photos, to see them up close and in person takes your breath away. This is a small section of one of my favorites, can you believe how beautiful it is?Where does one start to design something like this, and then onto the machine quilting design, they must have a plan to start with and then it grows into something so beautiful.
Here is the full quilt.And, here is another detailed section of it.
In these photos, I hope you can get a sense of how the room is laid out and how the quilts are displayed, similar to the quilts upstairs.
This was another one of my favorites. Maybe it is because I like the colors of nature, or because I feel each block is interconnected. The quilt has a feeling of unity and a sense of calm when you look at it. I feel as if I am in a museum when I am here. I like to look at the quilts from a distance and then look up close and then really close if I can. What I can’t do is touch them, and I would like to because I feel there is something about using your sense of touch to connect, appreciate and remember.
This one too had gorgeous quilting.The next quilt was the last one we saw, Noelle was with me and we both stopped by it at the same time, we knew without reading the write up, there was something special about it.Seldom do we see a quilt with a story attached to it, our breath was taken away as we read the history of this quilt. We hope you can read it as well.It is such a beautiful story about why many of us quilt. We sometimes quilt to keep our families warm. Sometimes we are stressed and quilting helps us relax or makes us happy. Sometimes we just quilt for fun! But do we all hope that what we are sewing will be passed down to the next and the next generation, are we making history with every quilt we make? Are we creating a physical article that will will be shared with our stories as a way of remembering us and our love of quilting? I would say we are:)