utah quilt guild festival show
The Saturday before last I had a chance to visit the quilt show at the Utah Quilt Guild Festival in Provo. This crazy quilt-covered VW bug was at the hotel entrance to build buzz for next year’s festival, themed “Catch the Quilt Bug.”
I wanted to show you a few of the quilts I was drawn to at the show. There are yet more up on Flickr (where you can also see all the quilters’ names). The quilts on display represented a whole variety of styles and skill levels, which was really nice to see.
Loved that this was clearly Native American but also very modern.
Lots of impressive hand quilting and hand work to be seen, like this Cathedral Window quilt.
A modern sampler by a first-time machine quilter.
Amazing applique.
This scrap quilt blew my mind, because there is no regular block size or shape. You can hardly tell how she sewed it together! And it was only her 2nd quilt. I recognized many newer fabrics, as well as vintage ones–even the same Christmas fabric that we had in pillowcases when I was a child!
Like my mom, I am drawn to tiny tiny pieces. I stuck my fingers up so you could see the scale of this quilt. Insane!
I would love to tell every quilter I know to enter a quilt in this show next year. For all those reasons you think you shouldn’t, I’ll say: you underestimate yourself, other people do want to see your quilts, and you can handle the judge’s feedback. Recognition can be really nice, and constructive criticism from a judge can be useful, but all of that doesn’t have to be the final word on what is right or beautiful. Just be proud of what you create and share it, whether or not you care about–or think you can–win a ribbon!