Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival XXII

Last weekend was the always-amazing Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival in Hampton, VA, and this year's show was the best! For me, it started out less-than-stellar, as I broke my little toe 2 days before I left for the show and also managed to either crack (probably) or bruise a rib en route, so I was not at the top of my game physically this year. Luckily I had a great helper with Lynn M., who made sure I didn't have to do any heavy lifting or shuffling and took care of lots of details including the booth while I taught my Wild Wooly Flowers Class.

We had so much fun in this class! We did have a full class, several of the girls were students in my felting class last year, and we also had some newbies including a man. Everyone's flowers turned out spectacular, just breathtakingly beautiful! And they learned some basic wet-felting techniques as well as how to shape their flowers. I'm adding some photos from the class, as well as from Show 'n Tell from Saturday night and a teachers' picture, that's me in between the very talented Esterita Austin and Gloria Loughman. How blessed I was to get to teach at this awesome show! I always love sharing my passion for felting and meeting fellow fiber-lovers. And I also got to see what the other teachers were doing, most phenomenal work. Here are a few pictures from the exhibit by Gloria Loughman who is from Australia, walking through her section of the show was like strolling through a serene rain forest with all it's lush vegetation and fresh greesn and colors; she also used an interesting woven look in several of her quilts, which were full of color. I also really liked Karen Carter's work, completely different but you know I love folk art; Karen's pieces are the ones with so much wonderful texture and dimensional embellishments. (Karen, BTW is a real sweetheart and looks so much like Meg Ryan!) And you know I love the wearable art! This was the first year I didn't submit anything, I have just been so busy, but there were some stunning pieces there, including the Best of Show by Rami Kim, a magnificent silk ensemble with folded flowers. All in all, it was a fantastic show, even with the scandal of the "controversial quilt". ^_^