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Lowell (Mass.) Quilt Show, August 2008–a ribbon!
I had the great good fortune to be invited to teach at Lowell Quilt Show earlier this month. I’ll blog about one of my classes in a couple of days, but today I wanted to give you an overview, starting with this overview of the show, which is held in the Tsongas Arena in Lowell, which is northwest of Boston (about 45 minutes by car, I think….it’s about 3 1/2 to 4 hours from Camden, Maine). Note: photos in this post are clickable to be viewed larger.
The vendors are on an upper level that surrounds the arena, so you get a bird’s eye view. This photo was taken early on Sunday (hence the lack of crowd). I got over to the show earlier in the week, after class was over, and was thrilled to spot my Koi quilt for the first time….when folks were looking at it! I guess a white glove lady was near it a lot of the time to show the back (LOVE IT!):
I had not realized until shortly before the show that the 2007 journal quilts would be there (I am not sure if this viewing included all of them or not, but I think it did).
As always, the journals are a popular exhibit (sure hope one of my entries gets in this year… I need an acceptance!!! instead of a “sorry” letter!). On Sunday, I was thrilled to see someone really looking at mine… my journal is quite subtle, not a grab-you-from-a-distance piece, so it was really rewarding to see someone drawn in and taking a long time to take it in…thank you to whoever you are in this picture! I hope it is OK for me to have posted this photo of you:
Wow…just realized I never uploaded this quilt to my website… I’ll do that when we get back from vacation in a week or so! There is a lot to it… it is about Hiroshima, peace and all that….
One of the best things about quilt shows is the teachers. If you ARE one of the teachers, one of the best things about a quilt show is getting to hang out with the other teachers! I was thrilled to run into Nancy Prince, whom I had briefly met in Paducah, Joanie Zeier Poole, Judy Cisneros, Nancy Brenan Daniel and others….. dinners were a GAS. This first night we each and every one of us had lobster of some sort at the hotel restaurant:
Nancy lives in Arizona, so she decided to splurge, and ham it up a bit… I totally love this photo and need to send it to her before heading out on Wednesday (and yes, she did take the meat out of the shell before eating it LOL)
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On Sunday I got to have breakfast at the locally famous Four Sisters Owl Diner, a real OLD diner, with good old fashioned cholesterol-heaven breakfast:
To my great astonishment and pleasure, I got an e-mail a couple days before leaving for Lowell informing me that I had won an honorable mention for Naiads! After viewing the other quilts, I’m thrilled even more…. here’s a picture of Naiads with the ribbon alongside and the “neighborhood”:
I taught Thursday, Friday and Saturday, so got to see the show on Sunday to my hearts’ content. But even tired teachers wear out. And get hungry. So mid-afternoon I set out on the town to see the shows at the Brush Gallery, The Whistler (more on those two in future posts), and get some lunch. I was fortunate to be able to wait to pick up Naiads and my teachers quilts (Koi and Garuda Dances Under the Ocean Moon) at 5:30, after show take-down (thereby saving a bundle on shipping) before heading home. So, while waiting, I had an iced coffee…perfect:
August 18th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
Have never commented on a blog before but I saw your koi quilt in Paducah and thought it was just wonderful. I subscribe to the French magazine Quiltmania and thought you might like to know that your quilt was one of the ones they chose to feature in their current issue in the article about Paducah. It is in very good company in the article and the photograph is a good one. Maggie Cunningham
August 19th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Thank you so much for the pictures of the 2007 Journal Quilts in Lovell, Sarah. My little piece is getting around the US a lot – how exciting. When it eventually comes back to me here in the UK it’ll have travelled more than me. 🙂
Lorchen
August 25th, 2008 at 11:45 am
I was a white glove lady on Friday at Lowell and made sure that I showed the back of your Koi quilt to everyone that I could. I was thrilled to see it in person having read your process of crating it on your blog. I also loved the Niads, one of my favorites. Congratulations on your ribbon.