Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival 2013 Wrap

We have quilters that make a point of stopping by the Fabric Hut to shop in route to the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival each year, quilters that take time during the festival to shop, and many that come by afterwards either heading home or because they worked the festival and couldn't come during it. Not all of the quilters notice that we have a nice coupon in the Festival program each year.

This past couple of weeks work has kicked my tush. Consequently I am posting my wrap-up of the festival later than I had intended.

But I can't let it slip away. I would like to share with you a few of the quilts that grabbed my attention at the festival. Left click on pictures for a larger view.

There were three portraits in a row all handled differently, which I felt captured raw emotion.

The Asian quilt isn't quite in focus. Sometimes I wish I still carried my big old Olympus camera. I wanted you to see the entire quilt before looking at the detail that follows it.

There are rhinestones on the bodies and wings of the cranes!

Artistic interpretation and embellishment were key to many quilts. Notice the beadwork on this hanging which was made in linked pieces.

There is a maximum upload for each post, so I won't be putting the full quilt up for this one. Embellished candy skulls!

Look closely at the white background for an excellent example of quilting.

I want to wrap with the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival 2013 Best of Show. There are rhinestones scattered over the background and accenting details such as the harness.

I heard several complaints about the scarcity of traditional quilts, and the lack of hand quilting. It was present, there were extremely good pieced quilts on display with hand piecing and hand quilting. However they were certainly in the minority. The sweeping trend is toward art quilts, excellent machine quilting and embellishment.

I love embellishment. My applique, bead work  couching, embroidery is usually on clothing or accessories and not quilts. I enjoy looking at it on quilted projects, and felt that there were wonderful examples of every technique I could think of at the show.

I don't know names to go with the quilts. If you do, please include the name along with anything else you would like to say about them in a comment.