Favorites at the quilt show....photo heavy

Notice:   I had written this post for today on Friday night.  Saturday we went to Charlotte to help Deana do some yard work.  I managed to step into a hole ,caught my foot, and did a header.  Result is a broken nose, and a broken humerus--left arm bone--at the shoulder.  We are home now and managed to get thru the night ok.  Thankful that it was not worse, but Sir Old Man has his hands full for 6 weeks, as I can do almost nothing by myself.  
  Please understand if I am slow at getting to emails to reply.  I will be following your blogs.....likely few posts of my own for now.  One hand makes for slow going.  

I had great plans to be really good and not spend too much at the vendors at the local quilt show.  I am sure you know the feeling.  We all have our weaknesses.
   But first just a few quilts that  gave me some inspiration. When I go to a quilt show, I look for color, design, or technique elements that  evoke a feeling or just plain make me stop.   There were wonderful traditional quilts, but these are the ones that gave me inspiration.

 
This one was a zinger!  The colors were so bright and cheerful, and lots of small details to delight the eye.
And the quilting was full of feathers and swirls.  I loved it.

Here's the detail shot of the technique.....raw edge applique!  Layer upon layer stitched down, much like the technique used in the French Roses quilt.  

Of course this caught my eye....color and movement in this one and a story.  The flowers represent the flowers the quilter transplanted to her new garden here from Mississippi.  I really like the pieced background she used.    Since I have a love of day lilies, I looked a little closer.

The flowers are stitched by machine with a tight satin stitch that gives a raised appearance to the edge. Very nicely done. 

Striking and graphic background done in batiks in this one.  I liked the shimmering effect  of the color arrangement.    I have a stack of fabrics that I have been saving/hording/holding on to for a while waiting for an idea to find me. This one just may be it.

This small landscape was glorious.  A very beautiful sunrise over the mountains.  So how did she achieve that effect?

Lots of strips and lots of values blended together.  This detail shot shows how the reflection of the sun on the water was created with raw edge (again!) appliqued shapes.  It was also densely quilted with wavy lines.

Another landscape---but this is heavily thread painted.  I was over the top studying it!

This is just one of the detail shots I took.  I felt like I could just walk right into the woods.  Oh, boy......I may need to spend just a bit more than planned at the vendors.

This just took me by surprise.  Jean is one of my very favorite people and I was blown away with this wall hanging.  She grows  700 or so named iris, and some historical ones, too.  She did a beautiful job at color selection.  I so love the off set layout.  

So exactly how bad was I?  Pretty bad....considering I only had needles and thread on my planned list to purchase. Ha!!!  Batiks....3 yards...."But, honey, they were on show special."  And 3 books....applique and thread painting.   "But the applique book was used and has great ideas in it."
   I sense a change is coming in what I have been doing.  You can count on a whole lot more thread painting and applique.    I have been inspired.
Happy stitching.