Red Deer / Central Alberta Quilt Show

On Saturday we went to see the Red Deer/ Central Alberta Quilt Show in Red Deer at the Westerner. It was fabulous! There were quite a

number of central Alberta quilt groups present displaying their exquisite handiwork.

When you walk in you see rows and rows of beautiful quilts hanging

up on large wooden frames. They all had a label explaining who made the quilt, the name of the quilt pattern, if any, and who quilted it.

(The person who quilts a quilt top, isn't always the same one who made it.)

You are given 3 tickets at the door, two for the door prizes and one to fill in the name and quilt number of your favorite quilt in the exhibition. Now that's a tough choice!

You could really appreciate the beauty and workmanship of each one even if you weren't a quilter. My husband was very impressed.

The variety of fabrics and patterns, different borders and back fabrics was astounding!

Some people were so creative they even created a pattern on the back of their quilt! It really gave me a tremendous amount of incentive to continue trying different things!

There were many quilt shops present on the outer perimeter of the hall selling their wares and they seemed to be doing a rousing

business.

Every half hour or so there would be a quilt skills demonstration/

workshop put on by various quilt experts. I wish we would have had

time to stay longer, but we had a previous engagement,

(to attend our twin grandniece and nephew's first birthday party that same afternoon.)

Next year I will make sure that we don't plan any other activity the

same day as the quilt show so I have more

time to enjoy it and to watch some of the demonstrations.

At one point, I struck up a conversation with one lady (who I'll call

Ann) who was sitting at a table with information about central Alberta quilters.

Well, lo and behold, although she now lives in Red Deer, it turns out that she used to live in my area and was a member of the quilt group there

(remember the one that didn't want any new members?)

She asked me if I was a member of their group.

"Sadly, no," I told her and I told her why.

She was flabbergasted! She couldn't believe that they had become so elitist that they were turning down quilters who wanted to join them!

Then she did 2 things.

First she invited me to join their quilt group in Red Deer, telling me when they met and where.

Then she called over a woman who was passing by and introduced me to her. (I'll call her Joy).

Joy not only belongs to the quilt group in my area, and so of course knows all the women involved, she is the person who machine quilts all their quilts for them!

I guess Ann was thinking that if I got to know one member of the group, she might speak in my favor.

Ann and Joy know each other quite well and much to my chagrin, Ann proceeded to criticize Joy's quilt group...

what are they coming to when they are turning down people... it never used to be like that... etc.

I felt like sinking into the floor with embarrassment! I sure hadn't planned to make a name for myself that way!

Now that group really would snub me if they thought I had been bad mouthing them!

Anyway, Joy agreed with Ann and proceeded to give me her business card. She told me to call her, that she would love to meet me for

lunch in town.

I plan on calling Joy in the next week or two and we'll see how this all pans out... :)

The other ironic thing was that, with all the quilting fabrics, patterns and quilting impliments that were for sale there, what did I end up

buying? 7 balls of yarn! LOL! (Yes, I love to knit, too! But that's a

whole different set of blogs!)