Firehouse Quilt Show

In the early part of August there was a great Quilt Show in CastleRock put on by Firehouse Quilts . I was asked to be a celebrity judge, but alas my son had a swim meet, and I really needed to be there. ( as he thinks he is leaving me soon *sigh*)


So I asked my Dear Pat to take my place - and here is what she said...



The Firehouse Quilt Show is one of the most enjoyable local shows around and I love to attend.  I think it's so much fun to 'share' quilts and to see the quilts that others in the community have made.  They always have a huge variety of quilts, and this year was no exception.  There were beautiful longarm quilted quilts, both computer aided and free hand, as well as those quilted on a domestic machine.  The hand pieced/hand quilted category was just awesome, and the vintage quilts were just beautiful.  One vintage quilt from1840 had been so well cared for over the years and was in near perfect condition....the only thing you could see was a slight bit of fading between some of the red blocks, which is amazing because red will often fade badly from this era.  It was discovered in an attic, was made by Claire Ludlow Arnold's grandmother, Esther Sandford Rogers, and the grandmother had a hand written note accompanying the quilt when they discovered it in the attic.  These vintage quilts were beautiful!!





I'm so glad I didn't have to do this judging for real and could kind of toss out all the 'judging rules' and just pick those I liked.....judging this show, like most shows, would have been very difficult.  As celebrity judges, we had the freedom to just walk thru all the quilts and pick the ones we liked and that spoke to us.  One of the celebrity judges was the fire chief and he was having a heck of a time!  You could tell that he hadn't been around quilts much, but the volunteers from FHQ were right there to answer all his questions and get him going....the dazed look on his face kind of told the volunteers that he might need just a little direction!!





I walked thru all of the quilts and looked at each and every one.....so hard to choose!!  I wrote notes in my program on several quilts because I knew I wouldn't be able to remember what I had seen.  It was difficult to pick 2 quilts.....one from the over-all quilts that were hung, and one from the Colorado themed category.  I finally settled on an art quilt titled 'Twilight Dance' by Petronella Turpin.  This wall quilt featured dragonflies dancing among the foliage and light.  This was an original design and Petronella had hand dyed the fabrics used in the quilt....beautiful background fabric filled with color.  It was machine appliqued and machine quilted and she did such a nice job.





Trying to decide on the Colorado themed quilt of choice was equally as difficult, but I finally decided on Maroon Bells by Genevieve Thompson.  She designed this quilt and it really made you feel like you were right there in the Maroon Bells area.  This wall quilt was raw edge machine appliqued and machine quilted and featured the mountains, the lake, the forest, cabins in the area, and some wildlife......things you see when you visit this memorable area.





Congratulations to the Firehouse Quilts organization for another wonderful show, and the Douglas County Fairgrounds was a perfect venue!!  I'm happy to see they will be there again next year and I, for one, plan to attend again!


And here is the quilt she chose to give the QOV ribbons to...

I am sorry to have missed the show - but utterly tickled that Pat did such a wonderful job!!