More Fun at Quilt Fest!

There were many, many activities to participate in at the Quilt Festival in Midway!

They had set up a quilt on a frame and you could sit and hand quilt for awhile, any time you wanted to.  My sister-in-law worked on it quite a bit and really enjoyed it.  I tried it once and just could not find a thimble amongst their pile that worked well for me.  Rather than ruin their quilt, I moved on to other activities....

These are mini quilts donated by members of the guild.  These were all raffled off to make money for the guild.

There were several gift baskets, also made and donated by guild members or shop owners.  This was a silent auction event to raise funds for the guild.  You could also vote on your favorite basket and that person or group won a prize.

There were some pretty clever gift baskets!

The guild also does a fund raiser every year to support breast cancer research and other related activities.  This year the funds were going to support Garfield Memorial Hospital's mobile mammography services.
As guild members, you can purchase the specified pink fabric and make a block.  Quilt Show attendees vote for their favorite block and that person wins a prize.  These blocks become, through the work of many, items to be auctioned and raffled off at the next Quilt Fest the following year.

Here are items made from blocks donated in 2012.  I was amazed at the variety of items made with the blocks - not just quilts - pillows, clocks etc. Fantastic display!  Some lucky people went home with all these items!

Here is one of the quilted clocks made with one of last years' blocks!

Thursday evening I attended a lecture by Barbara Walsh on how to organize your sewing space.  I really don't know why I signed up for this lecture seeing as "Organized" is apparently my middle name!  It was really fun though to see a slide show of other quilters' sewing spaces and it's always fun to walk away with new ideas!

After the lecture I went to the "Stitch and Swoon".  How fun was this!  A band called "Six Short Words" performed absolutely lovely music for us while we worked on hand projects and ate apples and homemade caramels.  I got to know several new ladies at my table as we shared an Ott Light and stitched away.  They had a contest to see if we could guess the "six short words".  The band got to pick their "favorite guess" and they picked "Dad, this is my real job!"  I don't know if there really are six short words that inspired the name of the band or not - they never told us!
A very enjoyable day :)  I hope yours is too!