Dallas Quilt Celebration 2009 - Awesome!

We had a really good time at the quilt show. There was certainly lots to see! We took lots of pictures. Here is the slideshow. I bought all sorts of stuff. I covered three months worth of presents for my secret pal, got a "Big Board" ironing board which is very similar to the thing I've been asking Larry to make me for months now (he was thrilled to be off the hook), the latest Chiaverini and Ferris novels, some beautiful quilt cards, one of Joy's lovely hand-dyed pastel fat quarter collections, and a Flynn Mulit-Frame System for quilting large quilts on my home sewing machine.

Here's an absolutely wonderful Dear Jane, a virtual replica of the original. It came up winless in this show. Are they getting tired of us, do you think?



Here is one of Larry's favorites. The texture on this bird was awesome. The bird reminded us of Fawkes, the phoenix in the Harry Potter series.



Larry really liked this one too. His favorite color (by far) is blue. I thought it was pretty amazing too!
























We both really liked the best in show. I certainly thought it was an excellent choice for that award. It showed the most creativity coupled with the highest level of technical expertise of any quilt in the show. Look at how much depth it shows, and how perfectly flat it hangs! Larry wasn't as impressed as I was (not enough blue, I think). It had stiff competition, but it was definitely the cream of an excellent crop. I took multiple closeup photos of this work; they are displayed early in the slideshow.





























This one was wicked cool too. The pieces on this miniature are incredibly small. That piece of paper is the standard 8.5"x11" sheet that all the quilts are shown with. It very deservedly won the blue ribbon for best miniature. Oh yeah, her dimensional embroidery is phenomenal too. Mission Impossible she called it? Apparently not!

We rounded out this lovely, if tiring, afternoon with a fabulous meal at Craft, located in the W hotel in downtown Dallas. The food was amazing, as usual, and the service is unlike anything I have ever experienced anywhere else. We stayed at the W for Christmas a year ago, when Larry's job wouldn't let him go out of town over the holiday. Craft was new then, and was already quite wonderful, but it has gotten even better since then. The meltingly delicious shortribs, the perfectly sauted broccoli, the to die for lemon crepes. Sigh. It's a good thing it is 50 miles away and shockingly expensive, or I would be another 100 pounds overweight, but once a year? C'est parfait!