My First AQS Show

Last week hubby and I headed east to Knoxville, Tennessee, to visit our first American Quilt Society (AQS) show. Before the show, we visited Dollywood in Pigeon Forge and the Smokies (along with about a million - or so it seemed - of our fellow citizens). We were in the Smokies in March and actually stood by frozen waterfalls. No such luck this time!

The show was wonderful. So much beauty and inspiration. I would love to post photos but it's against the rules to post photos without permission. I'm sure the winning quilts will be posted soon. I'll keep an eye out for them and let you know when they are on line.

Knoxville is a very old and very friendly city. We took a bus/boat tour of the city and were amazed at the beauty and history. I would highly recommend the tour to anyone who visits the city. .....and this particular tour stopped at a chocolate factory. Yummm.....

No show would be complete without vendors and this show was no exception. The pre-show publicity touted 400 vendors and after walking the aisles all day on Saturday I can tell you that there must have been AT LEAST 400 vendors. Boy was I pooped! Photos throughout this post are photos of some of the things I couldn't live without. I am still trying to figure out this blogging thing and can't seem to make the photos end up where I want them so you are getting them where they landed!

The first photo is of the new much discussed book on Australian quilts. A friend (thanks Raquel!) loaned me her copy and I knew I HAD to have my own. Shipping from Australia is quite expensive so the $145 I paid for the book was a steal. I also bought four other titles from the same vendor: Quilting Books Unlimited. http://www.qbu.com/

Of course, you can't visit a show without buying at least a gadget and fat quarter!

Knoxville will host the show again next year. After that, it may stay at Knoxville or move back to Nashville. No one knows.

Next time I will show you what I worked on while we were gone. Hint: I don't know exactly what I was thinking----1 needle and 2 spools of thread and a bunch of projects, several books to read, a pattern to prepare for applique, EQ7 to upload on my laptop----just how much time DID I think I'd spend lounging in the room?!