Quilts in Bloom

Our beautiful Oregon Gardens in Silverton, Oregon, hosts a lovely quilt show every January. This was the first year that I was both back in Oregon and felt up to going. And I was certainly glad that I did.

These four entrance quilts were by the fabulously talented quilter, Lura Schwartz Smith.

And while I overheard many quilters bemoaning the fact that it was primarily art quilts this year, I loved them and thought all of the quilts were just lovely. And as I pointed out to two quilters I sat next to at a break (quilters are never strangers for long ) I saw a lovely applique quilt with traditional butterflies, a Trip Around the World, and an Irish Chain or two. What we love to look at and what we love to do may be two different things, but I love it all!

I may or may not have very good photos of them and since I took them on Saturday, I've already forgotten whether those turned out or not ...I save my RAM for things on a "need to know this minute for my own survival basis"!  And remembering the quilt show was a must, but remembering individual photos...not so much!

But since, I haven't seen anyone else from the area posting photos, I'll go ahead and share some of my own photos that survived the 'no flash photos' rule, just  to brighten up the blogosphere, today!

We had a lot of 'blooms' and a lot of 'eye candy' and we even had a few vendors that offered up real candy! I'm always grateful for those that believe that quilts, quilters and chocolate really do go together!

These last two were made by two members from the Mid-Valley Quilt Guild, here in Salem. The cats by another one 'l' Michele, Michele Byrum, and the "Memories of Viet Nam" by Tom Korn, one of our quild's talented 'man-quilters.'

And it is always so nice to see a man's take on quilting whether it is at a quilt show or at our meetings where two gentlemen quilters do an awesome job of being valuable members of our quilting community!

And here,  my very, very, most favorite photo of the entire show. This 'young couple' were so beautiful and so charming, I just had to take their photo.

Have you ever gotten your significant other to attend a quilt show with you? 


Michele Bilyeu blogs With Heart and Hands as she shares a quilting journey through her life in Salem, Oregon and Douglas, Alaska. Sewing, quilting, and wildcrafting, with small format art quilts, prayer flags, and comfort quilts for a variety of charitable programs. And best of all, sharing thousands of links to Free Quilt and Quilt Block Patterns and encouraging others to join her and make and donate quilts to charitable causes.   Help us change the world, one little quilt at a time!