Thursday, May 8, 2008

Rainfest and Buggy Barn

I have so much catching up to do here...



Pam and Janet of Buggy Barn Quilts came to Rainfest this year to give classes on their "crazy" techniques and patterns. I took both classes, one on Friday, April 25, and one on Saturday, April 26, and they were a lot of fun. Pam and Janet were very helpful, and very FUN teachers. If you want to find out more about Buggy Barn Quilts (store and patterns) go to: http://www.buggybarnquilts.com/ .

The patterns are a 'stack and slash' type, but have a picture in mind - an object (like the crazy angels I did the first day), or a traditional quilt pattern as a basis (like the crazy churndash I did the second day). It was really interesting seeing the different takes on their patterns, and the different looks that came about with different fabrics. The smaller pictures are of the Crazy About Friends quilt from one of their books (the angel pattern is the one I did, although mine are garden angels with sunflower fabric, greens, golds and browns - much different from theirs), a quilt that has a really adorable witch (I've forgotten the name), and the quilt blocks from the classes. As we got the first block of our 'set' done, they were shown off to the group and hung on the wall. Mine is in the left group of the first picture (the green and gold angel) and the lefthand one in the second row of the second picture.. Very scrappy. Yes, they are supposed to look not quite square, even wonky - that's the crazy part of the patterns. If you're a quilter, I suggest you go check their website out. These patterns really took me out of my comfort zone, and made me more creative, and yet they were so relaxing and UN-stressful.


This is a really bad picture of some of the quilts on display at the Quilt Show. I managed to mess up almost all of the pictures I took, some because I forgot and left the camera in the car overnight and then took it into a warm room. My glasses fogged up, the camera lens fogged up... It was funny, though a little frustrating.
Our annual Rainfest Celebration happens every April (next year it's the first weekend in April - hope it's not snowing like it was the first part of April this year). Many more things happened during Rainfest than the quilt show - the Far West Art League show, the Rainforest Players put on "Honk!", the Umbrella Parade, the Pie Social, demonstrations at the library (different styles of basket weaving was one list, I don't remember all of the demos), different things to do around town... I was in class both days because my husband was on call for the Ambulance Group. It's small town FUN!


Quilt class blocks.
Buggy Barn quilts.
Come and join us next year!




1 comment:

Pearl Maple said...

Followed your links from Skywatch Friday, great photos but really enjoyed reading your creative posts too.