A Double Fun Day

Isn't this artwork at the Salt Palace a wonderful inspiration for a quilt?

Today was an awesome day.  I came to SLC on Wednesday to watch my beautiful granddaughter while her mommy was busy at the Spring Quilt Market.  BD#1 and her husband are opening an online fabric store this summer, and this was the perfect event to make it happen.  Today, however, BD#1 got a sitter for Abby, and asked me to accompany her to Market.  I felt like a little kid in the candy stores.  I think our adventures at Market will be the subject of several posts - after all, I took over 100 pictures - so I'll probably just hit the highlights here.

The first half hour or so consisted of standing in line waiting for my credentials.  As a bona fide employee (albeit unpaid) of Crafty Fox Fabrics,  I was able to enter the show.  This is a trade show, after all, and only those with the proper credentials can gain admission.

The entire event was a feast for any quilter.  At the door, however, were a number of gorgeous quilts on display, quilt show style.  One of the highlights for me were 9 Quilts of Valor on display.  I love that people are so supportive of our military men and women who serve and sacrifice to keep our country safe.   When my husband served a generation or two ago in a very unpopular war, people were very unkind to our service members. Whether you agree with the political aspects or not, you have to admire those who serve, and I love this show of support.

Loved this mural style panel quilt

This quilt celebrates two cottonwood trees that survived Hurricane Katrina - and it was done with thread painting!

I loved the bright colors in this one

And this medallion quilt was hand appliqued

And that's before we actually entered the market.  I have dozens more photos to share, so expect a few more tomorrow.  EDIT:  Oh, and there are more pics on BD#1's blog and her Flickr stream.  I haven't been quite so ambitious yet, so head on over and check them out!

I got to meet some of my fabric and pattern heroes, like Camille Roskelly, Bonnie Olaveson and Anne Sutton.  Also some blogger friends that I've admired, like Amy from Diary of a Quilter and Allie from a{squared}w (sorry, I don't have my glasses on and I can't remember how to do the superscript in blogger).  Anyway, we had a blast. I played gawker - tourist to a "T" and BD#1 actually managed to get some work done.

We went to lunch at Zupas in American Fork on the way home, and picked the baby up early, if you can believe it.  BD#1 and her DH went on a date, and I got to quilt on her Bernina QE440, which was also super fun and made the second half of the day pretty awesome!

But for now, it's very late and I'm off to bed.  More Grandma time tomorrow.