Saturday, February 25 was a very long day.  We boarded the bus outside of Thimble Pleasures in Chapel Hill at 6AM and were on our way to Hampton, Virginia for the MAQF.  This was my first trip to the MAQF, so I mostly wanted to see what was there and enjoy the company of 60 members of the Durham Orange Quilters on the 4 hour ride each way.  I had a wonderful seat mate who contributed interesting conversation for part of the trip, when we weren’t reading or sleeping.  The show was all and more than I expected.  The quilts were beautiful and plentiful, and the vendors had all the interesting products covered. Here are a couple of quilts that I especially enjoyed (pictures taken by Jean F – thanks, Jean, for letting me share them here.)

“Morning Has Broken” won as Best Wall Quilt by Donna Clauer Stufft of Temperanceville, VA.  It demonstrated a new technique called Russian Needle Punching which I hope to explore further.  The needle punching gives the work a 3-dimensional quality.