Mark August 4 and watch Laura Wasilowski on The Quilt Show with Ricky Tims and Alex Anderson; I’ll bet she sings.  Her newest book, Fuse and Tell - Journal Quilts,  is now in stock.   The “Sewer” construction sign  (pronounced “sOer” [long "o"]) reminds me of Laura’s amazing lecture on The Chicago School of Fusing from her perspective as the “Dean of Corrections.”  This sign signifies a beginning quilting class ahead.  Laura is tentatively scheduled to join us again at QuiltFest in 2010.

The Theme of QuiltFest 2008 was “Come On a My House.”   Continuing this theme, Shop staff secretly made 24 pillows in our most popular collections as a surprise.  They used Marti Michell’s template set for the Large School House.  Our shop is now decorated with these wonderful pillows.  As I came in and out of the Shop, I thought they were goofing off; instead they were quickly hiding their projects.

QuiltFest 2008 is in the record books.  Laura Nownes, Laura Wasilowski, Joen Wolfrom, Karen Witt, Nicole Chambers, Martine House, Ann Moore and Renny Jaeger gave us 3 days of exciting and inspiring classes. 

Joen Wolfrom judged the Mountain Messages Quilt Competition “From These Hills”  and selected 4 grand winners and several other honorable mentions.  Best of Show was made by Midge Merrill and quilted by Pam Sprinkle.  Best Hand Quilted was won by Elaine Herndel; Best Machine Quilted was made by Gail Dippel and machine quilted by Lisa Johnson.  Best Interpretation of Theme went to Linda Kaiser.  

Friday’s Buffet Supper was catered by Main Street Cafe; Karen Witt’s lecture on historic reproduction fabrics and quilts was very informative.  Our show and tell was awesome.  The Fay Andrews group theme was “reproduction” (certainly fitting to Karen’s lecture) and the Tennessee Quilts challenge was “Come on a My House.”  And everyone left with at least one door prize and one lucky quilter won a $200 gift certificate from Tennessee Quilts.

Tennessee Quilts will be blogging soon.  Check back.