Weekly update: friends and inspiration at the Wisconsin Quilt Show

 Last week Wisconsin Quilt Show returned to the Alliant Energy Center in Madison for the 21st year.   It was begun by Nancy Zieman and Wisconsin PBS as the Wisconsin Quilt Expo, hence my blog label.   This was the seventh time I've attended and the first time I've stayed overnight.

 I picked up Carolyn at the Milwaukee airport Wednesday afternoon.  We drove from there to our hotel in Verona, a now-suburb adjacent to Madison.  

We set up the sewing machines in the hotel breakfast room / lounge.  That attracted other hotel guests and we had good conversations.  

Both the FW and 301 are my machines. Betty, the FW, had been sorely neglected.  Carolyn brought a replacement belt and I brought a screwdriver and a tube of oil.  Betty is much happier now.  [Even more so because I bought an LED bulb at the show. The vendor asked to keep the old (original!) bulb as a demo.]

Thursday:  show time!

  Anna and Betty arrived at the same time we did. (They stayed at Anna's family cabin north of Madison.) 

  

I took photos of nearly every quilt on display.  Here are collages of some of them. 

Neckties!  "Summer Days and Hot Tabasco Nights" by Lisa Odom.  

             

I voted for this for Viewer's Choice. 

I heard Jennifer Chiaverini's talk about her new book, The World's Fair Quilt.   I've known Jennifer since 1999 when her first book was published and my library hosted her first-ever library presentation. 

Lower left:  Karen is QOV coordinator for Wisconsin. We met on the Stashbusters group ages ago and catch up every year at the show.  

Debbie joined the four of us for dinner on Thursday.  

Back at the hotel Carolyn and I spent another evening sewing in the breakfast room. (We commandeered a hotel luggage cart to haul our gear.)

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Friday was our day to be tourists.   Anna and Betty met Carolyn and me at the House on the Rock.  It's a well-known tourist attraction that we locals (Anna, Betty, me) had never been to and of course totally new for Carolyn.  

What an experience!   

"For over 60 years, the House on the Rock has been a majestic work in progress. It began in 1945, when a man named Alex Jordan had a towering goal: to build a man-made retreat as awe-inspiring as the view from the rock upon which the house would eventually be built. From that spark of imagination, the House on the Rock has evolved to include displays and collections of the exotic, the unusual and the amazing."   The neighbors were intrigued by Jordan's work in progress so in 1959 he charged people 50c for a tour. He made $5000 that year and $34000 the next year.  

Player pianos, automatons, music boxes, a HUGE carousel, dolls, dragons, sea monsters, scrimshaw, circus dioramas, and all sorts of contraptions.

The Infinity Room stretches far over the rock. 

Visitors can only go halfway.  

It is a long way down. 

The place is so huge -- "allow three hours," they said and it took us four -- that toward the end we were overwhelmed.

I did not know that the House on the Rock was on my bucket list.  Now it's crossed off.

What fun to experience it with good friends.

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Despite our fatigue -- HOTR requires a LOT of walking -- Carolyn and I sewed again that evening. 

Back to the quilt show on Saturday. 

I went to TaMara Howard's lecture on African fabric on Saturday.  She sews, teaches, and inspires in Pittsburgh.  She explained the difference between African batiks and African/Dutch wax resist prints.  (Hand-produced vs. machine-produced. Both are beautiful and as good for quilts as for garments.)

Carolyn participated in a sit-and-sew charity session while I did some more shopping.

We left Madison at noon and drove back to my house.  It was nice to relax at home Saturday evening. We both slept very well.   On Sunday morning  wewent to Illinois Beach State Park so she could see where I am when I post photos of my walks.   Then up to MKE to say goodbye.

Such fun, all around!   

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P.S.   My  quilts and me.  This is the fourth time I've had quilts in the show.

Yes, I bought fabric.  I will write about that later this week.  

Linking up with Design Wall Monday  Monday Musings Sew and Tell Oh Scrap!