Title: Rusty Blooms. Quilt created by Cheryl Kerestes of Wyoming, PA.

It was careless of me not to have posted to the blog on Saturday, the last day of the AQS Lancaster, PA Quilt Show, but my author presentation was at 10:00 rather than noon. Then I had to check out of the hotel and head to Hanover before they completely clocked the streets for the big Saint Patrick Day parade. A rather flimsy excuse, I admit.  Perhaps giving a couple of extra photos will help make up for it. In truth, I could have photographed every quilt at the show with each of them demonstrating a different technique or something unique about the design or the sheer skill. As I have become more familiar with quilting and quilters, I think the extraordinary variety is what I appreciate most and that is something that I try to capture in the Helen Crowder Adventure Series of Small Town Lies, Small Town Haven, and future novels. (More about that in a later post).

The way in which quilters come to the craft is also fascinating to me as a writer. Some are of course introduced to it by a mother, grandmother, etc., while others gravitate to it because they sew or have another fabric-related skill. Some are looking for a new interest; one woman that I know was in a situation where she simply needed a quilt and there were none available to buy. Once she made the first one, she was hooked, so to speak. This is another part that I include in the novels; the longtime quilters and the novices who take it up for different reasons.

I think that the two quilts in this post are great examples of skill and variety.

Title: Prairie Serenade. Created by Shelly Burge from Lincoln. NE