Spent the greater part of yesterday at the Vermont Quilt Festival in Essex Junction. What an incredible show.

The quality of the work in this regional show is always high but sometimes, the variety is not quite there. For example, my husband noted that when bargello quilting was all the rage, there were far too many bargellos in VQF.

But this year, everyone seemed to be dancing to her own drummer.

If there was a trend, it was a continuation of the resurrection of appliqué that’s been going on for a couple of years now, especially in quilts in a style called Baltimore Album quilts.

I have over 100 pictures from the show, the most I’ve ever taken (which means there was a lot to be fascinated by), and I’ll post the best over the course of the week.

I’m starting with a blue-ribbon winner created by a friend from my quilt guild, Joanne Shapp. I did a blog post about Joanne’s incredible crop circle quilts back in May when she was the featured speaker at the Green Mountain Quilt Guild. But at the time, I did not have a good picture of this quilt called Crop Circle: Woolstone Hill.

So far, this piece has won three awards, including the VQF ribbon. Next it’s going to England, to a show in Birmingham. What souvenirs will it acquire from that trip, do you suppose?