I’m so glad the IQF came back to Chicago this year! It’s a fairly quick drive from home – or it would be if there wasn’t construction, an obstinate GPS, a couple of wrong turns, and my failure to reprogram the GPS for HOME once it found the satellite signal. Yes, we drove for 30 minutes and ended up right back where we started. Major facepalm.
We arrived at the show just after the doors opened, and although it was far from empty, I was surprised at how few people were there. The parking garage we used was almost empty both when we arrived and when we left at 4:00pm. In past years this parking structure has been full to overflowing. I was able to get clear photos of the display quilts, while in the past I’ve had to settle for pictures with other visitors in them. Speaking of photos, I was also disappointed in the lighting. I am not particularly skilled with my camera and I’m sure I could have played with the settings to get better results, but I wasn’t thrilled with the quality of my photos. They aren’t awful, but they’ve been a lot better.
The photography guidelines for the show say that we can post photos on our personal websites, etc., as long as they are not shared where they can be printed on items that can be purchased. I had to change my Flickr setting so I am the only person who can print from my photostream, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Also, any shared photos “must include appropriate credit for each quit artist and note that the photos were taken at International Quilt Festival.”
With that said, here are some of the photos I took. I’ll try to post all of my photos on the blog over the next few day, but you can also check out my Flickr set here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/piece__of_me/sets/72157634286295102/
So far I have about 2/3 of the photos uploaded to Flickr. Also, each quilt photo in the Flickr set is followed by a photo of the page that was displayed with it, giving additional information about the quilt and its maker(s).
Piecemeal Quilts 
These are beautiful quilts—–but I see no ribbons. Was this not a judged show?
This WAS a judged show, but they don’t hang ribbons on the quilts. Instead, they include a note on the description sheet next to the quilts. For example, the first quilt in this post, Departure, won first place in the Traditional Pieced category. The second one, Down Pat, won an honorable mention in the Art – Abstract, Large category. If you go look at the Flickr set, you’ll be able to see all of the description sheets that go with the quilts.
Thanks for sharing your quilt photos, there are some really lovely quilts there. I hope that the Australian quilt shows take note of the photography guidelines used in the IQF, currently we need to get permission from the quilt artist before we can publish photos anywhere online 😦
I love looking at photos of beautiful quilts. I tend to go for the brightly colored ones. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for posting your pictures (we took pictures of very different quilts). I am very glad the show came back to Chicago. I was also there just after it opened on Friday. I think one reason the garage wasn’t filled, at least half the women came by bus. I came in the wrong door and was in a large sea of bus groups. Whoever was in charge of the logistics for hanging the quilts spaced out the area with very wide aisles great for quilt viewing, but of course this made the vendor area rather squashed. All in all, loved the show. I felt the exhibition quilting trend must be 3-D flowers.