EVENT OVERVIEW 

We are back again to Lancaster for our twenty-second year—to celebrate twenty-two years of quilts and quilters! It’s hard to believe we are in the third decade of this event.  We’ll have the things that have become tradition and several things new. Our theme exhibit for 2009 will be “Inspired by…,” a look at how quilters have been inspired by the world around them to create exciting quilts.  See the web site or e-mail us for further information in case you think you might have a quilt to share for this year’s theme exhibit.

As you’ve come to expect, throughout the exhibit halls will be quilts both old and new, competitions, special exhibits, the Merchant Mall, and other unique items related to this wonderful world of quilting. It’s a pleasure to offer hands-on and lecture/demo classes in all sorts of techniques, including longarm quilting, that quilters have embraced as we have learned and grown over the last twenty-two years.  

We’ll have entertainment at the QHC tea party on Thursday with Susan Cleveland’s innovative design ideas, other “inspired by…” lectures by Cheryl Barnes of Golden Threads, Morna McEver Golletz with the Professional Quilter Magazine, Bob Purcell of Superior Threads, and Roberta Benvin and Joan Hamme. Back by popular demand will be Two Quirky Quilters and their delightful humorous presentation revised just for us at our Friday evening dinner.  Morna McEver Golletz will give us a studio tour of some well-known quilters at our luncheon on Saturday, and for our final get-together Saturday evening, we’ll have our Show and Tell. 

The 2007 edition of the world’s premier art quilt competition, Quilt National, will be present, featuring Section C of the traveling unit of this exhibit which is sponsored by the Dairy Barn Southeastern Ohio Cultural Arts Center, Athens, Ohio.  With a guide for a gallery tour on Sunday morning before the exhibit hall opens, you will have the opportunity for an in-depth look at this avant-garde example of artistic textile expression.  QHC is one of only three quilt shows in the nation to be able to share this exhibit.

And once again on Friday, we will have a delightful fashion show put together for our pleasure by Diane Herbort from Arlington, VA.  Wear your wearable art and be part of the show!

Your tour through the exhibits will include a return exhibit from Association of Pacific Northwest Quilters and their Living Colour collection. Check the web site for updates in December and January on what else will be new. Continuing exhibitors who will feature new quilts include: Northern Star Quilters Guild Challenge, Signature Art Quilters, Stretching Art and Tradition Challenge, Teachers’ Showcase from those teaching/lecturing at QHC, and, of course, the Quilters’ Heritage Celebration Juried and Judged Show. Updates will be posted on the web.

Be sure to peruse the class offerings of the folks that we are delighted to have on the faculty for the first time at QHC including Frieda Anderson and longarm instructor Linda McCuean, winner of the 2006 $100,000 Quilting Challenge grand prize for her stunning quilt “Bella.”  Also new to the faculty is Linda Hahn and her daughter Sarah Hahn. Returning by request this year are Bobbi Bergquist, Susan Cleveland, Kimberly Einmo, Cynthia England, Judi Gunter, Libby Kube Hage, Kay Hickman and Lisa DeBee Schiller, who emphasize color, texture, machine and hand techniques and design with an artistic perspective.  Quilt appraisals will be done on site by AQS certified appraiser Phyllis Twigg Hatcher, and she will present two workshops, adding a historical research component to our ever-expanding topics of interest.

In the “back-by-popular demand” category are the early bird classes and a tour being held Wednesday, before the show opens on Thursday.  Several teachers and their most popular classes are back in the class list including:  Carol Blevins with her machine classes, Making Labels/Kim Churbuck, Diane Herbort with all new classes, John Flynn with a new class, Nancy Johnson-Srebro with two new classes, George Siciliano with two new classes, Virginia Siciliano to keep our hand quilting top-notch, and Bernadine Yoder with her lovely embroidery techniques.

In keeping with the “good can always be better” philosophy, some changes have been made in the REGISTRATION PACKET INFORMATION, THE PROCESS and POLICIES for registering both individually and in groups… DO TAKE TIME TO READ THE REGISTRATION INFORMATION MATERIAL CAREFULLY before completing your form and mailing it, faxing it or submitting it by e-mail from the web site.  Please read thoroughly and check material carefully for changes from past procedures.

BE SURE TO REVIEW THE SEWING MACHINE POLICY, THE APPRAISAL PROCESS, AND THE CANCELLATION INSURANCE POLICY.

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