A quilt show virgin no more

Today I escaped from my loving family for a couple hours and headed out to Annapolis High School for the annual Annapolis Quilt Guild Quilt Show. It is important to remember that this is only my second year quilting, so it's not like I've been avoiding going to a quilt show, it's just that until this year, I probably couldn't have told you what a quilt show was. I'm not sure what I thought went on at one of these things, but I think I just assumed that I was too amateurish to be allowed in. Like they were gonna check my bona fides at the door. "Gladys, this one says her quarter-inch seam is 'fairly accurate,' but doesn't know how to do a y-seam. Should we let her in?" "HELL, NO!"

But naturally, the entire public is invited, so I gave them my eight bucks, plus five more for some raffle tickets, and met up with the lovely Kelley C., a longarm quilter from Kent Island on Maryland's eastern shore. She is also a member of the Annapolis guild and was its program director until very recently. She knew all the quilts on display - who made 'em, which workshop it had been made for - but she she didn't spill any good dirt, like this quilt was made by Gertrude Calabash, and she went nuts after her third husband left her for a dental hygenist and now she only makes quilts depicting Corn Nuts and hairless cats. I forget, sometimes, that I don't live in Tennessee anymore.

I wish I had gotten a shot of a particular one of Kelley's quilts, since it was absolutely gorgeous and so creatively quilted. But I kept forgetting that I had a camera with me. I did manage to get in a few other shots (and no, I don't know what the patterns are!)

That last one is the raffle quilt.

Kelley and I only had about an hour to wander around, so there was no after-show socializing. I was sorely tempted by some Cosmo Cricket fabric at one of the vendor stalls, but ultimately I resisted and ended up buying a damn jelly roll from Blank Fabrics instead. Why do I keep getting tempted by those damn things? Two or three yards of fabric would have made me just as happy and would be a hell of a lot more useful, but those goddamn precuts are like crack to me.

So, now I've been to a show, and the follow up question is, when will I join the guild? Or at least visit? I'm not sure yet. I have to find out when rush week is, and if they do that thing where they make you strip down to your underwear and then circle all the places on your body where they think you need to lose weight. I've heard they beat pledges too, but Kelley swore it was only the Tri-Delts up in Baltimore that do that.