Yesterday, my friend Corinne and I went to the Capital of Texas QuiltFest! It was so incredible! I learned so much about quilting and gained a deeper appreciation of the techniques. Most of the quilts were in a more traditional style and didn't really appeal to my taste as far as patterns or colors go. But, the piecing of fabrics and stitching skills were jaw-dropping! So, as you look through all these pictures, try to imagine a little old lady actually sewing all these tiny fabric shapes together (sometimes by hand!), and pay attention to the beautiful stitching and how it enhances the pattern.
I love the red thread and how it contrasts with the blue and roses fabric. Plus, you gotta love the lone star of Texas!
If I remember correctly, the wreath is an applique done by hand! I also love all the rippling contours of the stitching.
I learned that as far as traditional quilts go, I'm partial to the red and white styles. It feels very Norwegian to me.
This quilt features all 50 state birds and they are all hand embroidered!
Ugh, it's so simple and classic I looove it!
I love how pure white fabric makes the quilting stitches really pop. In this quilt, I like how the more busy wavy quilting flattens out the negative space while simpler stitches allow the squares and butterflies to be puffier. This quilt seemed the snuggliest to me in the entire QuiltFest. 
I'm pretty sure this is called a scrap quilt because it is made from bajillions of fabric scraps. So many tiny pieces all cut and pieced perfectly! If you look closely you can see that even the white space is actually tons of different paler fabrics!
The colors of this quilt evoke the French countryside just perfectly. It's so La Madeleine. 
This is a wedding ring quilt with fabric from the 1930's. Or at least the patterns are, they may be modern reprintings of 1930's patterns. It's so lovely. 
I love the kaleidoscopic effect of the diagonal stitching on the corners of the quilt. So smart. 
I love the subdued hues of this quilt. It helps tone down the busyness of these fabrics.

There were a few avant garde quilts:
Can you even imagine figuring out how to piece these fabrics together. It's so perfect.
How do you even do this? It's amazing.
This is Harry Potter's bookshelf. Pretty cute idea, huh? You can see it won lots of rewards.

The shopping was also amazing. Jelly Rolls and Layer Cakes abounded! Isn't that cute quilting terminology?
Lots of Christmas Inspiration.
And of course, tons of Texas pride. I had no idea that there was such a community of quilters in Texas! 
We also got to see magical quilting machines. The one below is called a "long arm machine" and as you can see it can do some amazing stitch work automatically.
I'm so glad Corinne and I went. I left feeling really inspired and ready to finish my patchwork shower curtain I've been working on for months. I can't wait to show it to you guys!
 
Yesterday Jared and I went to some of our favorite places in Austin when we were in college: Bouldin Creek Cafe for coffee and Polvos for fajitas. It was a great day. Jared worked on his story while I finished some needlework and wrote blog posts at Bouldin Creek, pretty perfect!

Happy 4th of July! What are your plans?