Wearable Art at the International Quilt Festival-Chicago

Last week I had the opportunity to spend a couple hours at the International Quilt Festival in Chicago at the Rosemont Convention center.

This expo offers classes, seminars, make it and take its as well as an amazing display of quilts and a vendor shopping area.

I'm not a quilter. I dabble here and there in quilting but that is it. Even though garment sewing is my passion I can appreciate the work that these quilters have invested in their works of art. The amount of time, the attention to detail, the planning and the passion that is infused in these quilts is quite evident.

In this years showcase there was an area dedicated to garments. These garments were all in an exhibit called Fashion Flashback. This was a nice surprise for me! These were what I would call wearable art and delightful to look upon! Many of them incorporated traditional quilt techniques to make portions of the garments and many of them are heavily quilted as well as pieced and appliqued. As you can see in the photos below these mostly border in the fantasy realm and must have been quite enjoyable to create. Several of course look like a quilt made into a piece of clothing and while an incredible amount of skill and work were employed in their creation, they simply are not to my taste. I would prefer them on my bed or keeping my lap warm on a cold evening.

The dress on the left was created by a local designer, Eve Kovacs. Always nice to see locals in a large expo.

I believe this jacket and pants ensemble are beautiful and quite wearable for the everyday.

This was the most whimsical of the bunch!

This was one of my favorite ensembles. Again a very wearable ensemble with untold amount of hand and beadwork on the jacket and the pants hem.

I also enjoyed perusing the regular quilt sections of the exhibits. There was a wide variety displayed, from very traditional antique quilts to modern day miniatures and my favorite, the wildlife quilts. Quite a few were for sale, although no prices were listed. Of course my very favorite one, which I would have enquired about, was already marked sold! 

My hands down favorite of the quilts!

Those eyes are so full of expression!

Made out of yo-yos!

This was my favorite miniature quilt, only about 12" square! FEED ME!!

The vendor area was mostly quilting supplies and quilting fabric. However there were a couple vendors that had some fun things. I purchased some silk strips to play with as trims. The Wool House was in attendance but had mostly boiled wool and wools that would appeal to quilters so nothing that really enticed me. I did get a new iron and of course a couple little girl dress patterns for my princess.

I also bought a new iron, I really needed one. My rowenta finally gave up. I will do a review of it once I give some use.

As I wandered among the vendors I can upon the Soutache booth! so nice to chat with a familiar face :)

Happy Sewing!!

Hello! Can you hear me now? Oh wait... this is not the phone! it's the TV remote. Silly Girl!