Hershey, PA Quilt Odyssey Show this past weekend.
 

I just returned from the annual Quilt Odyssey Show held in Hershey, PA. It is a little over an hour and a half drive for me. My husband was kind enough to share the driving. They had one large room of quilts that were entered in the show from all over the U.S. The lighting was rather poor but I know how picky professionals in particular are, about exposing their quilts to a lot of light. I ran into several of my guild members from each of my two guilds. I also recognized the names of some of the quilt makers as women that I had been co-members of mine when I belonged to the MasonDixon Quilt Professionals Network. There were some very lovely quilts. The workmanship was outstanding. I was not surprised to see how many were longarmed or at least machine quilted. The handquilted ones were mostly the antiques.
I really go to these things for the Vendors Market. I needed some new leather thimbles and was on the lookout for some large quilting stencils to use in finishing a raffle quilt that I am handquilting for our local Linus Project Chapter raffle. I was able to find my thimbles and purchased three. The stencils were not there. I was amazed by how many different long arm machines are now avaliable from how many different companies. I even tried using one. They are still not for me even if I was willing to spend that much money. One of the vendors tried very hard to talk me into purchasing her long arm machine. Between my carpal tunnel, my bad back and my poor feet I just was not interested. The machine would take up a lot of room and I couldn't watch TV while running it. I am afraid that I would soon feel like a factory worker in a sweat shop if I started doing quilting for others. I will stick with my handquilting.

Just wondered if anyone else got to the show and what they thought.

Here is a link to the post that I wrote regarding my haul and a couple of other thoughts: http://www.quiltingboard.com/main-f1...s-t196064.html

I really enjoyed the show. The only quilt shows that I have been to previously have been local shows. Certainly the quilts entered in those shows were beautiful and well above my experience level for sure. However, the level of quilts in this show were spectacular. I definitely feel inspired to challenge myself more.

I saw that there were some hand quilted pieces in the show but true the overwhelming majority were machine quilted and then probably the greated portion of those quilts were longarmed. However, as I said in my previous post seeing that "America, Let it Shine" by Sherry Reynolds was machine quilted on older domestic sewing machine is just amazing to me. It also tells me and shows me that I can do so much more with what I have than I've been doing.

One critique that I do have about the show is I wish that there had been more detailed information about the quilts. When I googled the two quilts that I liked I found more information regarding them from previous shows than what was provided in this show. I would have loved to know what Beth Nufer's artist statement was. A little snippet about how ALIS being done on a DSM would have been great too.

Also, I would have liked to have some information or history of the show. In other words, what is the basis for the show or mission of the show. I feel like it would help me to understand the selection of quilts and the hows and whys of it all.

I enjoyed the vendor mall. It was particularly great for me because here on Long Island we don't have a lot of Civil War repros and we have no shops that have primitives or wool. I thought the variety was good and I was able to see and get information about some products that I have wondered about. I wanted to try out one of the longarm machines but in the end I decided not to. There is a shop near me that gives a class and then rents out there machine. That is a more viable option for me. I just don't have the budget or space for a longarm. Maybe I might be able to swing a sit-down longarm but even that is far off in the future so no use in playing if I can't pay.

I plan to go again next year. I would really love to make it a weekend and then get some other quilty things in as well as the show.

hi! i am also from long island. where are you located? i am in west islip. i also went to the show and stayed 2 nights in harrisburg. my friend does the driving. we went to burkholders, 2 good's stores, 3 joann's (including a super joann's), sauders, weavers and my favorite of all martin's. i believe there was 2 more in there including one in town of hershey whose name escapes me now. i did love the show and thoroughly enjoyed the "meet and greet" on thursday.

I am in Lake Grove. Nice that you were able to stay a couple of days. I just went for the day on the bus and it was ok but more time in the area definitely would have been better. It is a bit hard to get away like that, though, as I have a 4 year old son.