IQFOI - part 4

The Claddagh ring is a symbol of Love, Loyality and Friendship.  Here in the city of Galway, the Claddagh fishing village has been consumed long ago.  But there remain remnants of the past all around. 

The Chocolate exhibit was unusual in that as you entered the building the scent of chocolates was in the air and candy themed music was all around.  The quilts lined the entry way and in the center were 2 pedestals.  One with a giant fabric cupcake and the other with a faux box of chocolates that looked real enough to eat. 

Of all the chocolate quilts, this one by far was my favorite.  It is 3 dimensional with the chocolate poking out of a gold lame wrapper.  The chocolate was made from either faux or real leather.  It looked real.  It must have been very challenging to work with. 

This isn't a very good picture, but it shows a closeup view of the 3D chocolate poking through the top. 

This was another one of my favorites of the chocolate themed quilts.  The stripped border pieces were pretty small.  This quilt measured about 30 inches square (I'm guessing). 
You had to climb a flight of stairs and go out a sky-walk to the next building where the classrooms were, or school house.  These classrooms were a good size.  Pfaff sponsored the event so in class we used their new basic machine.  From this area you passed through double doors down a long corridor to the Promenade where the miniature quilts, 3 D quilts, Round Robins,  and more were displayed.  I took hundreds of pictures but will only share my favorites with you. 

On the first day of the festival I saw this quilt being hung, by the way, it is facing a wall so I had to take it at an angle.  They didn't have the black lights on this display yet, so I thought "hmmm 3 color quilt not very interesting".  The next day I returned and the lights were turned on and as you see above, the black light really made this quilt glow.   There were a couple more 2 and 3 fabric quilts in this display, but this one really made that statement. 

This is my son's favorite quilt.  He would love to have one like it for his media room.  I liked this one as well.  My picture doesn't do a lot of these quilts justice and the quilting detail doesn't show up well.  I will have to learn more about my settings in my camera and work with difficult lighting. 

This lily pad quilt was sprawled in the middle of the floor in one of the exhibits.  I really liked this one, but I thought it was very risky to just lay it there.  I am sure it got stepped on. 

Ribbon winners

Miniature quilt winner.  I didn't have a ruler, but I would say it was not bigger than 16 inches square.  The pieces were incredibly tiny.  I love this one.  I must have taken a dozen pictures of this one alone.  I don't know why I was mesmerized by it even before they pinned the ribbon on. 

All the miniatures were amazing.  I am sure most were made using a foundation, but it was incredible to see such precision in a tiny piece.  The pink fans above were only 1.5 inches square (I'm guessing here).  Next time I will have to remember to bring my tape measure.  They all look so even and perfect.  I always wanted to do a super small miniature quilt.  I even have a couple books on the subject.  I've attempted a couple charm quilts and they look too much like a doll quilt, not a miniature. 

Overall it was an amazing festival in a wonderful city.  Visit IQFOI to see more about this year's festival.  I hope you've enjoyed seeing my view of the show.  Maybe this has inspired you as this trip has inspired me.

Until next time, have a good day and take some time out to do the thing (s) you love.  ;o)