We randomly scored some free tickets to the recent International Quilt Festival at the convention center in downtown Cincinnati. Trade shows are fun and quilts are cool, so this was an awesome event to attend, with over 20 group exhibits plus a fascinating glimpse into the world of quilters.
I wanted to photograph pretty much every quilt on display but limited myself to the ones in the exhibit Tactile Architecture, seen above and below.
The less I know about a trade show’s specialty, the more fun I have. Previously, I’d attended the Detroit Auto Show, where I caught a glimpse of a three-wheeled concept car. At the International Pork Expo in Indianapolis, I learned tons about the latest advances in artificial pig insemination technology. Yum! The quilt show had a bunch of crazy-ass sewing machines that you could sort of “drive” across the fabric. Pretty cool stuff.
For more VL quilt love, check out the work of Jimmy McBride, Haptic Lab, Leah Evans, Ian Hundley, and Citizen:Citizen.
Department of Everyday Visualingual 
I kind of jokingly dismissed the quilt show on twitter, boy did I get an avalanche of abuse about it.
But now, looking at your pictures I almost wish I had gone.
Those quilts are incredible.
You shouldn’t have been a hater! Amazing experiences can be had when you just say yes without overthinking [I think you know that better than most people]. You have to figure that this kind of event would feature the best stuff as judged by people who know what they’re talking about. And free tickets? You can’t say no to free tickets!
Growing up in the boonies and going to county fairs left me with a narrow stereotype of what a quilt is. If they do this again next year I’m beating the network for a pair of tickets.
See, when this city slicker attended a county fair a few years back, my jaw was on the floor all afternoon. Tractor pulls? Deep-fried Twinkies? Competitive logging? Who even knew such wonders existed?!?
Luckily for you, it will be back next Spring — 13-15 Apr. Mark your calendar!
Wow! These quilts are gorgeous! Like the other poster, I wouldn’t have thought to attend an event like this, but it’s obvious that it was really inspiring to you.
Thanks for these pictures. I was looking around for pics from this particular exhibit when I stumbled on your photos, because I’m an art quilter and am thinking of making a quilt for the tactical architecture contest in 2012. I wanted to see if my idea fits within this category. It’s very interesting to see the comments here. I think the media and the rest of the art world has done an extremely poor job of keeping up with what has been going on with fabric arts, particularly quilting. People still think of quilts as ONLY the wonderful colorful snuggly things their great grandmother made. They still MAKE those quilts, and may they never stop, but that’s not all that’s going on, as you see here.
You’re absolutely right, and I might have fallen into trap before seeing this show. That’s why I was happy to share these photos of so much great work that defies the stereotype.