Quiltcon is back in the City of Oaks and we know what that means…my sister Meghann and her colleagues from Fayetteville’s “Loving Stitches” quilt shoppe are going to be doubly dead-dog tired by the time the show is done!

Today was the annual journey of Mom and I remembering just how fun driving in downtown Raleigh in search of a parking space near the Convention Centre…isn’t!

The usual one I go for directly south of the centre was closed to people who wanted to actually park their vehicle so I had to tiptoe through the mess that is the Memorial Auditorium refurbishing and pull into the deck just east off Lenoir. One tight turn to the right later that I wasn’t totally convinced I was going to navigate successfully and a ticket from the gate and we managed to find a rather decent spot that didn’t require escalators or steps to take us right into the mezzanine level without having to go outside in the dreadful mildly moist weather.

I’ll have to remember that parking deck! 🙂

A couple of QR scans that yielded some pink stickers (mine ended up on my wallet which had a much better chance of it sticking) and then it was time to navigate the vendor booths to find Meghann’s home for the weekend.

Or more accurately, Meghann actually came to find us and lead us to her domain near one corner of the cavernous main room.

After a quick “how ya doin'”, she was back to cutting some bolts of fabric and Mom and I were off in search of an old-school thimble as Mom’s 120 year-old one seems to have been put in a very safe place, so safe in fact that she has no idea where it is!

Now, you’d think that a massive show devoted to sewing and quilting would have at least one thimble on offer but we’d gone through most of the vendor booths and we were hard-pressed to find any tools at all, much less thimbles that she might find useful. One booth did have a few thimbles for sale but apparently they aren’t the good and durable ones.

By this point, Mom’s ready to rest for a bit so she checks out a fabric demonstration and I wandered off to visit one of the sections where some quilts were being displayed and judged.

As you might imagine in the rather dark times in which we find ourselves, more than a few of the quilts that I saw were of the protest persuasion and so be warned that in the gallery there are a handful of them that don’t hold back on the invective or the wordy derds!

One rather clever protest quilt was best experienced by one of the volunteers wearing white gloves holding the bottom of it so it appears the figure splits to show someone emerging with the Navy pilot’s salute.

I had no idea at the time that I picked the right section of the floor to explore the quilts on display (my favourite part of the show!) when I got almost to another corner of the convention floor and had my mind absolutely blown by the very adorable Miss Lorelai Kuecker (artist and owner of Pigs In A Blanket Quilting not too far from Kansas City, Missouri), an incredibly talented and passionate young lady of sixteen years whose quilt was absolutely stunning in it’s texture and detail and the brilliant use of vibrant colours as well as the negative white space to grand effect.

Don’t worry…you won’t have any doubt which one I’m talking about when you get to it in the gallery! Just look at that texture and detail!

The hard part will be working out for yourself if I’m referring to the breathtaking quilt on display or the stunning quilted dress she was rocking complete with sparkly heeled boots that would make Taylor Swift envious of her ensemble.

On second thought, only a fool would try to choose one or the other… 🙂

To look at her work, you’d be shocked to find out that this very charming tornado of talent whose family were apparently quilters in the distant past and whose sewing legacy have come roaring back with a vengeance in Miss Lorelai who really caught the quilting compulsion a mere five years ago.

She spends many hours each day happily quilting in the studio in addition to tending to her studies and one would presume the usual chores about house. Her mother confessed that sometimes she has to crack the whip a bit to get Miss Lorelai to come out of her studio for, and I quote, “doing something fun”. Her mother also confirmed that Miss Lorelai is as expert in the art of eye-rolling as only teenage girls can be and I can hear her trying desperately to beg off and stay in her happy place because she’s having so much fun bringing her art to life.

She has the regal bearing one would expect of a princess or a queen (and it probably won’t come as much of a surprise that she has indeed ruled as a beauty queen in her hometown not too far from I-70…long may she reign over us!) but to hear her speak of her love of quilting and the barely contained excitement and passion at being able to bring forth her artistic vision shows a maturity and sense of purpose well beyond her years.

Miss Lorelai will surely be able to do anything she wishes in the quilting world and is well on the way to stardom if not already there. And yet hearing her soft-spoken yet passionate voice and that humble demeanour that is the hallmark of growing up in a small rural town, it’s hard to imagine that success and recognition that surely will be hers as certain as the sun will rise in the morning will really change who she really is at heart and the core of her being which is an artist who wants to bring a vision of beauty into a world that is so desperate in need of it.

She’s exactly the young lady you can’t help but cheer for her to do well even though there’s little doubt in my mind that she will do just that.

Miss Lorelai has a book that’s due out in May and I’m rather hoping we’ll be able to snag a copy when it’s released. Even though what I know of quilting or sewing or indeed any of the arcane crafting arts is just barely this side of nil, I have a feeling that it’d be worth reading if for no other reason than to try to understand how she and everyone else that does such amazing work with cloth, thread, and needle can do so without going stark staring mad in the process and maybe learn a thing or two as well.

She and her kindred creative spirits will be what brings us out of the darkness and into the light and that gift of hope that we do have a brighter future thanks to the artists and creative people amongst us is a gift for which words do not seem to do adequate justice.

There was no way I was going to let Mom miss the opportunity to meet Miss Lorelai and her mother so we could swap some stories of our shared experiences in Missouri (and for me in Kansas) before it was time for us to head out so Mom could get back home whilst it was still light outside.

It’ll be interesting to see how Miss Lorelai’s gotten on the next time Quiltcon makes it’s way back to the City of Oaks! 🙂