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Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Trip to Illinois

I have been out of town for several days visiting my parents in Illinois. I left last Thursday and came back yesterday. I had found out online that the Quilt National 2009 show was going to be in St. Charles, MO. and that was part of the reason I wanted to visit (My parents live across the border from St. Louis.) We decided to go to the show on Friday because we thought it would be less crowded.

When we arrived at the Foundry Art Center in which the show was being held, the parking lot was very empty. When we went in, we discovered why. The lady at the front desk said the show wasn't suppose to open until the preview that night at 7 p.m. But she said we could go talk to the quilt lady that was in charge. The lady in charge was kind enough to let us see the show even though they were still putting the finishing touches on it and getting ready for the preview opening that night. She also said if we wanted to buy the book (which I had planned on buying anyway), then she would just include the admission price in that. So basically, we got in free.

All three parts of the traveling exhibit of the show were there. After this venue, the show would split up and travel separately. I have several books from the past Quilt National shows (it's a biennial event). But now having actually seen it in person, you miss some things in the book. There was wonderful artwork there. I loved being able to look up close and see the stitching and figure out the different techniques the artists used and how they were put together. We were not allowed to take any pictures.

But I did take some pictures of the Foundry Art Center. It is a big building with gallery spaces on the bottom floor and artist studios upstairs. You can go into the studios if anyone is working or just look in the windows. It also looks like a nice space to hold events.





After viewing the show, we had lunch in the quaint town of St. Charles. Outside the restaurant were these beautiful flowers that the butterflies loved. I love the polka dotted body of this butterfly. When finished with our lunch we enjoyed going into some of the small shops nearby.

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