My first quilt show

As a part of my mother's 60 birthday gifts, I had planned on taking her to a quilt show in Tucson.  My sister told me about it and said that she had gone to some before with my brother and she thought my mom and I would really enjoy it.  She was right.  There was some incredible quilts there! It was a long drive, and a long day to squeeze it all into, but it was really fun.  My grandma comes in the winter times to stay with my mother and so she was able to come on the trip too.  So glad we could take the time to all go together and enjoy a girl's day out! I took a lot of pictures and a lot of them you should click on to make them larger and really look at the detail, it's crazy!!! Enjoy!

Mom and grandma looking down on quilt show through window.

I tended to like the quilts with weird geometric patterns, the very not typical ones. 

Mom and especially grandma tended to love the classics with muted colors and florals like this one. The up close detail on it was amazing though.  Some quilters spend over 20 years on their big pieces!!

This one was a huge winner and always surrounded by tons of people!!

These thematic ones were really cute too!

I liked the ones with different textures.  My mom was able to point out of a lot of things such as the used materials and proper verbage for all the quilting techniques. 

I had to take this pic for Jake. Space/observatory quilt.

I enjoyed seeing the different categories.  Ugly fabric challenge.  :)

We ended up talking a lot about hand versus machine quilters and what we felt was "real" quilting.

This one had strips of fabric that lifted up to reveal the scene in the back.  Awesome illusion.

Another very popular one! Lots of detail to look at, and even under the flaps of clothes.....

"Shame on you", then continued with something about looking under her dress...:)

Detail and coloring was amazing!

I would totally hang this in my classroom!

I liked this one's outside of the boxness.

My mom's a sucker for anything sparkly and bedazzled.

This one was massive, no joke, probably at least three people tall and three wide.  The extra amazing part was the back was all quilted with a pattern too, not just one plain color.

My mom LOVED this lady's quilted and bedazzled denim vest so I had to take a picture of her asking about it.  This pic also shows her white gloves, in case you haven't been before, like me, they have guides there who wear while gloves and are the only people who are allowed to touch the pieces.  You have to ask someone if you want more details or the piece moved such as to see the back of it.  I was a little nervous to breathe around all these quilts. 

Loved this one about aprons.  It had a poem in the middle about all the uses of an apron and then details on each one from the poem. So cute!!!

Chicken apron to collect eggs in.

Took this one for my SIL Tiffany, she's a science teacher.  There was a whole category on gems and crystals represented in a quilt.

A booth selling squares for how to make all these funky chickens.  lol.

The only pic we got of all three of us and it has closed eyes and is blurry, but I still love it!

I finally got a chance to get a full pic of that best in show one.

After the show I took them to El Charro which came recommended by a few on facebook. The food has been a tradition since the 1800s I guess.  It was fun to read on some of the history.  I meant to take pics of the food, but didn't realize until we had already eaten most of it.  It really was quite delicious.  We first sampled their meats to see which one we might like, and then I ordered one of their specialties that had three enchiladas with each kind of popular meat.  Yum!! 

Not a great one of grandma, but I like it of my mom.

They are famous for cooking their meat outside in the sun.  Above the car, between the two buildings is a triangle hanging in the air.  That's where the meat is, cooking in the hot sun of the Arizona desert.  It kinda freaked my mom out, but I found it was almost jerky like, meaning well, well done.