Friday, April 16th at last! Raymond and I left for Chicago. Chicago is known for a lot of things… deep dish pizza, Al Capone, the mob and prohibition, site of the World’s Fair … and so much more…But this trip, Chicago is all about International Quilt Show.
One the way down, we made a few stops. I’ve heard from lots of people that I should get to Newmarket to see Evelyn’s Sewing Centre, so we took the opportunity to go. Evelyn’s was something to see with tons of fabric and quilts and notions and embroidery stuff etc, etc... From there, we headed Birch Run in Michigan. Why you ask? One word: Outlets! On Saturday, we stopped at the Lighthouse in Michigan City for some more shopping.
Finally, to Chicago! Getting to our hotel was the first step – driving in Chicago isn’t at all like Ottawa, but we made it! And who did we meet as we were about to check in? Johanne Batchelor with the news that we crossed time zones and gained an hour with our travels, so off we went to the Show!
We had big plans to make sure that we saw everything. There were about 150 merchants in the exhibition hall so we had lots to see in addition to the quilts. Time was short on Saturday; there was so much fabric, notions… my goodness, just tons of stuff! Good news was that we had all day Sunday to look at everything and have the time to take it all in.
On Sunday, we got to the show early, before opening – I was eager to get there and see it all! The exhibited quilts were so fantastic and varied in techniques and styles that I took a ton of photos and bought a book of the quilts we were not allowed to photograph. Pictures are worth a thousand words, so I’m sharing lots from this trip (primarily of the Show). Then we went back to revisit the merchants. There was so much to see! From a section of Canadian themed quilts to still life subjects (that did not look still at all!) to traditional heirloom quilts to more sublime works of abstract art there was a lot to appreciate.
Monday, we visited Chicago. We took the train to downtown and then started walking. One of the attractions of Chicago is the Magnificent Mile. It is basically a mile of stores with famous names – a must see (but you can’t buy… way out of my league)! Chicago is a huge and vibrant city with loads to see and do. It was fun! We like to visit a city by taking some kind of tour, and Chicago has a get-on, get-off tour on a Double Decker or trolley bus. We got on the Double Decker and decided to enjoy the sun – oh boy! Hold on to your hat! Here I thought Chicago was the Windy City in the metaphorical sense to insinuate that Chicagoans were braggarts because of all the boasting Chicago politicians had done to best their rivals in Cincinnati in the 1960s, but it turns out that the wind off Lake Michigan has got some zip of its own.
We stopped at The Art Institute of Chicago to visit the incredible Impressionist collection. I have never seen so many Impressionist paintings in one room. There was an extraordinary Matisse exposition. Check out George Seurat’s «Un dimanche après-midi à l'Ile de la Grande Jatte». The website for the museum is: http://www.artic.edu/aic/.
It’s nice to be back in Ottawa, and I sure am inspired by the phenomenal quilts that we saw in Chicago hopefully this will be reflected in the store in the months to come.
1 comments:
Wow. Those photos were absolutely beautiful! Next time, take us with you!
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