Images of a Missed Quilt Show

This quilt entitled Face the Music was made by Candace Tucker, Patty Ashworth, Tone Haugen-Cogburn and Bridget Wilson Matlock. It took 1st place in the group category at last weekend's Smoky Mountain Quilters' quilt show.

It’s only now, a week afterwards, that I am able to tell the story of how I let down hundreds of quilters while trapped on an island in East Tennessee. The Smoky Mountain Quilters Guild was having its annual quilt show and I had volunteered to be in charge of returning quilts, judging sheets and any ribbons to the respective quilters after the show was over on Sunday afternoon.

That Saturday morning I organized all the judging sheets into neat, labeled envelopes for the show. Then I went out to Maryville for a day of music and a night camping at Fleta Fest, a tiny festival on a little island in a fork in the river. We arrived with a cooler of picnic food and drink to this beautiful grassy place on the river with great live music.

Then that night it started to rain. It rained hard, all night long. When I woke up on Sunday the river had risen so much that I couldn’t drive my car off the island. The little stream that ran across the drive was now raging. I worried the river wouldn’t go down in time to get home, shower, and make it to the show in time to look at the quilts before I was in charge of taking them down.

A Wild Goose Chase by Carol Snapp, quilted by Denise Waymire

Hours went by and I began to worry I wouldn’t make it at all. I had all those judging sheets and a bunch of show catalogs that they needed at the show. When my cell phone would work,I was talking with the ladies at the show giving them updates on the level of the river.

In the end, I didn't make it. The guild had to scramble and return all those quilts without the judging sheets. I never got to see the quilts.

The river finally started going down at seven that evening, but by eight it was rising again due to rain in the mountains. My amazing friend, Felicia (who I now owe BIG time) drove 45 minutes to pick me up. I had to leave my car out there until the next evening.

Close up of Entry Riddle by Betsy Robinson

The photos of the quilts are from the Smoky Mountain Quilters' quilt show website. See the rest of the quilts from the show here. View some beautiful pictures from Fleta Fest, the festival I was at instead, at photographer Todd Reinerio’s website.