Artistic Artifacts South

It’s tough for a small business when more than one opportunity arrives at a time. We’ve happily relied on Chris Vinh to help Artistic Artifacts be in two places at the same time in the past, and she’s just come through for us once again!

On the Road for Artistic Artifacts

Guest post by Christine Vinh, StitchesnQuilts

This summer, I was fortunate to represent Artistic Artifacts at two events hosted by the Asheville Quilt Guild. In June, we were invited to be a vendor at the North Carolina Quilt Symposium and most recently we were at the Asheville Quilt Show. The guild members at both events exhibited their Southern hospitality and welcomed us warmly.

For me, it was a bit of a homecoming as I was born in Asheville and my folks moved back to the area when I was in college. Hanging out for two weekends gave me time to visit some favorite spots with friends and family as well as to make new friends. Even better was to have Barb Boatman, one of the Creative Minds who had taught at Artistic Artifacts and participated in a number of local artisan events at Del Ray Artisans, work the booth with me for both events. Barb retired to Hendersonville, NC this year and, in addition to helping with sales, she was welcomed into the quilting community by the folks we met.

The North Carolina Quilt Symposium, Inc. is a non-profit corporation that was formed after the first North Carolina Quilt Symposium in Raleigh in 1979 The purpose is to promote and perpetuate the art of quilting through regularly sponsored symposia within the state of North Carolina and to sponsor other projects designed to preserve, continue, and advance this art form. The Symposium is held in different areas across the state each year, and next year’s event is scheduled for May 2–5, 2019 at Lake Junaluska in Western NC. The event in Asheville had a roster of instructors and a display of award winning quilts from guild members.

Photo: Susan Cleveland quilt “Seven Ringie Dingies.” Susan uses WonderFil Specialty Threads in her quilts and likes InvisaFil for her applique and stitch in the ditch quilting. Susan has also worked with WonderFil to create namesake color-themed packs of Spagetti 12 wt 100% Long Staple Egyptian Cotton thread.

Photo: “Even with Brown” by Gyleen Fitzgerald, author of Trash to Treasure Pineapple Quilts and creator of the Pineapple Tool.

Photo: Chihuly at Biltmore, the first art exhibition in the estate’s historic gardens. Biltmore is one of Asheville’s most recognized attractions.

The Asheville Quilt Show is put on annually by the Asheville Quilt Guild. It is a juried show and open to all quilters and included over 350 quilts in addition to vendors, silent auction, demonstrations and lectures. You can find this year’s winners on the guild website. Barb and I were kept busy all three days. The photograph at the top of this post was taken after we set up; you can see the beautiful Artistic Artifacts version of Step Into Christmas quilt, created by Dudley Shugart.

We met lots of loyal fans of Artistic Artifacts as well as introduced the shop to many new customers.

Photo: Barb Boatman, right, discussing her own style of quilting using strips of aluminum cans woven with fabric to Georgia Bonesteel, author of numerous books, host of The Lap Quilting series on television and producer of the documentary The Great American Quilt Revival. Georgia had work on exhibit and was volunteering as a guild member.

Photo: “The Unexpected Visitor Goes Walkabout” by Jane Butckovitz. Her description stated, “I read a book on Japanese quilts saying they have an unexpected visitor somewhere. There is one in this quilt, mixed with Australian Aboriginal fabrics.” Can you find it?

We spotted it! A block featured Effervescence by Amelia Caruso (center left ring).

Photo: “Jazz Festival Backup Singers” by O.V. Brantley, Atlanta, GA. An original design with beautiful batiks and African Fabric.