And the winner is....

A chicken!! My friend RB and I went to Chicago this past weekend for the International Quilt Show. As always, there were many spectacular quilts on display. The one pictured above was the best in show. It was amazing to say the least. From this distance it is hard to see just how cool it is, but here are some amazing things about it:

1. The entire quilt was made with commercial prints and commercially available batiks. Most representational art quilts use lots of hand dyed fabric created specifically for the quilt, or use lots of fabric paints to create the image.

2. The quilt was entirely quilted on a home sewing machine- every feather, every grain of wood. Outstanding.

3. The quilt took one year of planning and three months of vigorous execution to get it right. During execution, the quilter used the local church basement ladies to provide feedback. Church basement ladies rock!

4. Most quilters are women. This quilter was a MAN, baby! Woo hoo!

As usual, there were about 400 vendors to empty our bank accounts. The strangest was an entire double booth devoted to patterns for Bedazzlers. I threatened RB that I was going to buy the Texas! pattern and bedazzle it on the ass of all her pants while she slept. (Note to self: remember not to tell the people selling the tool for affixing Swarovski hot fix crystals that they are selling bedazzlers. They're a bit uppity and humorless.)

The best vendor was Martelli products. Their demonstrator is a handsome young guy in a clingy cotton polo shirt and nicely fit blue jeans. This guy knows how to work a crowd of 10,000 old hens and me. His tactic is this: when you are trying the product, he reaches across the table, puts his hand gently on yours and helps you achieve the correct hand position. SOLD! The ladies (and me) swoon and buy lots of his products. Last year I bought a rotary cutter from this guy without even hearing much of the presentation. RB and I are plotting a booth next year staffed by shirtless cabana boys. We don't know what we'll sell, but it won't matter. We'll still rake in the cash.