Quilt Shows

Entering a Quilt Show

I haven’t entered a quilt show for ages, largely because I haven’t had time to make a quilt that was quilt-show level.  I’ve been making lots of quilts for children and daughter/daughters-in-law and some to throw over our sofa at home, but I always think it has to be a hard-enough quilt to enter a show.

I read the application and they said clearly, “no color correction.”  Oh-oh.  I’d taken all those photos for my quilt journal, but I had to color correct some to get the gray day out of them.  And then they said “no cropping.”  So I had to retake them all.  I hope the judges enjoy the photo of my garage door studio.  I tried to get in close enough, and covered the lock with a tissue (for disguise).  Above is Come  A-Round, one I’m going to enter.  I’ve seen this design before in this show, and they may not want to have it in again.  Plus I don’t quilt every 1/4″ all over the top of the quilt (I like my quilts to “move” a little) and that has sort of become popular at this particular show.

But still.  I’m going to try.  Lyon Carolings, above.  This one doesn’t have the garage-door-studio look.  I found out a setting on the camera to counteract the grayed photos I’d been getting, so I didn’t think that was cheating.  I guess it’s only after-the-fact that they don’t want us messing around in Photoshop.

The last one is I want to enter is All Is Safely Gathered In.  It’s harder than you think to get the quilt perfectly squared up in the frame, and it has to do with making sure that your camera lens plane is absolutely parallel to the quilt plane, or surface, and that your camera is also physically level with the center of the quilt.  This is trickier than it sounds.  (I have seven of this photo to prove it.)

Then I thought about the close-up, and what they’ll do with the close-up.  We have to submit digital photos and I just know they are going to get their computer out and magnify everything.  Every missed stitch, every unbalanced thread, every backstitch instead of burying the tails.

It’s like looking at your morning face in a 15x magnifying mirror.  Frightening!  Now to fill the application out, put the photos on a CD, write the checks for entry fees, and wait for the rejection acceptance letters.

Quilt Shows

Springville Quilt Show, Part II

Again, so sorry not to have lots of interesting information for the quilters.  Our dead desktop computer has gone to the shop (cue: violins) and we’ll find out if our fancy back-up external hard drive system has been working for us.  Or if we should just start crying now.  Okay, let’s look at art to take our minds off of the hum-drum of our very dull twentieth-century-computer-dependent lives.

Upstairs, the museum has a lot of art from Russia; I’m giving you two of the paintings that just leapt off of the walls.  This one is my sister-in-law’s favorite, and I can only imagine it’s because of the beauty and hope and passion of these young girls on their graduation day.  I wanted to take it home with me.

This one could be a quilt!  A May Day celebration, complete with balloons.

Here’s another exhibit room, and in the far right corner is another quilter who has the same thing on her mind as I do: the Lollypop Tree Quilt.

But Chris Manning’s version is stunningly different from the usual brilliantly lit up colors used on this quilt.  I took lots of photos–lucky you, you get to see them all.  I was so impressed by this coloration.  Really fabulous.  Title: Lollipop.

Those greyed-out greens, mossy colors work incredibly well with the pastels, the deep tones.

I covet this, really I do.  Is it because it’s “done” or because it’s so beautiful in the tones and values and colors she chose.  Both.

Last gallery.

Sorry the lighting is so dim on this quilt, but you have to believe me when I tell you that Rhonda Montgomery’s quilt My Favorite Things, is a real knock-out in person.  They had the quilts really well-lit, so the flash wouldn’t go off on my camera (I know, try reading the camera book to see how to do a fill flash.  That’s next on my list–right after solving the computer problem).

I peeked closely at these letters–either she went around each of them with a marker, or else it’s a very thin line of acrylic paint.  Whatever the technique, it made them pop off the quilt.

Brenda Sommers’ Grandma’s Lemonade Stand was in that room with all the deliciously pastel quilts–again, this photo doesn’t do it justice.  So I read her name, and then wondered–don’t I know her?  That name is so familiar.  I think she used to live in my neighborhood, but I guess I’ll never know.  We quilters travel in a small world!

Julie Saville made this quilt, and I think it’s titled Road to Ohio.  I love all the sampler blocks arrayed around the center medallion.  Sampler blocks seem to be popular right now, with a couple of Quilt-A-Longs going on.  Here’s an idea for putting it all together.

Kathy Young’s quilt, Not So Long Ago, is an homage to her childhood family and home.

Perfect!

This reminded me of the May Day painting in the upstairs Russian galleries.  While I’ve been fixated on red and white quilts, this shows you what using red as a “neutral” can produce.  It looks like another Becky Goldsmith and Linda Jenkins design (like the dotty circles quilt, yesterday).  They keep us busy with applique!

I believe this is titled Grandma’s Old Time Garden, made by Patsy Wall.  I love those carnations in orange-striped fabric!

This is one where I have no idea who the maker is, nor the title.  I apologize, but I include it even without that information, because I’m really impressed with her soft shading of color to color–using up lots of fabrics (an idea for a scrap quilt?)  It quite possibly could be Carolyn Hulse’s Scraps of Rainbows, but I really don’t know.

It was beautifully done.

Strawberry Baskets is done by Valerie Marsh, and is another delectable pastel quilt.  The quilting is quite amazing, and if I ever get the computer back–and restore its memory–I’ll let you know who did it.

By the time Janice and I finished the show (I’m on the far right and Janice is next to me), our niece Lisa (in the black) had arrived and followed the sound of our voices to find us.  Becky, another sister-in-law of mine (Janice’s sister) came just as Janice and I had to jet–and she brought me two gigantor zucchini from her garden!  I love getting together with these fine women, and how fun it was to do it in a quilt show!

Thanks to the Springville Art Musuem, and the co-sponsors, Utah Valley Quilt Guild and Corn Wagon Quilt Company, for this lovely morning!

Quilt Shows

Springville Quilt Show, Part I

When I was in Utah last week, I slipped down to the Springville Art Museum for their annual quilt show.  They have quite a reputation, and for those who are juried in, the honor of having their quilts displayed in a museum.  My sister-in-law, Scott’s mother, invited me down and I jumped at the chance to meet her and look at the quilts.

Generally I like to photograph the cards placed near quilts in a quilt show so I can add that information to any quilts I might put on this blog, giving credit to the maker/quilter.  And I would give them to you, but —  ahem — my desktop computer’s hard drive died today, so you’ll only get the quilt and the maker, with no details.  Sorry about that.

I liked Allison Babcock’s Stars of Glory, because of the interesting sashing around the outside of the blocks. Sometimes something so simple can really pop up the interest on a tried-and-true favorite of stars in red, white and blue.

For some reason, the only info I have on this is the last name “Baldwin” but that could be a wrong name.  This was a beautifully done quilt with points crisp and perfectly formed.  I was quite impressed.  I also liked the quilting.

Cathryn Hulse made this, and it’s either Islands of Color, or Scraps of Rainbows.  I’m voting for the former, because the applique reminds me of a Hawaiian quilt.

CharLee’s Flower Baskets was made by Cheryl Barlow.  This whole room in the museum had a series of quilts done in pastels, with lovely applique work and inventive quilting. It was like tasting all the best ice cream flavors, but in quilting.

This is the patio, just outside the door.  If I’d had more time, I would have stopped and enjoyed the sculptures in this garden.

Francine Berrett made Blue Daisies and won a blue ribbon for her work.

Ann Bowen’s quilt delivers such a nice visual impact.  Upon closer look, though, we noticed all these signatures and messages of good will.  Then the title–The Perfect Beginning— finally clued us in: it was a quilt for a newlywed couple, perhaps signed at the reception by all the guests?

It’s interesting what a snowballed block can look like when combined with other like blocks.

This houndstooth quilt by Brittany Burton is titled Baby Love.  I’d never seen a houndstooth quilt before and I think this would make a great scrap quilt–she used lots of Kaffe Fasset fabrics to deliver the punched-up color scheme.

Laurel Christensen brings us Sunflower Forest, a jumble of flowers and grasses and colors and shapes–so wonderful.  I was impressed with the high quality of the quilts in this show.  I only saw one potential dud (shall remain nameless) and perhaps that evaluation was in the eye of this beholder.

The first exhibit room.

We ran into Susan Gilgen, as she walked around with some family members.  This quilt, Autumn Birches, had also been juried into the most recent Houston show, winning first place in the Art/Naturescapes category–it was a masterpiece!

Fun to see a quilter with her work, don’t you think?  Visit her at her website.

Jackie Hadley and I have been thinking about the same thing this past year.  Her quilt, My Color Wheel, has a bit different finish on the outside borders than does mine, but so fun to see it!

Carol Johnson, Have I Not Made the Earth? shows a slot canyon in Southern Utah, glowing in brilliant reds, yellows and ochre colors.

Last one for today: a rendition of non-extant old pioneer/family home, also by Carol Johnson.  The title of this one is Gone, But Not Forgotten.  The quilting is amazing–you can see the wind flowing through the skyscape above, and regretfully, I didn’t get any close-up photos.

Come back tomorrow for some more!

Creating · Quilt Shows · Something to Think About

Quilt Festival Entry 2011

Welcome to those who clicked over from the Blogger’s Quilt Festival!

Heart’s-ease

I made began this quilt in a class from Ruth McDowell.  For those who have taken her classes, you know you only begin there, but then go on to spend a good amount of time chasing down just the right fabric to go in a particular spot.  It was a four-day class and by the end, we were all dragging in–our creative juices spent, our bodies dead tired, but our vision–changed.  For Ruth (who by the way didn’t look tired at all!) had changed us.  I was then, and still am now, a quilter who is enamoured with the grid.  I love nine-patch, stars, crazy about sashing, and love love love Log Cabin.  Maybe it’s my orderly nature or something, but when you finish a grid quilt it’s like having cleaned out a drawer or a closet or two.  You’ve restored some order to the universe with your neat rows and sharp points (even if you have cut off a few in construction–who notices?).

Heart’s-ease is the old-fashioned name for a pansy.
Ruth suggested I use a fabric that my husband brought me from Zimbabwe as the center; she was right–it really works.

So trying to do this quilt–which is a strictly right-side of the brain, pile on your fabrics, cut those pieces of freezer paper and go go go sort of process–humbled me.  The angles–none, except a few around the border–are that blissful 30 or 60 or ninety-degrees cut over and over.  The picture I’d brought in of the pansy determined her own angles, her own coloring and background.  I think I cornered the market on yellow-green fabrics that year.  But after a year and a half–it was finally done.

It had been on my pinwall while I finished my undergrad, earning my degree in Creative Writing.  So in a way, both Pansy and I grew while she lived, unconstructed and grid-free as I wrote short stories and the beginning of a novel and struggled through having my own brain cracked open and reformed.  No tidy endings for either the stories or the pansy, but only a dark, broken border to contain our tales, our thoughts, a few dreams and a degree.

Heart’s-ease label.
When Amy asked for a quilt that taught me a lot–this just HAD to be the one!

Thanks to Amy for hosting this.  Some of the other quilts I’ve been working on are:

Come A-Round (which is at the quilter right now)

Spring/Life’s Alive (I just needed a light, happy quilt)

Christmas Star (Whew! Made it before Christmas arrived last year)

You can read about these and others by clicking on the collage of words in the right margin.

Hope you find more inspiration and ideas. I’ll be looking at yours as well!

Thanks for visiting,

Elizabeth E.

Click here to return to the 2011 Quilt Festival, and come again!