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!

Quilt Shows

Red/White Quilt Inspirations

I recently wrote to a new friend:

This evening I was looking at the red/white quilt exhibit in that was recently put on in NYC.  My mother has an iPad, so I downloaded the app and was able to view each quilt.  Oh my.  I may spend all my visit here looking at these quilts (which isn’t very sociable).  They are so “vintage,” yet so fresh and modern.  Quite a yin-yang of feeling as I was looking at them.  I noticed that some of the patterns seemed to mimic–or are mimicked by–current quilt patterns.

Enjoy the slide show.

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Quilt Shows

American Folk Art: Red & White Quilts

Apparently there is an incredible exhibit of red and white quilts.  Judging from this photo it might give the viewer a sense of having tumbled down the rabbit hole and is now gazing upon a whole pack of playing cards, all arranged into circular forms.  From the website:

The American Folk Art Museum has dramatically transformed the Park Avenue Armory’s historic 55,000-square-foot Wade Thompson Drill Hall with the installation of 650 red and white American quilts, all of which are on loan from the collection of Joanna S. Rose.

While I couldn’t embed the videos I saw on their Flickr site, here’s the link to a short clip from someone who visited there.  Can I just say I’m insanely jealous?  What a sight it must be to have all those quilts flying high up in the air above you–and all red and white?  The Museum’s Flickr group–with their 355 photos at this posting–gives us viewers out here in the hinterlands, a glimpse of what it must be like.  Amazing.

This one is reminiscent of what was hanging in my hallway over Valentines’ Day.

How did I find out about this?  I read Carrie Nielson’s blog (she of Schnibble fame) and found this there.  She’s going.  I’m completely and utterly jealous.  Head over to LaVie En Rosie (the title of her blog) to read more.  She has links to slideshows, the museum, an article in the New York Times–yep, she has it all.  I’m now going to buy the magnets and download the free iPhone app.  I may also download the iPad app, just in case I’ll need it for the future.