Pizzazz! designed and quilted by Ruth Davis — an original pattern!
Never a Blue Heart Made and quilted by Lisa Johnson
Sheryl Gillilan designed and quilted this quilt, titled, It’s All a Game!
The Boys on the Block Designed, made and quilted by Marian Eason
Afternoon Delight Made by Patsy Wall; Quilted by Kim Peterson
Winter Bouquets Made by Katherine Porter; Quilted by Emmy Evans
At first glance, I thought the flowers were broderie perse, but it’s all appliqué!
Ann Larsen started Nature’s Chorus in 1999 and finished about 30 of the blocks. During the pandemic she finished it. Quilted by Shelly Dahl.
I loved the simplicity and elegance of this design, with outstanding quilting.
Pamela (a fellow judge) and Wendy (Chair of Quilt Committee) on the day the show opened. (Lisa’s quilt is in the background.)
Julie Saville first created the borders of her quilt Star Garden, then did the center. She also did the quilting.
I could have looked at this one for hours–sorry about the images. Photographing in high contrast light (like spotlights on quilts) often does funny things. It was stellar, though!
Florence Evans’ Bow Wow Chow Mein Made by Evans; Quilted by Quilts on the Corner
Improv Curves, Made and Quilted by Marian Murdock
Effervescence • Made and Quilted by Sheryl D. Gillilan
I loved this quilt, with all its blues and aquas (my colors!). It is titled Straits of Mackinac and was made by Lani Brower (my second scribe) in a Bonnie Hunter class on Mackinac Island, Michigan. Peggy Cameron did the quilting.
Just a handful more quilts for this post.
Diversity – Unity – Harmony (Mobius Radial Quilt) Made and Quilted by Luanne Olson
I hope you can see what a wide variety of quilts there are in this show!
Andrea Erekson made and quilted Happy Golden Days
Katherine Porter’s Fan Flower • Quilted by Virgina Gore
There were quite a few more quilts, but next year you’ll just have to go and see for yourself. Thank you, Springville Art Museum and the Utah Valley Quilt Guild!
Or really, it started with an email from the Quilt Show Committee asking me if I would consider judging one of my favorite small shows: the Springville Art Museum Show. The quilt show is put on by the museum, but the Utah Valley Quilt Guild provides the bulk of the volunteers, the manpower to get it all put together. According to Wendy, the chair of the Quilt Show Committee, I would be there all day, and they would provide lunch (which was delicious!). It was a 9-5 job, in other words.
Yes, I was a bit nervous never having done this before, so I did pretty extensive reading before I went, carrying copies of the NQS guidelines, and other references I found. In reviewing them the night before, I thought: “After nearly five decades of quilting, I either know this…or I don’t.”
What I wasn’t always aware of was how to compare quilts that are quite dissimilar in style, execution, materials, etc. According to NQS guidelines, it often comes down to the number of design decisions made by the maker. I let that be a guide as I worked through the quilts.
Wendy (shown here at the end of the day when she was relaxed) was my first scribe, and Lani (on the right) was my “interim scribe” when Wendy went to assemble lunch for us all. In the morning, I met my other two judges, Pamela and Chris (our bios are at the bottom of this page), along with our the other scribes. The Museum Curator, Emily, and Wendy gave us instructions.
Each quilt was to be judged twice, but each judge was to only judge a portion of the quilts (roughly 60). We would look at the quilt, check off the items on the scoring sheet, leave a comment or two about the overall impression of the quilt, then the scribe would leave the paper upside-down under the quilt, to be picked up later.
The scoring sheet had the usual items dealing with construction, design, quality, straightness, buckling or cupping of edges, tension of stitches, and so forth. Having participated in larger shows, I was suprised that they didn’t have two categories for machine: stationary head or moving head (long-arm), but instead lumped them all together (I will compose an email to the curator, later). And I was surprised about the fixation with binding on the score sheet — was it straight? was it even? was it filled? I dutifully did my inspection, but thought this was a minor detail overall. I’d heard about this from others, but still roll my eyes a bit.
The fun part was getting to put my hands all over the quilts. I kept them clean, washing them often, but it was necessary to determine — in one case — whether the tiny circles were appliquéd or painted onto the quilt (painted). I had to pull at design motifs to figure out if it was a panel or appliquéd (panel), and check other various parts of the quilt.
I’d read the phrase in my studying, “If you can see it, the judge can see it.” Yes we can. I spent a lot of time picking off threads only to find they were attached, like this one, above. We had about an average of 3-4 minutes per quilt. I’d read that some shows are judged “flat” and other shows are judged “hung.” Ours was obviously hung, so we couldn’t really examine the top corners, but could do the rest of the quilt pretty well. I spent a lot of time running my fingers down the bindings, picking up corners to check for construction.
My scribe dutifully wrote what I dictated. I soon learned that I was better about commenting about the design right off the bat, then could address the “needs improvement” comment after I’d gotten up close and personal. I think that what I said about those first few quilts were a bit clunky, and wish I could go back and re-do some of them, but we had pretty hard and fast deadlines, so I pressed on.
All three of us.
In later afternoon, after we had all judged the quilts, the real discussion began back at the table. We needed to fill out the top winners, settle our differences about what quilts should be elevated to awards, and choose our own Judge’s Choice. I thought we worked really well together as a team.
There were three major awards, with Best of Show being one of them. Then a few more Awards of Excellence, then Honorable Mentions, along with Sponsor Awards, Museum Awards and others. We had a lot of norming of the score sheets to do, which meant running off to see the quilts yet again, discussing them among ourselves. I liked this part of the best, as I felt we each had different tastes and approaches and this gave a good evaluation of which quilts should get an award. I could point out details in the quilts I’d judged, and they could point out details in the quilts they’d closely looked at. Finally our awards lists were complete and we handed them in…early!
Here I am holding my Judge’s Choice ribbon in front of the quilt I chose. There were some specifications for what we chose, but generally we had free rein. Notice the two judging sheets on the floor (we each had a different color), and the paper pinned to the corner of the quilt with the barest amount of info: no names, no stories of the quilt. It was just us and the quilts that day.
I was surprised that they gave me an honorarium, so I promptly went across the street to Corn Wagon Quilts (one of the sponsors) and went shopping. The Circle of a Quilter’s Life, right? I spent the night at my sister’s house in Provo, and over dinner, she dutifully listened while I talked about my experiences. She also had listened to me years before, after I’d gone to Quilt Market; I’m glad she was there.
So, in the end, did I “know it?”Confidently, I can say yes. Do I want to judge another show? Yes. Do I want to judge a show like Quilt Market or Paducah? Heaven’s no! But many small regional and guild shows need judges, and I feel I could do this. Like every quilter, I’ve made a lot of stitching mistakes in my life which brings one kind of education, but being able to go to — and participate in — some of the shows such as Quilt Market, Houston, Atlanta, PIQF, Road to California and other large national/international shows has given me another kind. After participating all these years, I was happy to be able to give back.
If you haven’t entered a Guild Show, or a regional or national show yet, give it a try. They can only say no, and you might be surprised about getting in!
Happy making–
Next post: Many quilts from Springville. Sneak Peek:
It’s here! It’s here! Road to California is finally here! Or was there…because I’m writing about this event and it’s in the past, as is typical with reporting on news. The bag this year was cute, using the Best of Show winner Janet Stone’s quilt from 2019–and it was sturdy as well as colorful (hooray for none of those cheesy faux fabric bags from years of yore), and has the ever-popular aqua-blue trim. But enough on Road Fashion, and on to my experience at Road.
First up was a class with Laura Heine, then two days of class with Jen Kingwell: Halo and Steam Punk.
Simultaneously, my friend Leisa was headed to the hospital as her cancer had progressed rapidly and she was in for a wild ride. I wrote about it on IG, and was grateful for Jen Kingwell’s kindness to me during a very stressful two days. So if I look a bit wiped out in the photo above, it’s because I’d been crying on and off for two days. All I have to say is if you are going through crisis, be sure you’re with Jen and her comforting brand of patchwork. And the class–so wonderful, and so fun to be surrounded with like-minded soon-to-be friends, all doing patchwork. It was mostly a hand-sewing class, but because my distraction level was sort of high, I did sneak out my little sewing machine and piece mine. I need to make up a few more and make a small wall-hanging; such fun designs!
But happy news was that Afton of QuiltingMod had decided that if half of the Gridster Bee quilters (photos below) were coming to Road, she wanted to come too. So she roomed at my house, and rode back and forth with me for three days — a great companion and fun to be with. She took the photo, above. Because she’s a youngster (under 45), she was able to take part in a research project about younger quilters, and luckily her interview room had a great view of the retail booths in the large exhibit hall.
Map of Road. Our quilts were all in the Ballroom to the right. The Pavilion (on the left) had a combination of grab-n-go food and vendors.
I found Ladybird first. I’d received a congratulatory note the night before from a friend about winning, but as we like to say in our house, I may have gotten the sign, but the neighoring quilt got the ribbon and the money. By the end of the week, she had the sign, too, but it was fun while it lasted. I was in there Thursday at lunch to try and find my three quilts in the Road Showcase.
They had a new set-up this year at Road, and while there were a few lighting problems, overall I’m a big fan. The quilting really pops, and we could lean in a bit closer to the quilts to see detail. They had music going on (from a vendor selling harp and keyboard music) and while by the end I was wishing for some light jazz, that tunes weren’t too bad either. The only complaint from everyone was how cold it was, but that’s not anything the Road people had control over (they were renovating parts of the Convention Center, so I chalk it up to that). Boy, you are getting ALL the details. Sorry.
Cute signs showing the “streets” of this neighborhood, and that first time a contestant (that’s what we’re called) head into the room, they are sort of frantic about “Where’s my quilts?” So I’m photographing this sign above, asking the White Glove Lady how to make sense of it, and I turn around to see this:
I went looking for Simone‘s quilt that Kelley quilted–it was just down the “street” from Ladybird, so easy to find.
When class was out, I went to see some of the vendor mall, as the crush dies down mid-afternoon. There were lots of fun things to see and to buy.
And I had one more quilt to find: Azulejos, my newest quilt, all the way at the end of the Atrium. Close-up, below left. (More on that in an upcoming post.)
One of the fun things was the meet-ups of the Gridsters. Clockwise, from above left:
Jennifer (local) and Carol (Boston)
Afton (New Mexico) at In-N-Out Burger (I made sure she tried our Southern California burger)
Lower row: Lisa (Utah), Kelley (Palm Springs), Afton (NM), Simone (local);
Back row: Me (local), Carol (Boston)–all of us at our traditionl Mexican place we dine at every year.
I also saw Janice (in class with me), and we had a group picture of others, also at El Torito on Friday night:
Others at our dinner were Kim, Lori, Betty (Utah), then Carol’s daughter Hayley and her granddaughter, Maddy, who was very shy. Laurel (next to Carol on the left) is also one of our regular “Roadies.”
Many of us then headed over to Jenny on the Road, an evening presentation with Jenny Doan. We went two years ago, but this year we were handed some swag: a tote bag, a T-shirt, and some fun notions. It was a nice evening, but after being on the go for a few days, I was ready to head home and crash. Afton kept me entertained, and kept me awake, and I was glad she’d come to Road.
I’ve posted numerous quilts that were in the Showcase on Instagram @occasionalpiecequilt and used the hashtags #road2ca2020 and #roadtocalifornia2020.
Next post: Road to California, Part II
Last post: Road to California, Part III
I’ll be speaking and giving a workshop locally, at the Citrus Belt Quilters Guild. The lecture, titled Abecedary of Quilts, will be on Friday morning, October 25th. The Workshop, which is a Two-for-One class (Home, Sweet Home and Merrion Square) will be Thursday, October 24th. This is my last local presentation, and the last for this year; I’m excited to meet all the quilters at the Citrus Belt Guild!
Now on to PIQF: Pacific International Quilt Festival. I’d been reading Gillian Travis’ blog for some time, enjoying her small quilts, generated from her photographs from her travels abroad. When Susan took her class at Road, and recommended it, I wrote to Gillian, asking if she ever taught in the States (she’s British). Why yes, she replied. I’m teaching at PIQF. I hopped on the computer and registered for her class.
One of the first quilts she showed us in class, was the one above, based on a visit to Burano, Italy. I had similar photos, and was really excited to make this (the above is a composite of several photos).
Gillian provided patterns for us to work on smaller versions of Burano, or smaller version of a Yorkshire Village. I chose Burano, and above you see my progression from tracing to placing to fusing down. I got so far as to fuse it to my background (the blue in the upper left corner), and right now, it’s still folded up in my bag, still unpacked. I’m looking forward to unfurling it and getting back to work on it. We pinned our class’ versions up on the wall:
Some even got to making the white frames around the windows.
I really enjoyed this class, and was happy to move from there, to her lecture that night, where we enjoyed more visions of her work and her stories. My friend Leisa and I also attended two more evening events: David Taylor’s lecture on Wednesday night, and the Fashion Show of Creative Garments on Friday night (photos are up on IG), which we both really enjoyed (especially the narration by Rachel Clark).
Leisa (L) and Tracy (R): we went around on Thursday and looked at the show together. And how about that PINK ribbon, behind their heads. Now there’s one I could covet.
Here’s the one that everyone wants: a blue ribbon.
And Tracy won this for her quilt Sew She Did, which she designed, pieced and quilted. Congratulations, Tracy!
A closeup of one of the blocks.
On Saturday morning, I went and said good-bye to my two quilts that were in the show. Annularity (above) was in a nice placing, all by itself in good lighting.
Ladybird (above) also was placed well, with okay lighting. I talked to one woman who gave me a full (and lovely) critique of what was going on in my quilt. It was nice to talk shop with a complete stranger. I also saw (and got a photo with) Roberta Horton, who really launched me from beginning quilter to serious quilter. I’d taken classes with her at Houston, and I was a complete fangirl when meeting her.
As someone who has traveled to Houston, QuiltCon, Road to California, Palm Springs, and Virginia shows, the last two Mancuso Brothers shows, as well as to Long Beach, I have to say that some venues have real difficulty with lighting (all the Mancuso shows and the Long Beach). The entire show felt like it was in a greenish cast, and not nearly bright enough. My husband told me he could see it in the photos I posted on Instagram. That first night, halfway through, everything all of a sudden went brighter, and I realized they hadn’t “warmed up” the lights. So none of the photos I took at the beginning are any good.
One of my quilt heroines, Tanya Brown, whose work I have followed for many years, had Cranky Claus hanging in the show, along with Life Nouveau, but they were horribly placed. She gets into Houston every time, so I was suprised where they’d hung her quilts. It made me belive that maybe the organizers/hangers didn’t know who she was? My friend Lisa has helped hang Road to California for several years, and I know the effort that show goes to in displaying each quilt to its best. Their lighting is very good, as well.
The other issue I had was that some quilts got hung that shouldn’t have been: poorly designed, poorly made, odd choice of materials or subject. When speaking with one of the Mancusos, I asked how many quilts were submitted: “Roughly 450.” How many quilts are accepted? “Those that meet our standards.” (evasive) I pressed on, asking, How many quilts are rejected? “2-5%.” So then you hang nearly everything. He mumbled something about that standards business again, but I had my answer. I did smile when I saw that their webpage listing their award winners didn’t use the photographs from their contest venue. (I saw most all of these.)
I decided I would focus on the fact that my quilts hung in the same show as Tanya Brown and Tracy Cox, rather than my quilts hung in the same show as the fleece-lamé-fur-shells beginner’s quilt, above. I was there once, at the place where this quilter was, and for many years, every entry of mine into quilt shows was rejected. I appreciate it when the judges a) limit the number of entries, and b) jury the quilts into the show. It appears that this year at PIQF there was very little jurying going on, which makes for an uneven show quality.
Last Whine: when are these older shows going to come into the modern age and put Instagram names on the placards? QuiltCon has done this for years, and it makes it easy to tag people when posting. Okay, on to the fun.
One highlight was going to the show Friday late afternoon when everyone had cleared out. We had the vendors to ourselves, and got to spend some time talking with booth vendors. We may have purchased the pre-cut kit to make Tannenbaum, but also vowed not to pressure ourselves to get it done for 2019.
We also participated in the Bernina giveaways, the vendor mall (where I saw some old favorite booths — hi Cecile!), and met and chatted with new quilters. We enjoyed the evening lectures/fashion show and came away with new projects to sew, as well as good memories. I need to go and unpack and sort and pre-wash my bright tangerines and indigo blues (I was on the hunt for these fabrics) and decide what to do with my length of kantha fabric, but I wanted to get a post up quickly, while it’s still fresh in my mind.
This has a billion pictures, so get ready to scroll. I need to wrap this up and bring my head back to what I’m doing in real life. This is the final post of my visit to the European Patchwork Meeting in the Alsace region of France, this past September. I have a main page that lists all the posts, in case you come at this from a side street on the web.
This quilt show, or meeting, was held in four different towns in France, and I’ll wrap up the first town, Sainte Marie Aux Mines, then move to St. Croix Aux Mines, and finally Liepvre. We didn’t make it to the last town, Rombach le Franc, but Jodie Zolliger, who lives in Europe, has written several great posts about what she saw, including the Amish exhibit. If you are interested, feel free to click over to her blog to catch more.
The Amish exhibit was beautifully laid out in this venue, and as I mentioned, Jodie wrote a great post about it, with better titles and information than I gathered.
We walked down to the Temple Reforme, where the Val Patch Association, the local guild, had an exhibit titled “La Maison,” or Home. All of the quilts in that exhibit centered around the theme of home, showing slices of daily life.
I took a panoramic of the colorful quilts across one side of the church.
But fell in love with these panels, made by several members. Jodie has a great post on this one, too.
Off we go to the next town.
Pilot, 1995 • 100cm x 126 cm
I selected to head to the Espace Expositions first, to see the Beauville Company’s exhibition of prints from their archives, but was entranced by the skilled and exquisite use of log cabin construction by Andrew Leblanc in her quilts. I am listing the sizes of the quilts in centimeters, as noted on their title signs. (100 centimeters is roughly equal to 39 inches.)
Pilot, detail
It was pretty amazing to me how she’s used the width of the strips to create her portraits and pictures. Again, the lighting was superb.
Professor, 1996 • 76 cm x 100 cm
I laughed at this one, because my husband is a professor (but he doesn’t look like someone out of 10th century Russia, or what I thought this man looked like). Detail of the glasses, below.
Oasis, 2011 • 103 cm x 103 cm
While this isn’t a figurative portrait, the use of these fabrics was so interesting–not ones you’d associate with creating a design of any kind. Detail, below.
Colin-Maillard, 1995 • 110 cm x 220 cm
Colin-Maillard, detail showing fabrics
I like how they’d put other constructions of hers in a tableau on the floor. She had many quilts there.
Grand-Pere
She was always busy talking to people at her table, so I could only get this sideways shot of her. Her website shows many different parts of her creativity.
We headed down the road, again, to Liepvre (and try as I might, I cannot get my blogging program to allow the accents over their words, so I apologize–it keeps kicking them out when it spellchecks), to the Eglise de l’Assomption where an exhibit of Hildegard Muller (Germany) was hung. The lighting was very “contrasty” so I did a little photoshopping on these to render them closer to what I saw.
At the birch grove, 2016 • 102 cm x 70 cm
Detail. She hand-dyed her fabrics and then let her mind find the scene that was in the cloth, or so she told me later, when I asked. However, other times, she had an idea in mind when she was dying the cloth, and made it that way.
Love in wartimes, 2015 • 102 cm x 70 cm
Detail.
Dreams of Amsterdam, 2014 • 102 cm x 70 cm
Dreams of Amsterdam, detail.
Imagination
We walked from their to the Exhibition Hall to catch a couple of exhibits; we had to choose as we didn’t have time to see them all. So many of the quilts in this building were perfectly done, all Best-of-Show-type quilts. The one above took my breath away, so I have a few details shots of it. I loved that it was an imitation of one in the Shelbourne Museum — another way our patchwork influence crosses the ocean. The title of the quilt was Marie-Henriette, and was made by Martine Crabe-Lanux.
The Twinkle-Stars Remake Quilt by Helga Huisman Hildebrand was also in the “France Patchwork” association section. There were several countries represented in this hall.
Another France Patchwork quilt, titled Bleus, and made by Maria Vuilleumier.
She also had one done in gray, black and white strips, but that one was called Insomnie, or Insomnia. (Because I’m trying to wrap this up, I’ve heavily edited what I’m posting.)
Last section, last group of quilts is from the Patchwork Gilde of Germany. These quilts blew me away. Every year they have an exhibition and members are asked to enter what they’ve been working on (more info on the placard, below). This grouping was titled “From Tradition to Modernity 21.” Because your scrolling fingers are probably worn out at this point, I’ll post the title and the maker on the quilt; some titles are in German.
Komposition, by Christa Ebert • 110 x 142 cm
Detail, Komposition
Frau Hansen Klaverquilt, by Uta Rodemerk • 183 cm square
Mannerschmuck in Frauenhand, by Sabine Koch
Mannerschmuck in Frauenhand, detail
Okay, as near as Google could translate it, I think this means “Men’s Jewelry in Women’s Hand,” which I thought was really clever given that these are neckties.
Ausrangiert-neu sortiert, by Inge Bohl of Germany
Discarded, rearranged is how Google Translate interprets this title.
Zerbrochene Illusionen, by Lilo Hartmann
Zerbrochene Illusionen means Broken Illusions, as translated by Google Translate.
Zerbrochene Illusionen, detail
The Power of Blue, by Gabriele Schultz-Herzberger • 75 x 132 cm
Flussaufwarts, by Susanne Fellmann-Horsch
Flussaufwarts, detail
Crazy Canadian Square Dance, by Barber Reschka • 108 x 107 cm
Schattenspiel, by Monika Flake • 107 x 131 cm
Schattenspiel, detail.
In GrossmuttersNahkastchen gekramt, by Christine Naumann • 78 x 86 cm
In GrossmuttersNahkastchen gekramt, detail.
So what do you do about it? by Maire-Christine Chammas • 108 x 147 cm
Very cool quilting.
Vogelwild III, by Tina Mast • 129 cm x 94 cm
I was told that she teaches art at the local university. This was stunning.
Leaves, by Christine Brandstetter • 99 x 132 cm
I talked for a few short minutes to the Uta Lenk, who was the International Representative of the German Patchwork Guild, and she said they would welcome the chance to exhibit at American shows. I know our local show, Road to California, often has exhibits come from other places, and I would love to see these there. I almost joined the German guild, but realized that all their materials would be in German, and alas, I wouldn’t be able to read them, but I did buy a pin.
All in all, going to the European Patchwork Meeting taught me that while we Americans fanned the flames of patchwork, the idea of three layers held together somehow, has taken wings, and taken off. If I were to go again, I’d leave at least two days for the show, and perhaps stay somewhere closer (we stayed the first night in Mulhouse, about an hour away) and in Turckheim the second night (35 minutes away). It’s near Colmar, and there is much to see in that town, as well. And…bring an empty suitcase!
How’s that for a title? This post is all about the official competition of the Patchwork Meeting, and I have a sampling of the quilts in the contest. I purchased the Catalogue from the organizers and it was interesting that it is printed in three languages: French, German and English (yippee!). The contest theme this year was “Journey to the End of the World” and all the quilts were to be 35″ wide by 47″ inches tall. This was the first indication that it would be a different type of competition than I had been used to seeing in the States.
Car in main parking lot
I realized quickly that this would represent all different nationalities, cultures, countries, skill levels (generally really high) and all types of construction. I chose to notice not only their interpretation of the theme, but also the how and the why they chose to use the materials and techniques they did, always hoping to learn something new. These quilts are in no particular order. You can note the winners by the small rosettes in the lower right corner.
Tatiana Varshavskaya’s In the Beginning. She is from Hungary.
Her artist’s statement wrote from the perspective on a three-year old, with “continents to conquer, horizons to overcome. Free, without anchors or restraints, you venture forever in the infinity of childhood’s imagination.” She finishes by writing “You are three years old, and sail to the unknown with a paper boat.”
Small Boat, Small Trip, by Sandra Van Velzen of The Netherlands. She writes “Not so long ago the length of your trip depended on the size of your means of transport. Nowadays planes and the internet seem to make the world smaller and the trip longer.”
Gabriele Yoeller, from Germany, created Finistere evoking “France, Bretange…where the sun goes down and the land ends. Even the Romans called this land: ‘Finis terrae.’ Before you: only water. Is there something else? New worlds…or a monster?”
A quilter from Spain, Eva Arrelano Martin created Into the Deep, an “homage to the effort of thousands of workers who spent and sometimes lost their lives in the their trip into the [great cavity] of the world.”
Two Americans, Jim Smith & Andy Brunhammer made “June 19th,” celebrating Andy’s birthday Their artists’ statement notes that “We are both long-term HIV-survivors, and our end of the world has always been just around the corner. We chose Kaieteur Falls in Guyana [where Jim’s father grew up] as the background. . . Our arm is reaching out with the cascading red ribbon symbolizing the flow or our blood. The clusters of pills are our life-force.”
Esodo, by Angela Minaudo of Italy says that “The work represents the journey of those who run from the land in search of a better life, towards other lands, other worlds, towards the end of their world and often toward the end of their lives.” Esodo means “exodus.”
A Japanese quilter, Chiaki Yagishita, made Japon. Her statement read “I think ‘creation’ and ‘infinity’ equals ‘silence.’ There is ‘silence’ in Japan and it is beautiful. This work expresses ‘Japanese blue’ [or] ‘the silent world.’ ”
Anneliese Jaros, from Austria made 101 Views of Vesuvius (my translation of her title). She wrote that she loves the Gulf of Naples, and Mt. Vesuvius. “The eruptions of the volcano in the course of history have been the end of the world to many…Parts of the letters [by Pliny the Younger] describing the eruptions are printed in Latin on cotton, which are then overlaid by my own photos of contemporary views of the mountain.” I tried to capture the detail of the overlay, below.
Au pays des atomes translates to “In the Country of Atoms,” and is a quilt by French quilter Françoise Buzzi-Morel. She write that atoms “are able to reach the end of the world…beyond any human limits. And in one precise order, they geometrically follow parallels, cubes, circles and lines.”
Another French quilter, Eriko Krzyzaniak, made Emmenez-moi au pays des merveilles, or “Take me to Wonderland.” The colors of blue and gold were inspired by the icon of the Virgen Rynecka in the Church of Our Lady in Prague. “The drawing,” she writes, “was inspired but the poetry “The Little Flute Player,” by G. Brassens. It was the starting point of my ‘Wonderland.’ ”
I snapped two more photos showing the detail of her work (below).
Rita Dijkstra, from The Netherlands, did a rendition of Mount Fitz Roy (her title). She describes it for us: “The road on the quilt leads to Mount Fitz Roy on the border of Argentina and Chile (Patagonia)….For me Patagonia stands for the end of the world. The only way you can travel more south from this point, is by taking a boat to the South Pole.”
No return was made by Anne Lillhom, from The Netherlands. She writes “From birth to death, we go through different stages. We have good and less good things happening in life, days with more colors and days with less colors. We have periods in life where life goes up and days where it goes down…Nobody knows what the life journey will bring us, the only that is for sure is….there is NO RETURN. We simply have to follow the path.”
Details, below.
Michèle Samter of Switzerland made Excitement of a big city, her tribute to Singapore. She writes that “The vibrating performance of all the lights in different colors from high-rise buildings and traffic all night long evokes [a] feeling [of having been to the end of the world]….The contrast between my home in Switzerland and this other city, which never seems to sleep, had a great impact on me.”
Incredible Voyage to the End of the World is by Dalia Eliraz, who is from Israel. She writes: “The Arctic tern’s [long] trip from Arctic to Antarctic and back is the furthest animal migration. Over 30 years, it will travel the equivalent of 3 roundtrips from Earth to Moon. My quilt is inspired by this super-migration bird, as a metaphor of human behavior [when] motivated by determination to achieve a life goal or purpose….whether it is love, academic ambition, artistic aspirations or nesting…”
Dreamland, by Elly Van Steebeek (from the Netherlands)
She writes: “There is a place, [far] from home with a beautiful blue sky, singing birds, flowing rivers and dark rocks. And after a spectacular sunset there is total darkness, only a whispering wind and the sound of the busy. This is the land of my dreams!”
This is Edith Leidi, from Italy, and I was so excited to meet her, I forgot to take a photo of the complete quilt. The title is Stargate. What’s next? and I loved what she wrote: “My idea was born in the swimming pool. I was watching my husband’s hand diving in the water, so I created my stargate. The hand passes through it while the body remains on the other side. There is another hand in the universe, that is going to meet the first one. But…from where does it come?”
Detail, below.
Gabrielle Paquin from France (who also had her own exhibit at the Patchwork Meeting) created Voyage en orbite. She says “The Earth [has] become too little for its population. It is necessary to find some exits in Space….we must in a future time go away for a journey…tempory of definitively.”
This quilt was on the front of their brochure for the Meeting, so we saw it everywhere. Chang Misun, of South Korea, created Pieces of memories. She says: “I think my way of life is like an endless trip. Pieces of past life and future life come together…[some] especially clear and some others are dim. Pieces of all memories were expressed in the works.”
Maryte Collard, of Lithuania, made Song of the Linen. Writing about returning to Lithuania, she notes that it “always feels like the trip backwards in time” due to the ancient language and that is was the “last European country to accept Christianity.” Because of this “traces of ancient customs still remain in daily life….Flax has been a traditional Lithuanian fiber for several thousand years. It has a special place in my heart and it sings to me the song about the trip to the end of the world.”
Detail, below.
Watch me breeze through the complete catalogue, which I couldn’t figure out how to upload, which shows a few more quilts. Below is a photo of the giant poster, showing all our venues. The one above was above the L’Espace Commercial.
It was raining that day, but none of our wet umbrellas were allowed in the exhibits. Since I’d lost one already to an umbrella stand, I wasn’t anxious to repeat the experience, so I whipped out my souvenir Patchwork Bag, and we stuffed the umbrellas in there as we walked around. Everyone was happy.
More posts coming. The original post, with links, is found *here.*
I really enjoyed this class, and was happy to move from there, to her lecture that night, where we enjoyed more visions of her work and her stories. My friend Leisa and I also attended two more evening events: David Taylor’s lecture on Wednesday night, and the Fashion Show of Creative Garments on Friday night (
OccasionalPiece--Quilt! 