Quilt Festival Entry 2011

May 18, 2011February 24, 2012 Elizabeth E.14 Comments

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

April 22, 2011July 23, 2012 Elizabeth E.2 Comments

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

March 27, 2011July 23, 2012 Elizabeth E.2 Comments

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.

Quilt Shows

Road to California–Part IV (final)

January 31, 2011February 24, 2012 Elizabeth E.3 Comments

There’s no particular order to the quilts in this post–just some quilts that I saw that were interesting, or lovely, like this one with the eight billion triangles. Titled Summer at the Lake, it was made and quilted by Rahna Summerlin. It has an old-fashioned look.

Sandhill Stars, made and quilted by Sandi McMillan won a first place ribbon. It was terrific. Detail below.

She said in her notes that she was inspired by a “Stars Upon Stars Variation made by Mary J. Cole Dickerson of Wethersfield, Conneticut in the mid-1800s.” McMillan is from Nebraska.

Another one of those quilts where each block would be a fun quilt in itself. The lady standing next to me said she thought this was one Halloween quilt that she could have around–that it seemed to stretch all the way from September to the end of fall. Agreed.

The title of this quilt, made by Mary Dyer and quilted by Sharon Brooks (both of Arizona) is Midnight in the Pumpkin Patch.

I should probably show this last, because it was one of those quilts that you are convinced probably took them YEARS to make. Tea with Miss D. is the title, and it was made and quilted by Sandra Leichner of Oregon. Close-ups follow. I tried to get shots that showed not only the detail, but also the quilting.

I know this is a little bit dark, but the only way I could show you those quilted daisies in the corner was to turn off the flash.

This quilt, made and quilted by Dianna Grunnhauser of Hawaii, was inspired by Ruth McDowell’s template technique. Sunday Morning took her five years. Five years? Yay!! Finally we have truth-in-quilting!

Detail from a quilt showing the final scene of Peter and the Wolf (you can see Peter’s feet hanging from the tree as he’s captured the wolf. Made by Kimberly Rado and quilted by Cindee Ferris.

Live Well, Emily was apparently made (and quilted) by Emily’s mother, Jan Hirth, after Emily’s April wedding was called off in March. What a wonderful tribute to a daughter.

Almost Amish, made and quilted by Linda Thielfoldt of Michigan.

Fresh as a . . . .

Made and quilted by Nancy Ota, from California. Lots of painting on this, to get the blended petals.

Grateful Dance is an ode to the maker’s two titanium hips, shown here by the silvery fabric on the skeleton. Made and quilted by Ranell Hansen of California.

Lots of joy in this skeleton!

There was also a special exhibit of the Day of the Dead, a popular celebration here in Southern California. Jane Tenorio-Coscarelli and Monica Gonzales curated this booth. It was great.

Fiesta Day, made and quilted by Laura Fiedler of California

I think this is Dia de Los Muertos, by Evelyn Matinez of Los Angeles, California. There was some confusion by all of us looking at this exhibit just which quilt went with which sign. So, I apologize if I got it wrong. Leave a comment if there needs to be a correction.

And I think this one is Sugar Skulls, by Terri Steinfurth of Ohio.

Angel Trumpet Splendor, made and quilted by Janice Paine-Dawes of Arkansas. She painted this on silk with textile paints, then quilted it.

Mary Lou Weideman’s quilts are instantly recognizable. I Dream of New Mexico was finished in three weeks. I saw her later in the restaurant (a Mexican restaurant, of course) and told her I liked her quilt. I then showed her the quilt I keep on my cell phone, begun in her class. She was pretty enthusiastic about it and wanted me to send it to her website. I might.

Detail of above quilt.

I was completely fascinated by this quilt, titled Buttercups and Butterflies, made and quilted by Gail Brunell of California. It’s an applique–but I kept trying to figure out if it was done by machine (monofilament thread) or by hand. I, of course, am currently obsessed with applique (because I’m nuts, I think) and am thinking about how to finish the two quilts I’ve been planning.

So, I tried to get really close (sorry about the blurring). I think I see the teeny zig-zag stitching, which made me very happy to know that it could be done so well that even with a close inspection the applique won’t reveal its secrets.

She’d started this in a class on applique, and completed most of the quilt top. Then she had an accident and put the quilt aside for many months as she “went through physical therapy to recover from a broken shoulder.”

Can you spot where she changed her mind about quilting the leaves (or else oopsed and accidentally quilted one by mistake? One of my favorite parts! This quilt was perfection–so lovely.

Here four of us from our little quilt group: (front) Jean, Jodi, (back) me, Leisa. We’re taking a break in the bright California sunshine. I have on my new necklace, purchased at the show. I had people stop me to look at it, then head over to buy one.

Here’s Heather from Superior Threads, modeling her amazing sparkly jacket. She is one talented woman!

Thought I’d show you a picture of the second ballroom, where there were lots more vendors and the faculty quilts. This was taken in the afternoon, after all the tour busses went home.

The Olfa guy demonstrating his rulers. The crowd was as thick as if he were demonstrating a blender or something (like Dan Ackroyd’s Bass-O-Matic). You can glimpse the crowds off to the right, in this picture. I bought one.

I’ll leave you with a lovely quilt–one of the flower quilts in the show. Come on out to our California Sunshine and to Road to California!