Quilts

Quilts and Stitching in Art

June 21, 2014June 3, 2014 Elizabeth E.6 Comments

Okay, I had a fun time in Washington, DC this spring once I realized I could play I Spy and look for quilts. I think this is a good game that I should keep playing, and if you have a picture of a quilt in art — whether it be in a painting or a photograph in a museum — send it over and when I get a slew, I’ll do a post.

Okay, this isn’t technically quilting, but it’s stitching. This is a detail of Mending, by Isabel Bishop and hangs in the National Portrait Gallery. She writes “I have noticed regular denizens of [Union] Square [in New York City] who, sitting on the benches or on the fountain, easting, sewing or rearranging their worldly good in paper bundles, seem to be leading the most private of lives, entirely oblivious to the public character of the place. The not-beautiful forms of the fountain seem. . . to make a throne for the old man sewing his trousers; he is billowing old overcoat [becomes] a robe.”

This is a needlepoint stitchery in the gallery of the Washington National Cathedral that honors the 100 Most Famous Americans, all who have a red needlepoint pillow on a chair. Of course I was drawn to this one, honoring Elias Howe, inventor of the modern-day sewing machine. We ALL owe him a debt.

Sondra Freckelton’s Harvest is one of her still lives that capture “the quiet beauty of domestic, often feminized objects — quilts, garden implements, house wares, and fresh produce gathered from her own garden in the . . . Catskill Mountains.” I don’t know about you, but I was interested that a Smithsonian label-writer plopped in that phrase of “domestic, often feminized objects” when discussing Freckelton’s watercolor. Don’t tell our male quilters this.

And I knew she wasn’t herself a quilter, for who of us would plop down vegetables on top of this gorgeous appliqué quilt?

Mary Fletcher was born in 1940 and died in 1922, but her fine hand-pieced hexie silk quilt now resides in the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. We are all jealous!

I decided she had an amazing scrap bag to have so many beautiful silks to work with.

And lastly, Honore Sharrer’s Tribute to the American Working People, who employed the polyptych format of medieval paintings to pay homage to the working people of America.

And here’s the quilt–in the upper left panel: a lovely scalloped Dresden Plate.

Grand Central Terminal Contest Quilts

March 8, 2014 Elizabeth E.4 Comments

The winners of the Grand Central Terminal Quilt Contest have been announced by New York City’s fabulous quilt shop: The City Quilter. This contest was held to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Grand Central Station, an amazing place with a beautiful entrance hall. After the glorious Penn Station in New York was sacrificed/torn down, a group of concerned citizens in the 1960s banded together to save Grand Central Station from an equally horrific end, and succeeded. It’s one of my favorite places in New York City, and I always stop there when I visit, as well as to pick up something good to eat from Zabar’s in one of the market places there.

Time Flies, But We Take the Train by Amy Krasnansky

This was the Grand Prize Winner, incorporating elements of the physical building, plus some commemorative fabric from City Quilter. They have created a Flickr page *here* where you can see more of the quilts.

Chasms 16: Under the Stars by Beth Carney

Here’s another favorite, with the tracks and trains snaking through the complete image. We recently watched the PBS documentary on the tearing down of Penn Station, which also included the history of how they built the train tunnels under the water to connect the mainland with New York City and Long Island. What a beautiful place Penn Station was, and how lucky we are to have Grand Central Station!

Jewel of New York by Cheryl Kosarek

Quilts · WIP

WIP, RP, BB Can’t You See?

March 5, 2014November 25, 2014 Elizabeth E.14 Comments

That’s Works in Progress, Rainbow Petals, Bee Blocks, can’t you see? I just liked the rhythm of it all, especially after the previous post, with Emily Dickinson, a reclusive but prolific American poet, writing about her sewing. And yes, that video was of my granddaughter, taking her first stitches.

So the Work in Progress is my Rainbow Petals quilt. This is a rainy-day-late-at-night photo, and we all know how those turn out, but if this looks familiar, that’s because it is. (Check your iPhone.) I first thought of this last summer, when — in bed recuperating from foot surgery — I watched the Apple Keynote talk about their new iOS7, and this logo kept flashing on the screen. I took a screen shot of it and tucked it away. I went to the Long Beach Quilt Show (final year) and bought sixteen different half yards in the Kona colors I thought would match, holding up my screen shot to double check the colors. My friend Leisa and I arranged them at dinner that night, numbering the labels so I wouldn’t mix them up. I’ve since seen another quilter try her hand at this. I had thought to piece it, but now I think I’ll appliqué it by hand.

I’m still thinking over those dark middle petals. While they “read” as black, they are actually forest green.

I also finished a first set of churn dash blocks for my Mid-Century Modern Quilt Bee and sent them off. I kept thinking about them, unhappy with how they had turned out.

So I made another set. I am one of those quilters who have ironed seams so long to the side, that I’m not very happy with my results when I have to iron seams open. If the block is too small, and the seams are pressed to the side, I just take a bigger seam and press again. But if the seams are pressed open, then it’s unpick, resew, re-press. As I mentioned on our Mid-Century Bee blog, I’m just Open-Quilt-Seam-Challenged.

Cindy, also from the Mid-Century Modern Bee, wanted a spiderweb block, with a low-volume (muted) text center and solid strips for the web. A great idea!

For March in my Always Bee Learning Bee, Marci wanted two Modern Maples blocks.

And yep. I did it. I joined the Modern Quilt Guild as an Individual Member because my closest guild was MILES away, across the great wide scorching plains of Los Angeles Traffic — or Orange County Traffic — and I wasn’t able to attend their meetings. Maybe in summertime?

Linking up with Lee of Freshly Pieced.

Quilts

A Grand Day Out: The Valley Quilters Quilt Show

February 24, 2014February 23, 2014 Elizabeth E.3 Comments

It was a beautiful day that the Valley Quilters held their quilt show, and I had a morning free, so I headed down to Hemet, about 40 minutes away from my house. I like going to this small show–it’s kind of the antidote to all the craziness and glitz and flash and overwhelmingness that is Road to California.

This is it. I think they had about 50 or so quilts. I was joking to one woman that it was the tonic that cured me of my exhaustion from Road. “Oh, Road!” she said. “Too much walking.”

This is what greets you, as you enter the community center gymnasium: Glacier Star, by Shirley Mykris and quilted by Diane Best. I meandered through their display, so these quilts are in no particular order.

This Is Me, by Beckie Stabile and quilted by Marvel Dorf. She said in her notes that these are her favorite quilting things.

All the helpers were wearing decorative tabards.

Here’s a detail of the quilt above.

The name of this is Kaleidoscope, but Dawn Guthrie-Clark and quilted by Debbie Blair. (Hey! I have a quilt named Kaleidoscope!)

I thought these ladies looked great in their coordinating quilted jackets and they agreed to let me photograph them.

This is a detail from one of the beginner quilts that was displayed in this show, and they are all basically the same with different details. I couldn’t stop smiling as I looked at these quilts, for these young quilters were working hard to master the craft that I love so well.

Some have thought that my choices of the Most Ugly Quilt at Road to California were a dagger to the heart of beginners, and some took me to task believing that we should never say anything bad about another creation. (I agree, up to a point.) But beginning quilts should be in this type of show: a guild show, which displays a wide range of skills and talents.

Beginner quilts do not really belong in a national juried show, unless they are working at a very high skill level, which my Most Ugly Quilts (MUQ) were not. And all of these beginner quilts shown here are heads and shoulders above some of the MUQuilts, as they are authentic. And charming. And well made with a central, balanced design.

And they make you smile, not cringe, especially when one young quilter noted that making a quilt is not as easy as it looks, and that “it was my first time using a sewing machine.”

Mary Myers just happened to walk by her quilt, Circle of Hope, when I was looking at it.

It’s quilted by Nancy Williams.

Wouldn’t you love to win this ribbon, with it’s tiny Sunbonnet Sue bonnet? And don’t you love the little decorated clothespins with their colorful yo-yos?

Green Tea and Sweet Beans was made by Susan Bailey and quilted by Laural Arestad, from a pattern by Jen Kingwell. This, or a version of this, is definitely in my future.

A lovely classic basket quilt.

I loved the cute snowman peeking out from different places on this quilt (sorry, didn’t get the name).

Thyme to Water was made by Alice Novak and quilted by Chuck Anderson. I loved the detail on her watering cans.

And check out those ribbons–TWO of them. It was well deserved.

I just couldn’t get a good photo of this quilt, titled Pioneer Braid, but it was vibrant and colorful, as shown by the detail below. Jenelle Pickett made this quilt, and it was quilted by Nancy Williams.

There is something so appealing about a scrappy quilt.

Japanese Quilt Shop is another quilt by the duo Alice Novak (maker) and Chuck Anderson (quilter). When I put this up on Instagram, I got a lot of questions about the pattern. She credits her design source as Piece by Piece Quilts by Joe Wood. But Barbara Brackman, on her blog, has a free pattern that may work for you, if you substitute in a quilt block or two in the houses.

There was obviously a lot of tender loving detail given to this small show, as witnessed by this antique stroller filled with dollies.

There were even a few vendors, and this great chair at one of their booths.

Bonny Tucker made and quilted this quilt, titled Alice’s QD Christmas 2012. She used a coloring technique, then embroidered them to make the blocks, but it wasn’t until the Christmas 2012 Quilter’s Dozen came along that she knew what to do with them. (I assume it was a guild program.)

Jan Dolan’s “A” is for Apple was a lovely gathering of alphabet representations. The story of the quilt is complicated: it was originally started as a block-of-the-month at one shop, but the shop was sold and the designer/teacher was injured in an auto accident. The pattern was still given out to finish on their own.

Mary Myers made Flourishes, and it was quilted by Jodie Krot. The design source was Piece O’ Cake Designs. She writes that this was a tribute for Edward Myers’ life: “I took the squares with me everywhere. Many doctor & hospital visits. I started it in October, 1999 but it was not completed until April 2007, six-and-a-half years after his death.” I don’t know if Edward was a son, or a husband, but it is a wonderful memory quilt.

Dancing Wonky Wildflowers was made by Jacquie Buchanan and quilted by Jami Doto, with the design source noted as “Wonky Wildflowers” by Sandra Workman.

I’m a sucker for a well-done Hunter’s Star quilt (sorry, no name on this one either).

I’ll close with two appliqué quilts. The quilts I’ve shown are only a sample of this show, so come on over next year! The quilt above, titled Critters, is by Billie Kercmar, quilted by Karen Gehring (from Woodland Creatures by Rosemary Makhan).