Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Inspired by the Beatles Exhibit

One of the highlights of the QU quilt show was the exhibit of the complete collection of Beatles challenge quilts.  In 2013, Donna DeSoto of Fairfax issued a challenge to her art quilt group to make a quilt to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Beatles first visit to the US.   The challenge quickly spread to other quilters throughout the states and a few foreign countries.  150 quilters answered the challenge to make a 24" square quilt based on the title or lyrics of a Beatles song.  No songs could be duplicated.  In addition to the exhibit, a book, "Inspired by the Beatles, An Art Quilt Challenge"  was published containing photos of all the quilts and a personal narrative from each artist.  It is available at Amazon, and also at Artistic Artifacts if you are local to Northern Virginia.  The exhibit will continue to tour, in some cases the entire collection, in other cases smaller groupings of the quilts will be shown.  Here is a look at a few of the 150 quilts.
Left to right:  A Day in the Life by Eileen Doughty; A Hard Day's Night by Laura Brown; A Shot of Rhythm and Blues by Meggan Czapiga.
Top left, Honey Don't;  top center, Honey Pie by Cathy Tyler; top right, I Am the Walrus; bottom left, I Me Mine; bottom center, I Saw Her Standing There by Lesly-Claire Greenberg; bottom right, I Want to Hold Your Hand by Tina Lewis.
Blue Jay Way by Frieda Anderson.
Cayenne by Stacie Northrup.
Glass Onion by Sue Bynum.
Tomorrow Never Knows by Diane Herbort.
Let It Be by Cyndi Souder.
Memphis, Tennessee by Debra Gabel.

This is just a small sampling of the quilts.  If you get a chance to see them in person, don't miss it!





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