Be Creative! Challenge

Another exhibit at Sew Expo was the Be Creative! challenge sponsored by a group of magazines - Quilter's Newsletter, Quiltmaker, McCall's Quilting - and Keepsake Quilting (NH store and mail order business).  The challenge was to design a quilt using a specially created bundle of fabric by Lotta Jansdotter for Windham.  Quilters were able to add up to 3 additional fabrics and quilts needed to finish at 56-60" x 68-72".  Here are some of the winners and finalists.

a-MAZE-ing Chain by Amy Asmus won 2nd place.

CREA-TV is by Mel Beach and was a finalist.

Emerging Knots is by Beth Anne McLachlan and was a finalist.

Slices by Nancy Rowland was another finalist.

Dawn Golstab created From a New Angle, also a finalist.

1417 Jansdotter Lane is by Julie Johnson and Cara N. Bennewitz; quilted by Mary Dorschner, won 1st place.

See all the winners and finalists here.

SAQA - Redirecting the Ordinary

Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) is a "non-profit organization whose mission is to promote the art quilt through education, exhibitions, professional development, documentation, and publications."  One of several traveling exhibitions, "Redirecting the Ordinary is about turning things around, upside down, inside out, backwards, or how even a minuscule course correction can charge up the humdrum, turn the common into the uncommon, and make the expected unexpected."  This exhibit is currently touring with the Original Sewing and Quilt Expo and was one of our favorites at the Fredericksburg show.  Here is a sampling of these extra-ordinary quilts.  You can see the whole exhibit online on the SAQA website.  Enjoy the show!

Old Sink by Val Mayse of Seattle, WA.  Circles, squares and crosses are powerful symbols found in an ordinary object.

Forke Family Secrets by Ann Turley of Fallbrooke, CA.  Like many real families, the forks are a bit unbalanced and dysfunctional.

Turning Bottles into Stained Glass by Sara Sharp of Austin, TX. Ordinary bottles filled with colored liquids transform a gray winter day.

Have a Cup by Joan Dyer of Grass Valley, CA.  A simple cup imagined in multiple ways.

Sheer Delight by Denise Oyama Miller of Freemont, CA.  Good scissors are a critical tool for textile artists.

A Close Shave by Helen Godden of Canberra, Australia.  Colored pencil shavings conjure up visions of ballerina skirts and sea shells.

Memories by Jennifer Day of Santa Fe, NM.  A woman sits in her wheelchair in a doorway in Havana, Cuba.

9:29 in the Morning by Gillian Cooper of Balfron, Stirlingshire, UK.  Photos of the ground were taken with every 37th step on a morning walk.

Best of QuiltCon 2016

QuiltCon is the annual conference and show of the Modern Quilt Guild.  This special exhibit at Sew Expo featured the best of modern quilters today, and includes the 2016 Best of Show quilt.  The Modern Quilt Guild began as an online community and developed into in-person guilds in 2009.  Now there are over 170 guilds around the world.  You can find out more about them at themodernquiltguild.com.

Fossil by Nancy Purvis.  Category - Minimalist Design  The artist chose to focus on asymmetrical shapes and triangles.

Cut & Keep by Gina Pina  Category - Applique  The applique pieces are placed between the top and batting, and the dashed lines indicate "break in case of emergency" and use the pieces as desired.

My Brother's Jeans by Melissa Averinos  Category - Improvisation  This was the Best in Show quilt.  The denim used to make the crosses is from the maker's brother's work jeans; he committed suicide in 2009.  In the background are gold and white crosses, and the grid quilting echoes the crosses and reflects his occupation as a tile installer. (Note: the black line is the ribbon in front of the display, not part of the quilt.)

Echoes by Leanne Chahley  Category - Use of Negative Space

Release the Geese II by Sarah Bond (piecing) and Carol Heisler (quilting)  Category - Modern Traditionalism (Again, the black line is ribbon, not part of the quilt.)

Twisted Sisters  by a Group (too many to name)  Category - Group or Bee Quilt  This took 3rd place in the Group Quilts.  It is an interpretation of the game Twister.

Flounce by Melanie Tuazon  Category - Modern Traditonalism  It is inspired by the architecture of the Eastern hemisphere.

Black and White Plus One

Black and White Plus One was the theme of this year's annual Expo challenge sponsored by Wisconsin Public Television and Nancy Zieman, the challenge being to use only black and white and one other color.  This makes for some very striking quilts.

Bison in Prairie Flowers is by Debra Ninas of Elgin MN.  Her yellow flowers are done with a black & white print that was sprayed with textile paint. 

The same effect could be achieved with a flower screen printed in black on yellow (or any color) as Sue has done on some of her quilts. 

Above is Flowers of the Night by Nancy Roodell of Roscoe, MT.  We especially liked the border print at the top and bottom of this one, it reminded us of a screen print.

This is called Night and Day, by Mary Kay Price of Lake Oswego, OR.

The variety of black and white prints here really adds a lot.  Also notice there are a few squares that repeat the sun image.

Skiing on Burns Glacier by Debbie Derr-Weaver of Urbana, IL, shows how to create visual depth using value.  Very striking.

Black White and Read, This Could Be Grimm is by Terri Sankovitz of Albuquerque, NM.  The description says it is done with fused applique (very thin lines!) and has lots of stitching to enhance the image.

Sentimental Lady by Diana Napier of Mountain, WI has a background painted with Inktense inks.

Besides the striking color contrast, the quilting on this is a real stand-out.

Weekly Walk: Winter is by Laura Moss Gottlieb of Madison, WI.  This really evokes the peace and serenity of a walk in freshly fallen snow.

In Licks of Love, Eileen Daniels of Brodhead, WI, layered white on top of black to create shadowing.

Of course, there were more wonderful quilts in this challenge, all a source of inspiration.

Playing Favorites

At the Sew Expo last weekend there were several exhibits.  One called “Playing Favorites” was sponsored by the Quilt Alliance who mount a contest, exhibit and auction every year as a way to support their mission of documenting, preserving and sharing quilt history.   The quilts were all 16 inches square.   They were hung in groups of 12 which showed them off nicely. 

Elizabeth’s favorites were: the guitar quilt named “Strat-O-Masters II” by Annedore Neumann of Moenchengladback-Wickrath, Germany;

this stunning landscape “The Cycle-Hawaii” by Maria F. Cousins of Great River NY;

the Monarch butterfly (always a favorite subject to Elizabeth),”My Favorites Orchids and Butterflies” by Charlotte Noil, Lauderhill, FL;

and the splash paint looking art quilt called “Angled” by Sherri Lipman McCauley of Lakeway, TX;

The grand prize winner was “My Garden” by Margaret Cibulsky of Port Washington, NY.

Our friend Susanne Jones of Potomac Falls, VA had this sweet quilt based on the song “My Favorite Things”.

The only problem with the exhibit was that the signs were so small we couldn’t read them from behind the rope.  We had to take photos of the description and blow them up on the computer screen to see all the details.

There were many lovely quilts donated by quilters all over the US and the world.

These quilts will be auctioned on-line in November at QuiltAlliance.org.  Check them out if you are interested in bidding to help out their cause.

#PlayingFavorites #QuiltAlliance  #MyFavoriteThings

Sew Expo

Sue and Elizabeth are regular attendees at the Original Sewing and Quilt Expo, attending the Fredericksburg edition that is held at the beginning of October.  This show used to be very close to us at the Dulles Expo Center but a few years ago moved to the Fredericksburg location, so it's a bit more of a trek than it used to be.  We thoroughly enjoy the quilt exhibits they have each year, which show a cross section of quilting in the U.S. from traditional to art to modern.  More on the exhibits in future posts.  Of course, the other major component is the vendors.

Maybe we have become a little jaded, or is it just that we have a lot of stuff and don't need more, but there wasn't a lot that was terribly exciting in the vendor aisles.  Often shows will have the same vendors as previous years, so you don't see a lot that's new or different from what you've seen before.

However, the one thing that WAS new and exciting for us this year was that a vendor friend of ours, Early Times Workshop, has begun to carry our Thermofax screens.

So it was fun for us to see our screens on display in her booth! They're on the right in the photo below.

And after further perusal Sue did find some fabric to buy (for a project her daughter wants to make), so she did not come home empty handed.  Either way, the inspiration of the exhibits and seeing our screens for sale made the trip worthwhile.

More Animals We Love

Sue chose these 5 quilts as her favorites from the Quilt Alliance-Animals We Love exhibit at the Original Sewing & Quilt Expo in Fredericksburg. These 16 by 16 inch quilts reflect the love of animals as presented by each individual quilter. 

Fancy Goldfish by Susan Brubaker Knapp of Mooresville, SC.  (If it looks familiar it is because this was published in an article and on the cover of the October/November issue of Quilting Arts magazine.)

Giraffe Nocturne by Nancy S. Brown of Oakland, CA.

Bluebirds #2 by Cynthia St. Charles of Billings, MT.  We follow Cynthia's blog and love her work.

Eye See My Beloved by Marie F. Cousins and Syrie Blanco Walsh of Great River, NY.

Olive. Olive you <3 by Lisa B. Filion of Queensbury, NY.

As it turns out, 4 of these were published in the October/November Quilting Arts.  Giraffe Nocturne was the grand prize winner.  Eye See My Beloved took second place.   After touring in several quilt shows, the quilts will be auctioned off on eBay to benefit the Quilt Alliance.