Ah, the Quilt Festival ... The exhibitions

A large part of one day of my visit to the Quilt Festival was devoted to visiting the various exhibitions. Again, there was soooo much to see, such a variety, such great idea’s, such wonderful workmanship. I came away just itching to get back to fabrics, needles and thread!

First stop, of course: ElaTED, the fabulous quilt by Ted Storm, a very deserved price winner of the Founders Award! The quilt just jumps at you, such great design, vibrant colour, so much to see, different designs in each corner, and her explanation so wonderful: ‘I started with a fabric I really did not like…..’(the plaid fabric) the sign of a true artist to make this out of it!

 

 

Then, America Let It Shine by Sherry Reynolds, Best of Show Award, all to do with the maker’s love for her country. Just about everything in the quilt had a meaning, the various hues of blue, the different kinds of red, quilted text from the Declaration of Independence etc.

What I liked was that her original – now plasticized - sketch (contrary to the quilt itself which was totally machine made, this was done the old fashioned way, with paper and crayons) was available to be looked at.

This piece of wonderful workman ship is from the quilt Baltimore in the Provence made by Ellen Heck, second place in the Handmade Competition.

And look at that hand quilting:

If you want to have a look at all the prize winners (there are two more Dutch prize winners, Janneke de Vries-Bodzinga and Antionia Heering) you can click here.

Of course there were some really cute quilts by Japanese quilters, this is Spring Farm by Yuko Sawada:-

And The twelve days of Christmas by Osami Gonohe:-

 

All the ‘snowflakes’ you see, there must hundreds – maybe even more - of them, are embroidered French knots.

This quilt is called BBK, loved the name, it stands for: Bookcase Before Kindles!
Made by Margaret Kessler.

Some other quilts that caught my eye, this is Sunburst by Connie Watkins (handpieced, handquilted):-

This is Four block Democratic Rose, unknown quiltmaker, c. 1860:-

You have to love this name again: TGIF by Becky Stehpenson, quilted by Cynthia Clark , TGIF in this case stands for Thank Goodness It’s Finished J !

Then on to my favourite exhibition this year: the Quilts de Legende exhibition, French handmade quilts, inspired by antique quilts:-

First,  Clarissa by Aline Joulin:-

Detail: a lesson in how to make a simple pattern look different using different values of fabric..

Second, Bath by Marie-Louise Stipon:-

Detail: notice how not all blocks of triangles are the same size

Alice Springs by Annick Tauzin:-

This year a lot more exhibitions were allowed to be photographed than the last two years, and there were so many beautiful quilts, it was dazzling! Unfortunately after an hour my camera refused to put any more pictures on my memory card (a new 4Gb, with only about 100 pics on it…) so I had to use my telephone to make pictures, watching my battery go down, down and further down. Made less pictures than I was planning to but hope you enjoyed these!

Phyllis