City Quilter–New York City

I feel like I’ve been gone a long time, in a galaxy far, far away–and I have: I’ve been in the grading galaxy.  Two sets of papers, with one super-duper plagiarizing student which caused me to obsess about this to a lot of people in my life.  My apologies to those who listened to the never-ending conversations that gave me the courage to fail her for the paper.  Papers graded.  Grades done and will be posted after my final meeting with them today.  Then my Christmas Break will really start!

So let me go in WayBack Machine to a lovely morning in New York City when I visited City Quilter.

(Yes, I asked permission to take these photos.)  Entering the store, it extends out long and thin, but up there on near the hanging quilt, it doglegs off to the right with more.  And running parallel to this is the ArtQuilt Gallery.

Along the right hand wall are lots of patterns, samples and a whole section of fabric with a New York City theme, from which I culled my purchases.

They also had some New York-themed quilts on the walls; this is the Empire State Building quilt.

More beautiful fabrics in that right hand section.  Really the store was shaped in an H-sort of layout.

I knew about City Quilter when my sister moved to Manhattan for a year.  I wanted to make her a tote bag that would remind her of the city, so purchased via mail order some New York fabrics, including some of this subway fabric, and made her shopping totes.  She loves them.

Adjoining the City Quilt fabric shop is the ArtQuilt Gallery, where they were having a display by the Manhattan Quilt Guild.  The quilts were very interesting, with everyone interpreting a facet of New York City living, gathered under the title of Material Witnesses.

The quilt of the lower right, The Triangle, is made by Teresa Barkley and pays homage to the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in Little Italy.  I had been walking around in that section of town the day before.  My daughter’s great-grandmother immigrated from Italy, and found work in a hat factory in Little Italy, so the idea of young women working in these tall buildings had some resonance.

Closer view.

This is pieced.  Lots of little tiny pieces, made by Erin Wilson and titled Shape Study: Dark and Light.  I thought they may have represented some buildings in New York, but her artist’s statement notes that this “continues my work of building an intricate language of pattern, abstract shapes and symbols.”

Detail.

This is a quilt sandwich: fabrics sandwiches in between two layers of sheer fabric.  Ruth Marchese’s No Escape is in homage to the earthquake in Japan in March of 2011.  In this quilt are references to the tsunami waves, the nuclear power plants, and the changes to the landscape.

Looking from the gallery into a section of the shop.

There were many beautiful and intriguing quilts, but this one really caught my eye.  Central Booking uses a QR code to “spell out the first sentence of The Trial, Kafka’s nightmarish tale of bureaucratic and legal injustice” (from her artist’s statement).  I asked the woman at the desk in this gallery if this was a functional QR code.  She didn’t know, so I held up my phone so it could read the square; it is.

When I came home, I looked up QR codes on the web, and found you could type in a short phrase and have it converted into QR-ese.

I remember Elizabeth Fransson making Japanese Subway Map quilts, interpreting the grid into fabric.  I think this idea could also be interesting: we could write secret messages (shades of Fourth Grade!) into our quilts and display them for only those who know how to interpret them.  What does the above say?  (Remember I was grading, so my creative faculties were in a low ebb.)

It’s the name of this blog: OccasionalPiece-Quilt!

Pins and Needles

I couldn’t stand it anymore.  I had to look up my entries on Road’s entry page to see what was going on, and this was AFTER they’d extended the deadline by 10 days because their entry page had a technological malfunction.  Or something.

So, no news, but at least my status has been changed to “jurying.”  At least it’s not (yet) “forget it,” or “never happen” or “better luck next time.”

Red/White Mini Quilt Show

After seeing the quilts along the streets of Temecula, I headed to the Temecula Quilt Company, a shop that specializes in reproduction fabrics, which lies about 4 miles inland from Old Town Temecula.

As usual, she had done the displays in such a perfectly arranged fashion.  There’s a little excitement when you have a quilt in a show, even a mini one, and I hunted for my two.

Right away I see one of mine: the folded quilt on the lower left.

It’s a deeper red than those around it and I like how she harmonized all the patterns together along with color tones.

Some quilts were tiny, some small, some larger.  Sometimes we think we can only make giant-sized quilts, but these little ones carry great visual punch.

Some quilts have more red, some have more white.

What makes this starry quilt intriguing for me, is the tilting of the central stars in the blocks.

Teensy little rooster quilt.

With a fabulous label.  Wouldn’t it be very cool to have a “signature label” like this one?  I suppose that #184 in the upper left corner is her personal number of quilts?  I’ve got to make smaller quilts so I can catch up!

The quilt on the upper right (center-ish) is compelling with all the applique symbols.

In the classroom area, she had this giant red/white quilt top started.

More classroom quilts.

Close-up.

I started chatting with the shop owner as I exlaimed at how much I enjoyed her display.  Next year, she said “Blue and White!”  I laughed.  She asked me if I’d seen my quilts and I told her I hadn’t found my table runner.

“The sampler from around the world?” she asked?  “We put it up front where we could display the full length of it.”

Ah, there it is!  Thanks again to all my participants.  It looks great.

As I sat and ate my lunch — she’d provided All-American Hot Dogs to go with these deeply All-American quilts of her mini-quilt show — I could take in all the quilts around in this area.  It was a lovely, satisfying day, spending time with quilts and with other quilters, and I appreciated all the efforts of those who put up displays for all of us to enjoy.

I strolled around the shop once more, trying to see everything.

The show will be up for the month of October — if you are in the area, I’d suggest heading there to enjoy all these quilts!

Temecula Quilt Show, 2011

I woke up early, excited for my quilty day.  I’m dividing this up into two posts.  First up is the Temecula Quilt Show, out on the streets of this Western town.  Tomorrow will be the red/white mini-show at Temecular Quilt Company.

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A license plate on the way down: QWILTN.  Think she’s going the same place as I?

I arrived a bit early in Temecula, and as the main street was already clogged with cars, I detoured to a side street and found a parking place quickly.  Camera ready, I walked down to the street with all the quilts.

I have Christmas quilts on my mind.  This is a very good example of using traditional patterns — a double nine-patch –  in new ways.

This was a beautiful sampler quilt, but points out one of the difficulties of an outdoor show: mottled shadow that obscures the design.  You had to be there, I guess.

And some quilts are up really high, so I apologize for the picture quality–this was another beautiful quilt.  Love that star.

Since so many of you are doing hexies, here’s a vintage quilt.

Close-up.

I think this is one of those quilts we should all make at least once: Storm at Sea.  Mine’s still in the future, although I have made one block.

Cute Halloween Banner on the left, in purples, blacks and lime green.

Cute snowman faces.

Snowmen are on the brain, I think. This, in a town that never sees a snowfall!

The metal banner over the main street, still clogged with cars.

Temecula is known for its western history, its vineyards and its hot air balloon festival.

I loved this series by Sandy Besanson.  This one’s called “Bike Ride,” and the one below, “Gondola Ride.”

And finally, Dancing Chickens.  Wonderful series.

These quilts (above and below) were hanging outside Quilters Coop, a shop in Temecula.

And this one, too!

On the front of the shop were hanging several Quilts of Valor.

Stunning yellow and blue Log Cabin quilt.

Their raffle quilt.

Tomorrow: the quilts of the Red/White challenge.

Entering a Quilt Show

I haven’t entered a quilt show for ages, largely because I haven’t had time to make a quilt that was quilt-show level.  I’ve been making lots of quilts for children and daughter/daughters-in-law and some to throw over our sofa at home, but I always think it has to be a hard-enough quilt to enter a show.

I read the application and they said clearly, “no color correction.”  Oh-oh.  I’d taken all those photos for my quilt journal, but I had to color correct some to get the gray day out of them.  And then they said “no cropping.”  So I had to retake them all.  I hope the judges enjoy the photo of my garage door studio.  I tried to get in close enough, and covered the lock with a tissue (for disguise).  Above is Come  A-Round, one I’m going to enter.  I’ve seen this design before in this show, and they may not want to have it in again.  Plus I don’t quilt every 1/4″ all over the top of the quilt (I like my quilts to “move” a little) and that has sort of become popular at this particular show.

But still.  I’m going to try.  Lyon Carolings, above.  This one doesn’t have the garage-door-studio look.  I found out a setting on the camera to counteract the grayed photos I’d been getting, so I didn’t think that was cheating.  I guess it’s only after-the-fact that they don’t want us messing around in Photoshop.

The last one is I want to enter is All Is Safely Gathered In.  It’s harder than you think to get the quilt perfectly squared up in the frame, and it has to do with making sure that your camera lens plane is absolutely parallel to the quilt plane, or surface, and that your camera is also physically level with the center of the quilt.  This is trickier than it sounds.  (I have seven of this photo to prove it.)

Then I thought about the close-up, and what they’ll do with the close-up.  We have to submit digital photos and I just know they are going to get their computer out and magnify everything.  Every missed stitch, every unbalanced thread, every backstitch instead of burying the tails.

It’s like looking at your morning face in a 15x magnifying mirror.  Frightening!  Now to fill the application out, put the photos on a CD, write the checks for entry fees, and wait for the rejection acceptance letters.

Springville Quilt Show, Part II

Again, so sorry not to have lots of interesting information for the quilters.  Our dead desktop computer has gone to the shop (cue: violins) and we’ll find out if our fancy back-up external hard drive system has been working for us.  Or if we should just start crying now.  Okay, let’s look at art to take our minds off of the hum-drum of our very dull twentieth-century-computer-dependent lives.

Upstairs, the museum has a lot of art from Russia; I’m giving you two of the paintings that just leapt off of the walls.  This one is my sister-in-law’s favorite, and I can only imagine it’s because of the beauty and hope and passion of these young girls on their graduation day.  I wanted to take it home with me.

This one could be a quilt!  A May Day celebration, complete with balloons.

Here’s another exhibit room, and in the far right corner is another quilter who has the same thing on her mind as I do: the Lollypop Tree Quilt.

But Chris Manning’s version is stunningly different from the usual brilliantly lit up colors used on this quilt.  I took lots of photos–lucky you, you get to see them all.  I was so impressed by this coloration.  Really fabulous.  Title: Lollipop.

Those greyed-out greens, mossy colors work incredibly well with the pastels, the deep tones.

I covet this, really I do.  Is it because it’s “done” or because it’s so beautiful in the tones and values and colors she chose.  Both.

Last gallery.

Sorry the lighting is so dim on this quilt, but you have to believe me when I tell you that Rhonda Montgomery’s quilt My Favorite Things, is a real knock-out in person.  They had the quilts really well-lit, so the flash wouldn’t go off on my camera (I know, try reading the camera book to see how to do a fill flash.  That’s next on my list–right after solving the computer problem).

I peeked closely at these letters–either she went around each of them with a marker, or else it’s a very thin line of acrylic paint.  Whatever the technique, it made them pop off the quilt.

Brenda Sommers’ Grandma’s Lemonade Stand was in that room with all the deliciously pastel quilts–again, this photo doesn’t do it justice.  So I read her name, and then wondered–don’t I know her?  That name is so familiar.  I think she used to live in my neighborhood, but I guess I’ll never know.  We quilters travel in a small world!

Julie Saville made this quilt, and I think it’s titled Road to Ohio.  I love all the sampler blocks arrayed around the center medallion.  Sampler blocks seem to be popular right now, with a couple of Quilt-A-Longs going on.  Here’s an idea for putting it all together.

Kathy Young’s quilt, Not So Long Ago, is an homage to her childhood family and home.

Perfect!

This reminded me of the May Day painting in the upstairs Russian galleries.  While I’ve been fixated on red and white quilts, this shows you what using red as a “neutral” can produce.  It looks like another Becky Goldsmith and Linda Jenkins design (like the dotty circles quilt, yesterday).  They keep us busy with applique!

I believe this is titled Grandma’s Old Time Garden, made by Patsy Wall.  I love those carnations in orange-striped fabric!

This is one where I have no idea who the maker is, nor the title.  I apologize, but I include it even without that information, because I’m really impressed with her soft shading of color to color–using up lots of fabrics (an idea for a scrap quilt?)  It quite possibly could be Carolyn Hulse’s Scraps of Rainbows, but I really don’t know.

It was beautifully done.

Strawberry Baskets is done by Valerie Marsh, and is another delectable pastel quilt.  The quilting is quite amazing, and if I ever get the computer back–and restore its memory–I’ll let you know who did it.

By the time Janice and I finished the show (I’m on the far right and Janice is next to me), our niece Lisa (in the black) had arrived and followed the sound of our voices to find us.  Becky, another sister-in-law of mine (Janice’s sister) came just as Janice and I had to jet–and she brought me two gigantor zucchini from her garden!  I love getting together with these fine women, and how fun it was to do it in a quilt show!

Thanks to the Springville Art Musuem, and the co-sponsors, Utah Valley Quilt Guild and Corn Wagon Quilt Company, for this lovely morning!

Springville Quilt Show, Part I

When I was in Utah last week, I slipped down to the Springville Art Museum for their annual quilt show.  They have quite a reputation, and for those who are juried in, the honor of having their quilts displayed in a museum.  My sister-in-law, Scott’s mother, invited me down and I jumped at the chance to meet her and look at the quilts.

Generally I like to photograph the cards placed near quilts in a quilt show so I can add that information to any quilts I might put on this blog, giving credit to the maker/quilter.  And I would give them to you, but –  ahem — my desktop computer’s hard drive died today, so you’ll only get the quilt and the maker, with no details.  Sorry about that.

I liked Allison Babcock’s Stars of Glory, because of the interesting sashing around the outside of the blocks. Sometimes something so simple can really pop up the interest on a tried-and-true favorite of stars in red, white and blue.

For some reason, the only info I have on this is the last name “Baldwin” but that could be a wrong name.  This was a beautifully done quilt with points crisp and perfectly formed.  I was quite impressed.  I also liked the quilting.

Cathryn Hulse made this, and it’s either Islands of Color, or Scraps of Rainbows.  I’m voting for the former, because the applique reminds me of a Hawaiian quilt.

CharLee’s Flower Baskets was made by Cheryl Barlow.  This whole room in the museum had a series of quilts done in pastels, with lovely applique work and inventive quilting. It was like tasting all the best ice cream flavors, but in quilting.

This is the patio, just outside the door.  If I’d had more time, I would have stopped and enjoyed the sculptures in this garden.

Francine Berrett made Blue Daisies and won a blue ribbon for her work.

Ann Bowen’s quilt delivers such a nice visual impact.  Upon closer look, though, we noticed all these signatures and messages of good will.  Then the title–The Perfect Beginning– finally clued us in: it was a quilt for a newlywed couple, perhaps signed at the reception by all the guests?

It’s interesting what a snowballed block can look like when combined with other like blocks.

This houndstooth quilt by Brittany Burton is titled Baby Love.  I’d never seen a houndstooth quilt before and I think this would make a great scrap quilt–she used lots of Kaffe Fasset fabrics to deliver the punched-up color scheme.

Laurel Christensen brings us Sunflower Forest, a jumble of flowers and grasses and colors and shapes–so wonderful.  I was impressed with the high quality of the quilts in this show.  I only saw one potential dud (shall remain nameless) and perhaps that evaluation was in the eye of this beholder.

The first exhibit room.

We ran into Susan Gilgen, as she walked around with some family members.  This quilt, Autumn Birches, had also been juried into the most recent Houston show, winning first place in the Art/Naturescapes category–it was a masterpiece!

Fun to see a quilter with her work, don’t you think?  Visit her at her website.

Jackie Hadley and I have been thinking about the same thing this past year.  Her quilt, My Color Wheel, has a bit different finish on the outside borders than does mine, but so fun to see it!

Carol Johnson, Have I Not Made the Earth? shows a slot canyon in Southern Utah, glowing in brilliant reds, yellows and ochre colors.

Last one for today: a rendition of non-extant old pioneer/family home, also by Carol Johnson.  The title of this one is Gone, But Not Forgotten.  The quilting is amazing–you can see the wind flowing through the skyscape above, and regretfully, I didn’t get any close-up photos.

Come back tomorrow for some more!

Quilt Festival Entry 2011

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!

Road to California–Part IV (final)

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!

Begonias at Butchart Gardens, made and quilted by Pat Rollie.

 

 

 

 

 

Road to California 2011–part III

So, what caught my eye this year?  While I felt in years past I could make a coherent statement about the content of the show, or perhaps an aspect of quiltmaking, the only comment I might make this year is about how the show was hung.  While many shows do hang like quilts next to like quilts, it’s usually subtle, so that the unique characteristics play against each other.

Whoever has hung Road to California, and by hanging I mean placing quilts next to each other, has gotten in the habit of saying (and I’m imagining this), “Gee, animals.  Let’s put them all together.”  So I’ll walk down an aisle and there are dogs, cats, penguins, tigers–all kinds of animals together.  She/He does the same thing with flowers, people, types of quilts.  Whoever this is needs to learn about habituation, or the gradual adaptation to a stimulus or to the environment, with a decreasing response.  This means in a quilt show, if we see eight flower quilts together, they lose their impact.  The last one we see is more of a Hi-Bye sort of cursory glance, because, oh my goodness, I’ve just seen flowery quilts, what more can I take away from another one?

Of course, I realize I just did that in the last post, by grouping all the travel quilts together.  But might not a flower quilt have more impact if it’s next to a child’s portrait, next to a field of daisies, next to an abstract?

I was struck by how many quilters were working in brights–colors that just jumped off the page.  While I  understand the impulse behind this particular quilt, there seems to be a lack of focus in these pinwheels and flying-geese trails.  I saw more than one quilt that admitted they didn’t plan their quilt, but “just let it happen.”  !!! is my first response, like when the speaker in church gets up to the podium and puts their folded talk into their pocket and says they’re just going to speak from the heart.  The talk, while it may have its high points, usually ends up more muddled than not.  Kind of like this quilt, but then her card mentioned that she used “shear [sic] will power” and it was “way off [her] usual ‘cute’ path” and was a “great mental exercise.”A cautionary tale, both in the creativity as well as spelling department.

Eyeballs?  Or flowers?  Or as one observer noted, Black Holes? Boy, we quilt-show-attendees can be tart-tongued, can’t we?

It wasn’t helped much by the quiltmaker’s card who titled this Flowing On, and wrote:

“Fluidity can move and change what seems solid, like water cutting a path in rock.  I am intrigued with depicting, through fiber art, this interplay between what I call “blocks and flowers”. Within these dynamics I see a metaphor for change, how it can move through easily when not resisted.”

Much clearer now, right?

I do like this quilt, aside from the quilter’s blurb, because of the way it moves from grid to curvilinear shapes, almost as if it were one of those very cool looking hot geysers in Yellowstone, and the orange field surrounding the deep colors was the earth’s crust, like this photo, below, from Mike Levin.

Oranges again in Color Blind, this quilt from Gail Eberle, quilted by Kristi Hawkins (both from Kansas).  Check out the quilting in the shots below.

Okay, you’ll never catch me quilting like this–I can’t!  While last year’s crop of quilts seemed to have too many where the quilting overtook the design, this year’s collection has been relatively harmonious between those two elements, and this is a fine example.

The Fires Within, made and quilted by Christine Rocha of California. She writes that the center reds are symbolic of the hearth of the home, and this was “pieced in an improvisational manner with only a vague vision of what it would like once completed.”  This is not the same thing as not planning (see above).  While I loved the wonky blocks, I really loved how she quilted it (see detail below).

Sheila Frampton-Cooper’s quilt, Life in the City, is a riot of color and shape and was one of my favorites.  While she was one of those professed non-planners (but do they “design” their quilts ?), I think that she is being coy.  Perhaps she did just piece all these pieces and they just sort of worked, but given the skill of how these relate along with their color and form, I daresay she worked extremely hard to plan out how their relationship.  This is one of those quilts where even the smaller elements could stand up by themselves as a small quilt, as show in the detail shots below.  Stellar quilt!

Ditto this quilt by Jacqueline de Jonge.  Here’s the detail, and below is the quilt.

Catch me if you can, quilted (and stunningly so) by Elly Prins.  Both Jacqueline de Jonge and Elly Prins are from the Netherlands.

Maybe dots are on my brain, but I loved this one! Timna Tarr from Massachusetts appliqued these circles onto squares and when she had enough of them, she played with the layout until she had a design that “worked for me,” she writes.  “A wool batt puffs up the circles to give them dimension.”  The title?  O Happy Day.

Maybe she and I could make a swap of some dotty fabrics?

This just proves that you don’t need to be big to make an impact.  It was probably all of 14″ inches along the long side, but Alive, by Mary Kay Price of Oregon, was a lovely composition, a lovely little quilt.

“Really Wild” Flowers, Second Season, made and quilted by Sharon Scholtzhauer.  She’s on a roll, for she had one in last year’s show (and it was just as fabulous).  These have the added dimension of being sculptural, with heavy quilted overlays creating depth.  See details below.

The layering of the blossom is more visible here, as is the quilting.

A white-gloved hostess holds up the quilt to show us the back so we can see the quilting.

Antelope Valley Poppies, made and quilted by Laurie Lile.  Nice how she “broke” the borders on this quilt, letting the delicate blossoms spill out.  Her quilting (below) really enhances the blossoms.

Ann Pigneri made and quilted this mandala-style quilt, titled Hope.  Quilting detail below.

Yeah, okay.  I’m pretty much fainting at this point.  If the piecing didn’t get to me–this quilting is astounding!  Bet she skimps on her ironing the laundry, or maybe she doesn’t sleep?

Midlife Crisis: Hot Flashes, made and quilted by Cathy Farris.

This one and the one above are faculty quilts–made by those who are teaching here at Road.  The Square Within, by Karla Alexander.  This would be a great stash quilt.

Joen Wolfrom used the traditional block Rail Fence to interpret Northern Lights.  This is quilted by Veronica Nurmi (see detail below).  I’m glad to see Joen teaching again–she’s incredibly gifted both as a teacher and a quilter.