Wednesday 6 October 2010

Quilt Show Part 1

Alright, here come the quilt show installments. I'll show them to you in small groups to avoid overload, and this way, you'll probably get to see almost all the quilts in the show without feeling like you just spent 3 hours in an art gallery and your head is bursting! :)

Here are some of the small ones:

Drunkard's path - I liked the colours in this one. I really want to make a curvy quilt! I probably just have to sit down and start is all.

The cream quilt on the bottom left won best of show - a quilt guild award for best craftsmanship in a quilt done entirely by the same person (a lot of guild members have their quilts quilted by another hand-quilter or a long-arm machine-quilter).

Detail of the hand-quilting and applique. The quilt is "Anne of Green Gables"-themed. In case you're not familiar with this book - it's written my L.M. Montgomery who lived on PEI. It's quite a famous book especially among young girls and even more so among Asian (Japan!) young girls but also women (not sure if they just all read the book when they were younger). According to a newspaper article for the 100 year anniversary of the book's publication, Anne's popularity in Japan is explained by her red hair (rare among the Japanese :)), her perseverance in the face of difficulties (a trait highly respected in Japan; Anne is an orphan that had a pretty crappy childhood in Nova Soctia until she is adopted by an elderly couple in PEI), and her free-spirit and imagination. So the hand-written part between the two figures (Anne and Gilbert - her sweet-heart in later books after she cracks a writing tablet on his head when he calls her carrot-head in the first book) just states their names and the book's anniversary.


The round quilt in the picture above (2 up) was pretty neat-looking: a round bargello:


In the next few pictures, you can see several convergence quilts
(bottom middle in the pastel colours)

(bottom right, purple and black curves)

(Top left, grey and white)

Itwas neat to see what type of fabrics other people used compared to my example I'm working on (see sidebar). I think this lady used the same book by Ricky Tims and tried all the different versions described in the book. Here are some close-ups of the appliqued versions she did:




I liked the border on this quilt because it wasn't straight. The quilter tried to explain to me how that was done but I didn't follow her at all...

This next one is a neat idea but I don't think I'd ever make one, wouldn't know what to do with it. I think you make two quilt tops (very small), then cut them in strips and alternate the strips from the two pieces onto some firm (interfaced?) fabric. Then it is sewn onto a background like an accordion and depending on which side of the quilt you stand on, you'll see either the first or second quilt top. A bit like those images you tilt and something in the image moves, e.g. a frog leaping...



And funny enough, I just had a conversion with Crispy about New York Beauty blocks, asking her if there are more complicated ones that the one she was showing on her blog - well, here I had a picture of some variations all along!

3 comments:

Crispy said...

Wow great little quilts. I can see why the applique one won Best In Show!! The two way quilt was really interesting, I've never seen anything like it before.

You belong to one VERY talented guild!!

Crispy

Unknown said...

Oh the photos were wonderful to see. I think the two way one was fabulous!
I would have picked that for its originallity.
I'm not fond of the mariner's theme quilts. Don't know why but certainly appreciate the workmanship.
You are in a great group for sure.

Rebekah said...

Thanks for sharing these! The quilting on the last one is gorgeous, but I really love the Anne quilt (big fan here :)