A Older Red and White Quilt

Don't you love a red and white quilt? There is something so graphic about a two color quilt and the red and white combo is just oolala! SewCalGal is hosting a A Year of Red and White Quilt Challenges - Phase One - Quilt Show of Quilts Made Prior to 2014. My quilt certainly fits this category.

Back in time, towards the beginning of my quilting journey, I made a red and white quilt. It is a sampler quilt, in which every block is a different quilt pattern. I called it "5 of Hearts" and I gifted it to Auntie. Why "5 of Hearts"? Because there are 5 visible hearts on the quilt top. The central block is a red heart on a white background and each corner of the quilt has a red heart on a white background.

I remember pulling out all the red and white fabrics that I had. In those days, the stash wasn't quite as impressive as it is now, so this is truly a scrap quilt. And in 1988, 100% cotton was hard to find. You can see that I took advantage of several different striped fabrics, one of which is only used on a top and bottom border. Speaking of stripes, see the binding? Pieced, baby! Oh, yeah! Some of my fabric choices concerning value (Attic Windows) were a bit unfortunate.

The blocks came from one of Georgia Bonesteel's books, but I can't remember which one and those books have joined my guild library so I can't reference them. Let's see if I can remember block names. Starting in the upper left corner: Double 4 Patch, Bowtie, Square in square(?), Churndash, Heart, Pinwheel, Pinwheel variation, Attic Windows, and Card Trick.

This is all hand quilted and was done in the Quilt as You Go method. I believe Georgia Bonesteel called it Lap Quilting. The central medallion portion is simply quilted in either cross hatching or 1/4" inside the seams of the block pieces.


There are lots and lots of hearts quilted on this quilt. Don't you love the old style of quilting in the 1980s where there was so much left unquilted? Puffy and baggy

Cables!!

That wide striped fabric in one of the top/bottom borders bled. See it? And this was the first time I did a bit of back art. The cabled borders were too short and needed extensions. In a previous photo, you can see the checkerboard extension used on the front.

All in all, this quilt has held up remarkably well. Other than the bleeding.  And there is a bit of fading on the right side from the sun because the quilt couldn't be turned on the bed. She's not looking too bad for a 16 year old.

"5 of Hearts" made by Paula.thequilter

1988

Size: 90"x111"

100% cotton & poly/cotton blend fabrics

100% polyester batting

I have loved the chance to re-visit this quilt and see how far I have come along on this quilting journey. Are you participating in this Virtual Quilt Show?

Dance!

I entered a quilt show. The Rocky Mountain Quilt Festival to be exact. I entered as an individual with no guild ties because I wanted to be judged and I'll get the judges comments back when I pick up my quilt. But LOOK! Do you see the ribbon? How could you miss it, right? 2nd place in applique. I never expected that!

Here's the back story on the quilt. It started as a challenge between two friends and there were quite a few guidelines.

• it needs to be based on a poem or song
• outside perimeter dimensions were not to exceed 160" (this one is 120")
• both piecing and applique need to be used ( the back is comprised of lots of pieced pinwheels in purple and the polka dot fabric)
• and like the Hoffman Challenge, a certain fabric (in this case the polka dots) needed to be used.

I think I met, and in the case of the polka dots exceeded, the guidelines. What do you think, MagicLady?

I hand painted the background for this original design and am extremely pleased with the way it turned out. All the applique is satin stitched including the lamé on the dragonfly wings. My drawing style is pretty obviously cartoons. Try as I might to do realistic, it just doesn't happen.

Deb Geyer, in Anderson, Indiana did the quilting.

Redbud

Another quilt from the Denver National Quilt Festival VII is a lovely little quilt from Denise Killingsworth of CA called "Redbud".

It is nice and serene, isn't it? What caught my eye is the way she constructed the "buds". My guess is bias tubes tied with overhand knots and then cut. Two tubes crossed over each other and stitched on with a bead. Very creative!

Love for a Lifetime

At the quilt show this past weekend I saw this quilt by Peggy Parrot entitled "Love for a Lifetime".

I really like this quilt as it reminded me of George Lundeen's sculpture "Valentine".

Love is ageless.

I went to a quilt show

and, surprisingly,  my favorite quilt is this one by Roger Winchell of Ashville, NC. I love the drafting that was involved in this.

"Quilter's DNA"

Vote for your favorite entries - Christmas Quilt Show

It is time to vote for your favorite entries in the Christmas Quilt Show. I am number 49.
You make a comment on the post in the blog I linked to above. You can vote for one Christmas quilt (#49) and one Winter quilt in the comments section of the post. (#49). The voting closes on Sunday, tomorrow, and winners will be announced next week. Remember, I'm #49! Thanks!

Quilt Show 2011

Recently I attended the annual Quilt-a-Fair sponsored by Colorado Quilt Council. This is a combination quilt show and very large vendor mall. This year the quilts, which are hung very high, seemed to be ho-hum, kind of predictable. In fact, there was one quilt that was an exact replica of the quilt on the cover of the Yellow Brick Road pattern by Atkinson Designs. How sad is that?


But there were several of the quilts that caught my attention. First up is this quilt and I know it was the fabrics that caught my eye because it is a very straight forward log cabin type of block that is set on point. But don't you love the fussy cutting for the center?

"Cinnamon and Ginger" by Marti Oetzel

Or this one, which looks to be a self design. What I really like about this quilt is it's simplicity of design using only three fabrics. Because two of those fabrics are stripes, the design looks complicated. 

"Tightly Woven" by Lea McComas

This next quilt is also by Lea McComas. Unfortunately, the program had a typo and the name for the quilt is unknown. But look at the possibilities in this design of strings, glorious strings!

Unknown quilt by Lea McComas

How about triangles? Do you like them? This next quilt's title is so true.

"There Is No Such Thing As An Ugly Fabric" by Leslie Frisbee

I am such a sucker for a red, white and blue quilt and when it combines with a kaleidoscopic stack-'n-whack I'll get reeled in every time. Isn't this a fun quilt?

Unknown title by Delma Oberbeck

Wordless Wednesday - Cheddar

QAF 2010

The Colorado Quilting Council's annual Quilt-A-Fair was held on Friday and Saturday. On Friday, I stopped at the bank for my one and five dollar bills before leaving town. I buy quilt raffle tickets at QAF and like to have correct change. One thing I did forget to do, however, was to replenish my address label supply, but I had enough to only have to hand write 2 tickets.


Armed with my camera, I and thousands of my closest friends entered the show.

This year the quilt show was curated from quilts by the Denver Metro Longarm Quilters Association. QAF hangs the quilts from the rafters so if the photos look a bit skewed to you it is because I had to shoot UP.

Just look at the quilting on this first quilt. Lovely. Of course, by now, you should know that I am a total sap for the 30s style. Quilt is 30s Something: pieced and quilted by Ellen Palmer.

Here's another 30s one by the same quilter. Quilt is My Green Glob: pieced and quilted by Ellen Palmer.

How about a lovely Stack and Whack? Road To Riches: pieced and quilted by Debra Geissler.

Isn't this scrappy star quilt fabulous? I saw it from a distance and as I got closer it just kept getter better. Sherri's Scrappy Stars: pieced by Sherri Bain Driver and quilted by ZJ Humbach

I saved the best for last. This one is by our own Alycia (QuiltyGirl) Carolina Christmas: pieced and quilted by Alycia Carmin

I've been a bit under the weather lately with what I thought was a cold but has turned out to be a massive sinus infection. Going to this quilt show sapped my strength and I have spent the last two days recuperating. But it was so well worth it.

The Dragon

Janet's Dragon by Barbara Caves, Colorado

On Saturday, I went to Quilt Colorado 2010 in Estes Park with four other ladies. MagicLady and I go to quilt shows together and we have a routine that fits us. We always start by viewing the quilts and we will stop and discuss pros and cons and techniques and exclaim over each quilt. It takes us a while to get through a quilt show. Only after we view all the quilts do we then go to the vendors mall.

Two of the other ladies hit the vendor's mall first and if they even saw the quilt show I'd be surprised. Halfway through the quilts, the fifth lady came up to us and said everybody was waiting for us in the lobby of the hotel. O dear! We rushed through the rest of the quilts and essentially bypassed the vendor mall. Sadly, this is the only photo I took. After whizzing through the rest of the show, we found the ladies in the lobby resting their feet, not 'waiting' on us. O well. *shrug*

I think I've mentioned that I collect dragons. This one is exceptionally well done and by someone here in my home town!

Denver National Quilt Festival

The busyness from the previous post resulted in not having time to clean up a lot of the photos from this quilt show, which, BTW, was an excellent show. My friend and I enjoyed it immensely. There seemed to be a lot more applique this year, but then maybe that is what I'm tuned for right now. The photo above is just a small section of the Viewer's Choice winner. Each small quilt on this larger quilt was made separately and then appliqued to the background. No detail was overlooked -- including the award ribbons on the quilts. You can click on it to get it bigger. To see the whole quilt click on the Official Denver National Quilt Festival.

Here are some links I have collected over the past weeks on this show.

Official Denver National Quilt Festival website photos. This link gives you the winners.

This Smilebox slide show from Great American Quilt Factory shows a special exhibit of their quilts.

Erin Russek has a two-part post on the Denver National Quilt Festival. Here are
Erin's first post and then
her second post that shows several of the quilts at this show.

Blogger Quilt Festival

Do you see it? It's overthere on the righthand sidebar. The badge for the Blogger's Quilt Festival. The badge/link at the beginning of this post takes you to the FAQ for the fall festival. If you want more information, then you need to check out the spring festival HERE.

I am going to participate but I do not know which quilt I am going to highlight. It will be an older one since I have nothing new to show. I urge you to participate. It is great fun to go around the blogosphere and see the 'quilt show'

Another Quilt-A-Fair 09 photo

"Grandma's Country Album" by Grace Compestine

I thought I would give equal time to an applique quilt. Yes, this quilt was machine pieced, machine appliqued and machine quilted. Normally, a purple quilt is not interesting to me, but this one is so beautifully executed it was a standout. Enjoy!

Quilt-A-Fair 2009

Relativity by Denise Knapp

Yesterday and today was the annual Colorado Quilting Council's Quilt-A-Fair. My friend, MagicLady, who travels a lot for her job, flew in last night just to go to the show with me -- she flies out again tomorrow. We had a great time! I love to go to shows just to see the quilts. And having the vendors under one roof is an added plus.

The quilts are all hung from the rafters, so taking photos is a bit of a challenge. This year the show was curated from the Steamboat Springs Quilt Guild. It was interesting that of the 56 quilts shown only one was handwork. It was hand embroidered and  hand quilted. I can remember back when there was such an uproar at shows like this when someone entered a quilt that was quilted by a long arm, because hand quilting was the norm. Quilting sure has come a long way. And isn't the quilt pictured a beautiful example of value shading?

Rocky Mountain Quilt Festival

This quilt by Sherry Reynolds, Reynolds Crossing, won Viewer's Choice award at the Rocky Mountain Quilt Festival. Isn't it lovely and what a wonderful setting for sampler blocks. Sherry has only been quilting for five years. Can you believe it?

I was asked by the show's webmaster to take photos of the general and guild(s) quilts. There were 4 or 5 guilds represented. I shot over 300 photos in the one hour I had on Saturday before class and in the one hour I had on Sunday before class. What a treat to be able to shoot unimpeded by people. I have a system: I shoot the quilt and then the placard with the quilter's information and quilt name. I have been doing this for years and it works wonderfully.

Now I need to run the photos through Photoshop to crop out the unwanted around the quilt and get them to the show coordinators. You will understand if I drop in and out won't you? Busy, busy.

Soon, I will post on the David Taylor workshop. I promise.

On a side note:
After shooting Sunday, by the time I got to class I was dripping wet because they had not turned on the air conditioning. My hair was plastered to my head and you could see where the straps of my backpack had been by the wetness of my tee shirt. So today, I had nine inches cut off of my hair. It is so much cooler. And cute! Why haven't I done this sooner? My hairdresser said that as I am getting older my hair is getting curly. Go figure.

Quilt Show Prep

I entered two quilts into the upcoming quilt show. One is the Homespun BOM and the other is Maggie's Flower Garden, pictured above. Homespun BOM, which I call Helen and Baby Hannah is totally machine pieced and quilted. Maggie's Flower Garden is totally hand pieced, appliqued and quilted.

I have been making hanging sleeves for the two quilts and in the process of stitching one onto Helen and Hannah, I decided that I really did not like the way I did the binding so, zippp! The binding is being redone.

I had to put labels onto the outside of pillowcases that included my name, the quilt's name and my telephone number.

I still have to make labels for the quilts. This isn't to say that these two quilts are without labels, they do have them. But the rules say on the lower back. Both of these quilts have the label information written right onto the quilt, one on the front and the other mid-right. So now each quilt will have two labels.

Denver Quilt Festival

I went to the Denver Quilt Festival on a rainy Saturday. For those cat lover's out there, go check out one of the winning quilts -- Siamese cats with beautiful blue eyes.

The quilt shown is "Ribbitt" by Leigh Cabell, which won an honorable mention. Do you see what this it? This is a huge (90"x106") cathedral window quilt with beads at every intersection. The planning that went into this quilt, o my! At the bottom of the eye on the right side of the quilt, when she needed that blue+black, she pieced a little corner triangle of black onto the blue so that when the 'window' was peeled back it revealed the very bottom of the pupil.

My GF and I thoroughly enjoyed our day out that included breakfast and linner *smile*.

More on one of the exhibits in a later a post. I promise.

Quilts at the Museum

Our local museum is currently running an exhibit of some of the Gee's Bend quilts: Mary Lee Bendolph, Gee's Bend Quilts and Beyond. Mary Lee Bendolph is one of Gee's Bend's quiltmakers and her work connects the older and the younger circles of quilt artists. This exhibit studies her relationships with other artists: her mother, her daughter, her daughter-in-law and two self-taught Alabama artists (a sculptor and a painter/sculptor). The exploration of her inspiration and creative process was presented with not only several of her actual quilts, but a maquette of a quilt and then the resulting art print. It would have been nice if the life-size version of the maquette and the print were on display as well. This is not a normal quilt show, but an art exhibit that was well presented and displayed.

Do you realize that these quilts are made from denim, corduroy, twill and other non-traditional quilting fabrics? They weigh a lot more than a normal 100% cotton quilt and it would be difficult to roll over when laying under one. I admire their ability to use what they have, but then that is the reasoning behind the early day pioneer quilts also, isn't it?

Have you seen a Gee's Bend exhibit? The pieces pack a powerful graphic punch.

*photo credit: Mary Lee Bendolph, Blocks and Strips, 2005, Corduroy, 84 x 81 inches

A Quilt Show

1. 9patch, 2. disappearing9patch, 3. panels,
4. oneblockquilt, 5. colorful, 6. bowtie,
7. scraps, 8. houses, 9. colorful1

I spent a delightful day this past Saturday in the company of a dear friend, other quilters, and quilts. What more could a quilter ask for? It was the annual Colorado Quilting Council Quilt-A-Fair. I look forward to this every year and every year it is different. It seemed that last year there were more quilts on display and fewer things of interest in the vendor booths. This year was just the opposite. I have only shown 9 of the quilts and I lost my program so I can't even tell you the maker. There was nothing spectacular but I take pictures to remember a color variation or a setting. I can't even tell you the pattern maker's name because (in the case of the house quilt) I remember seeing the pattern but can't remember who designed it. O the perils of getting old. The plaid bow tie (#6) reminded me of Finn, not that she wears bow ties, do you Finn?

My major purchase of the day was this antique wooden sewing box. I have always looked at these boxes when I've found them at stores or friends but it was never the right one. My Grandma had one and I can remember thinking it was the coolest thing. I don't know what ever happened to it but I've been searching for one just like it and Voila! here it is. It has a place of honor on my coffee table in the living room and holds all the little stuff that collects on the table. I have a different sewing basket that I use. I also bought one pattern, a Laurel Burch 1/2 yard bundle, 2 books (like I need more) and 3 Red, White and Bold charm packs from moda (they were marked down, I couldn't resist).

I fell in love with this pattern by Red Leaf Designs out of Sheridan, Wyoming. I did not buy it because I had spent a lot more than I normally do and was feeling guilty. But isn't it a great design? The quilt is not a rectangle: the upper corners of the quilt really do look like that.

Piece Keepers from Yukon, Oklahoma, had the quilt for this pattern (Massachusetts Cross & Crown) displayed in the back of the booth. Is this not a wonderful setting? If you follow the link you need to click on "Patterns" to get to the photo of the quilt. Sorry, but that is what happens when a website is built in frames. Ugh.

And for all you stitchery people out there, this is the year for you. Everywhere I looked there was stitchery. The predominant designer seemed to be Crab-apple Hill. If you follow the link you will see the majority of stitcheries that I saw at the show. The most popular (4 different booths) seemed to be Hocuspocusville, but I also saw Over The River & Through The Woods and 'Twas the Night Before Christmas.

The Quilted Frog designs caught my eye, mainly because I draw and design like this. Whatever I draw ends up looking like a cartoon. I just wish the website had been updated.

Jane Spolar's patterns also caught my eye. Aren't they great? I think the Phoenix one is exquisite.

By far my favorite booth of the whole show was Bonnie Blue Quilts from Katy, Texas. I have linked directly to the pattern page to hopefully bypass the wierd box that flys in to advertise the shop's latest block in the BOM. The quilt that I absolutely fell in love with is Lancaster. I think it was a comination of the black-on-black reproduction and the cheddar that did me in. Gorgeous.

Part Deux: Land of the Rainbow Quilt Show

Me again. You know, I never did figure out where the title to the quilt show came from; I wonder if it has Native American connections? Anyway, when we left our intrepid heroine she was showing pictures of a quilt show. The story continues...

I was quite surprised to turn a corner and find a duplicate of a quilt that I have made. Here's the back story: I was at a flea market (it's a venue similar to a rummage sale but on a permanent basis) and found a quilt kit in one of the booths. Part of the quilt was done and all the pieces were there so I purchased the kit for $24.00, took it home, and, after several years, finished it. Here is a link to my quilt. The one in the show was a duplicate but, in my opinion, not finished as well, *grin*. Both were totally hand appliqued and hand quilted. The kits were available in the 1940s.

This lovely Hawaiian-style applique quilt is by Marjie Foster. Once again, the show curator hung a quilt for maximum visual impact. This was on the landing of the stairs. I was standing about half-way up to be able to fill the camera frame. The quilt is about 40" square. It is hard to see, but in the north/south/east/west 'green arms' are little piles of green beads. Exquisite hand applique and hand quilting.

Does anyone remember this old pattern? I have it buried in the pattern book somewhere. Nope, just looked and I must have gotten rid of it in a past cleaning frenzy. It is the same concept as a Sunbonnet Sue and is a very simple applique. What caught my attention was the edge of her cape. Do you know what it is? It is some of that old style trim similar to the kind with the little dingle balls like what can be seen in this post (scroll down). It should not surprise you that I have a whole shoebox full of this type of trim. *ahem* Now that I've seen a whole quilt made with this pattern, I doubt if I will ever make it: tastes change doncha know. This quilt was probably made in the 1980's as you can tell by the style of quilting (not a lot of quilting and the motifs are giveaways) and the fabric. It was a pattern in one of the early quilt magazines.

Isn't this a lovely quilt? 42 on-point 9" basket blocks alternating with 30 plain white on-point squares with baskets hand quilted on them. There were lovely little flowers quilted at the top of each pieced basket. This was a labor of love, wasn't it?

I really enjoyed this show. The quilts were on display for the entire month of August with the reception, awards ceremony, and classes held on Labor Day weekend (Aug 30 & 31). It would have been nice if the quilt show/classes had coordinated with the car show as I would have been more than willing to bring my Featherweight and take classes while CarGuy attended the car show. Much more my style.