Thursday, September 30, 2010

All Star Quilts, Part II

What a great show in the previous post!
Again, I am trying to get all the designers & patterns credited, so please let me know when I can add any info to a post...or if you would like me to remove a photo, I will happily honor your wishes immediately.

The theme of this year's QuiltFest was "Birds of a Feather Quilt Together", so let's start off by looking at a few of the Challenge pieces!
 Melinda R. takes us to the battle for "Featherweight Champion". She used yellow netting and beading to create that wonderful spotlight effect.

Pat P. has put the challenge fabrics to good use with her "Birds of A Feather Challenge". A 3-D touch is always nice!

"Feathered Friends" have gone for a day at the beach in Karen W.'s shaped and embellished quilt.
It's always fun to see what inspirations come from a theme and a little bunch of fabric.
Next year is "The Sky's The Limit"!
Now on to rest of the entries from the All Star Quilters Guild...

"Aurora" came from a collection of fabrics Dot B. received for Christmas one year. It can be fun...and challenging!...to work with selections from another person.

Trish E. calls this one "Big Sister", because she also has... 
"Little Sister" made from the leftovers! What a great idea for using up scraps and extra units!

Speaking of projects that come as pairs, here is "His" by Margaret S. It's sort of the pieced, masculine version of ... 
 ..."Hers" found in the Applique category. These came from two Block of the Month programs (honest, I am getting the info!). These were designed as companion quilts, Classic Folk Art (2004) by Designing Friends (Vicki McGowen and Kathy Johnson).

 OK, Pat P....your quilt just insists on staying on this side no matter what I try! "Old Fashioned Holiday" is a lovely use of crochet doilies as half-square triangles. She must have been feeling "in the pink"....
with this "Spring Blossoms" quilt from the Other Applique Techniques category.

Karol B. cleverly titled this quilt "Transpositions" for it's musical themed fabrics. Or maybe it was because she got the pattern reversed? Debbie Bowles' "BQ2" looks great no matter how you make it!
The guild had fun learning this pattern in a class taught by Lynn Provencher of Country Crossroads Quilt Shop. Here's another example from the same class...
Andrea P. used some pieced blocks instead of the plain squares for "Tropical Triangles Encore".
Could these be left over from a previous project??? 

Cathy J. takes us on trip to the Southwest with "Kokopelli Seranade". Take a closer look at the beadwork: 
 Nicely done! The beads are the pefect size and colors and add just the right touch.

Sometimes you just can't get a photo without ardent admirers in the way! Sandy O.'s "Winners Bouquet" is well worth a good look! Sandy actually flew in to Jacksonville just for the show. Maybe next year she'll let her husband come along!

I am fairly sure this is Karla P.'s "Paisley Park", but honestly, keeping track of all the beautiful quilts just makes my head swirl! This quilt has a great balance of values and colors.

Pat D. used a packet of fabrics donated to the guild by Magrieta's Quilt Shop to create "Elegance". Black and taupe is a beautiful combination.

With a nod to her heritage, Val S. made "Hawaii's Star" with a terrific bold floral. I really like a smaller quilt that looks like a "blown up" block. You could try your favorite block this way!

"It's All About Lisa" in Mary Anne D.'s photo quilt. Two things make this one a real standout: the photo transfers have good, deep color, and Mary Anne went to a lot of trouble to put little black triangle corners on each picture for an old album effect. Those details really do make a difference!
Then she had a small amount of a special fabric, resulting in... 
"Space Sprouts in My Potato Chips", which refers to the style of blocks (see Gay M.'s quilt above). The print motif does look like a sprout...perhaps from another planet!

Last, but not least, is Mary Jo K.'s "Ruby Diamond"...and what a little hand-pieced gem it is! Don't you love that the tag is actually larger than the quilt?

This completes our All Star show for 2010. It is so exciting to see all these quilts hanging proudly in QuiltFest. Competion is fun for some people, but a show needs lots of entries and they can't all have a ribbon. You know, they really don't need a ribbon...showing and sharing with other quilters, and helping the public to learn to love quilts, that's the real reward!

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

All Star Quilts (Part I)

The  Really Big Show...QuiltFest...has come and gone again. It was bigger and better than ever, with 430 quilts this year.
The set up and take down are about the same every year, so I thought this time I'd like to make a couple posts to feature the entries by my guild sisters, The All Star Quilters Guild.
The name does not refer to any membership requirement...we have people from beginners to major award winners and even several teachers. There are members of all ages and both sexes. Everyone is welcome...even a few people who don't make quilts, they just enjoy being with quilters!
We like to say "All Stars...where everyone can shine!"
If anyone wants their name or photo removed, I will do that...and if anyone can tell me the correct designer's name, I will be glad to add that right away!
This is our raffle quilt, "Morning Star". It was made from a commercial pattern, and I am appalled to say I don't have that info! It's on the label, though, and I will add it here ASAP! (Quilt Moments by Marilyn Foreman...pattern name "Celebration"...but the colors were completely changed for this quilt).
All seven guilds who work togther putting on this show have raffle quilt drawings on last day. This one was won by long-time member Dorothy J. (sorry Quilt Mother Margaret S.!).

Here's a quilt that came all the way from Panama. It gets counted as an All Star quilt because it was made by a member's friend, Carol S.
This is a Mary Lou Weidman design.

 Carol G. had two quilts in the show. This one is "Grandmother of Invention"....
.....and this one is "Celestial Dreams". Don't you love the way two blocks work together? Carol got this pattern from Marcia Hahn's Quilters Cache website.

 Kathy R.made Judy Niemeyer's pattern and called it "Thistlepods on the Green". The photo does not show how pretty the purple and green colors are.
Kathy also made this one:
 It's a One Block Wonder style called "Little Red Corvette Goes for a Spin" and is a marvelous use of that kaleidoscope technique plus a super-cute fabric!

 Gay M. loves to make a bargello quilt, and this one,"John's Surf Song", was done for her son. The pattern came from "Twist & Turn Bargello" by Eileen Wright. She also made a quilt in another of her signature styles....
 "Flowers Everywhere" is a fantastic use of two reverse-value prints (same pictures, dark & lights switched) in a "Potato Chip Quilt". That's a quick technique, and of course, you can't "make just one".

 Shirley S. shows how to let the fabric work with"Shoji Screen". Some fabrics are too beautiful to chop up!
She also made this unique quilt...
"Wedding Ring" has bright red pieces where the rings join, and is quilted with red thread. The black & white prints almost blend into the background...it's a beautiful way to give a new look to an old pattern!
Shirley had this entry, too...
 "Color Falls" gives us a good lesson in using a variety of colors and values!

 "French Rose" has Miriam B. showing off the rag technique with a good selection of fabrics. This is one that begs to be cuddled up in!

 Pat B. was not afraid of all those curves in "Apple Core II"! She loves to make scrap quilts in bed sizes...and give them to her family members. Hey, Pat...can I be your sister???

 Look close on the left side...Vicki Z.'s blue ribbon blends right into the colorful "Night and Day". The inspiration for this quilt was Cathy Tomm's "Luminous Diamonds" in the July 2009 American Quilters Society magazine.Vicki is a faithful hand quilter...yes, even with all those seams!
So she had to make this one...
...some "Amish Inspiration" for us! Yes, she won two ribbons in this Intermediate Pieced category. We teased her...if only she'd made another, she could have swept the category!
You can't tease someone unless she really deserved those ribbons, and Vicky sure did!

 Lois W. won't see this on my blog because she doesn't use a computer. In fact, she's in assisted living, but managed to get "A Fireman's Friend" done specially to enter into this show. This log cabin settling is a great idea for featuring those "picture prints" of Dalmations.


This is a detail shot of Eleanor A.'s "Civil War Reproduction", which she made from a collection of fabrics she'd had for 15 years. The whole quilt is wonderful, but I wanted to point out the very well-chosen quilting pattern. The fan shapes work so nicely with the geometic squares, and it is the sort of all-over design that would have been used back in the mid-1800s.

I hope you enjoyed this first batch of All Star quilts. There are at least this many more to come, including entries in the Challenge category, "Birds of A Feather Quilt Together", the show's theme for 2010.