Sunday, July 29, 2012

Inspiration on Sunday - via the International Quilt Festival

I just couldn't contain myself!  I had a chance to sit down at the computer this morning, and all I could think about was showing you some pictures from the International Quilt Festival in Long Beach.  I attended yesterday, and it was awesome!

I figured I would try to share a few pictures every Sunday for the next couple of weeks.   All over the world, people find Sunday a day of inspiration right?

First up, something you could totally accomplish!  These two quilts are by Pat Kroth from Verona, Wisconsin.



Now, I don't know her exact method, but what it looked like to me is that she took "crumbs" of leftover fused pieces, arranged them on a background, fused them in place, then quilted heavily making sure to catch every piece a little bit.  Uh, Brilliant!!  I am not sure I could arrange my colors as beautifully as she did, but it would be fun to try!

If you have ever done the fusible applique method, you know that once you trim out your applique piece, you usually have some fabric left over with the fusible web attached.  It is typically in small, random shapes.  Heck, I have some this week!  Well, I am considering saving them now and creating a wall hanging or something.  I mean look at how wonderfully colorful these quilts are!  They would brighten up anyone's day!

Next up, Penguins!



I think I saw this quilt by Joyce O'Connell from Courtice, Ontario at the Road to California Show back in January too.  I'm not sure what it is about penguins that makes them so endearing, but I they are so cute.  This quilt was machine appliqued, hand-dyed, inked, threadpainted, and free-motion quilted.

What I love about it:  She pieced different fabrics together to create the shading effects of this quilt, and her free motion adds another layer of interest.  It is amazing!

It seemed like many of the artists exhibited at this years show had abandoned the technique of using pieced fabrics to create those shading effects in favor of painting on the fabric surface.  It could be that I was sensitive to it, because I prefer the unpainted technique, but it seemed like at least a third of the quilts in the show where fabric painted.  Some looked like paintings that had been quilted, instead of quilts that had been painted.  Now, I don't mean to put down the technique or anything - it certainly is growing in popularity - I just like the old way.

It's funny, my other big observation of the collection exhibited was the number of quilts that had been hand quilted really grew from last year.  At Road to California, almost all of the quilts were machine quilted.  I would say about a third at Long Beach were hand quilted.  It was really neat to see.

More pics next Sunday!

Did anyone else go to the show?  What were your observations?

Jen

1 comment:

  1. Ooh, I'm looking forward to next Sunday already! The crumb quilts look great, and the penguins are really cute. I'm with you on painted quilts, but if you think of it as *related* to quilting, I guess it's a different skill

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