Sunday, September 22, 2013

Inspirational Sunday 6 - via the 2013 International Quilt Festival in Long Beach

I am sorry I missed last week.  I thought I would be able to post while on my mini-vacation, but I ran into difficulties.

This week's quilts have a modern flair.  I've been noticing a lot more modern quilts in the shows the last year or two.  I really enjoy looking at them.  While some are more simplistic in design, not all are simply made.

Also, I observe that often at shows, there is a themed exhibit and you get to see how quilters take that theme and come up with completely different ideas and quilts while interpreting that theme.  The opposite is also true as you walk around the show - some quilters take completely different inspiration and construction methods, yet come up with remarkably similar looking quilts.  Here are a few examples of that today.

The first quilt is called Wall Markings #2 by Valerie Maser-Flanagan of Carlisle Massachusetts.

"Wall Markings #2" by Valerie Maser-Flanagan of Carlisle, MA


It is machine pieced and machine quilted.  It was inspired by worn brick walls!  The quilter says, "I love the beauty of worn brick walls that have experienced layers of paint, mold, and partial crumbling.  On my first visit to Mass MOMO I was more influenced by the brick walls inside the building than by the art on display.  My approach is improvisational.  I begin with a general idea, a palette of colors and a blank wall.  I fined this approach intriguing because the interaction of line, shape and color cause unexpected results."

I love how quilts can be inspired by the unlikeliest places or things.  I also appreciate her advice of starting with an idea and a color palette and seeing where it takes you.


The second quilt is similar in some ways.  It is called Colorstrips #1 by Lynda Faires of Louisville, Colorado.  It won first place in the Art-Abstract, Large category.  (I didn't realize there was a "Large" or "Small" subcategory, interesting.)

"Colorstrips #1" by Lynda Faires of Louisville, CO

It is machine pieced and quilted and is an original design.  She says, "this quilt was created by an improvisational design process based on strip piecing solid colors to create bands of fabric with color or tonal gradations.  These bands were then cross-cut to create new strips used in the final construction.  I am a retired spectroscopist and love color."

I don't think you need to be a spectroscopist to appreciate the effect of this quilt.

Finally, here is another similar looking quilt.  It is called "Sky High" by Kate Stiassni and quilted by Jackie Kunkel of New York, New York.

"Sky High" by Kate Stianssni, quilted by Jackie Kunkel

It is strip pieced, machine pieced and quilted.  The design source is Chinese Coin, Amish Bars.  The quilter says, "New York City is a very vertical place.  Living there and constantly looking up has created a vocabulary of color, line, and shape for my quilts.  I am also mindful of how the earliest American quilters typically made their quilts by adding small pieces of fabric or strips to an ever-growing top.  Thus, I have called upon both deeply rooted tradition and urban modern architecture in composing and rendering this quilt."

Well, there you go.  Three modern quilts, all similar in that they are combined bars of colors, but all from different inspirations, and approaches.

Thanks for reading today,

Jen

2 comments:

  1. These are all interesting. I like the bottom one best :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Everyone interesting, everyone using solids. Unusal work, but lovely to look at.

    ReplyDelete

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