International Quilt Exhibition 2018 (3)

Quilt art, sometimes referred to as “soft paintings,” has more in common with fine art than it does with traditional quilting. The Brigham City Museum (Utah) is presenting the 46th International Quilt Invitational Exhibit from June 16 through September 1, 2018. The exhibit features universally prized quilts by artists from Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. We hope you enjoy these outstanding quilts!

Note: For great deals on quilt patterns, fabric, and vintage jewelry, visit us on E-Bay - we're Top Rated Sellers ! And for continuous listings of free quilt patterns, please check us out on Twitter !

Cool Camels of Egypt, 70" x 54.5", by Barbara Barrick McKie (Connecticut)

This wonderful photorealistic quilt by featured artist, Barbara McKie, was a standout at the show. McKie and her husband visited Egypt in 2007. The background is a heiroglyphic from a temple that she saw.  The quilt features seven delightful camels; their funny expressions caught her eye, and she recorded them with her camera.

Many of the camels she saw had pompoms and tassels, so she embellished all the camels in the quilt with yarn.  Trapunto was used to make the camels stand out and to sculpt their heads.

David by Gilli Theokritoff (United Kingdom)

This outstanding mosaic quilt is adapted from Michelangelo's statue of David. Gilli used photos of the statue as her inspiration and put the image through a cross-stitch program which converted it to pixels. The quilt is 76 inches tall and is made with 300 different fabrics, cut into 13,800 3/4" squares that were appliqued to a background.   The piece is quilted with the story of David's rise and fall from grace.

It took Gilli a year to plan the design for the quilt in her head, and to collect fabric when she visited shows and quilt shops.  She even cut up some of her family's clothing.  Then she had to wait three months for her husband to build a table large enough and high enough for her to start the quilt.  The quilt was completed in three months.  David won First Place in the Large Wallhanging Category at Quilt champion UK at Sandown in 2015.

Orvieto Memories by Lisa Walson (Australia)

This quilt was started while Lisa Walton was teaching in the beautiful Italian village of Orvieto.  All the fabrics were created from white cloth using a variety of surface design techniques such as dyeing, painting, rubbing, and foiling.  The overlay motif is a copy of a semi-circular, wrought-iron frame over the door of Walton's favorite coffee shop in Orvieto.

Orvieto Memories was part of Lisa's exhibition celebrating her Jewel Pearce Patterson award for quilting teachers, displayed at the International Quilt Festival in Houston in 2011. For more information on the quilt please see Lisa Walton's website.

Mill House by R. Leslie Forbes (Canada)

R. Leslie Forbes is currently living in Western Canada in a wine- and fruit-growing region. Her family spent summers at their cottage at "Trail's End" near the town of St. George.  She and her three siblings would wander the small town savoring ice cream cones, but the area by the waterfalls and the mill was strictly off limits.  On a return trip with her sister as adults, they wanted to explore the mill.  Forbes took the picture that inspired this quilt, which was fabricated exclusively with Forbes' own hand-dyed and painted fabric.

We are fascinated with her dimensional use of translucent and metallic fibers to re-create the shimmering waterfall, shown below.

The Botanical Gardens of Balboa Park by the Bobbin Buddies of San Diego (California)

The Bobbin Buddies quilt group selected the Botanical Building in Balboa Park, San Diego, California, as their subject to celebrate the park's centennial and to coincide with the San Diego Quilt show's theme, "A Walk in the Park." To see how realistic the quilt is, compare it with this photo of the Botanical Building by Bernard Gagnon.

The quilters enlarged a photo of the building to 60 inches by 40 inches, and divided it into 24 pieces.  The pieces were shuffled and ranked as easy, medium, and difficult, then distributed equally to the group.  Each of the eight members did not know what the final product would look like and were given pieces without knowing who got what. The pieces were then expertly matched, quilted, and bound.  In the photo below you can see where 4 sections come together.

After a win in the San Diego Quilt show, the Bobbin Buddies entered the piece into the American Quilters Society's competition in Paducah, Kentucky, and won First Place in Group Quilts.  The piece was purchased by the Balboa Park Conservancy and has been on display in its Visitors Center.

Image credits:  Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration.

International Quilt Exhibition 2018 (1)

Quilt art, sometimes referred to as “soft paintings,” has more in common with fine art than it does with the traditional quilting. The Brigham City Museum (Utah) is presenting the 46th International Quilt Invitational Exhibit from June 16 through September 1, 2018. The exhibit features universally prized quilts by artists from Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. We hope you enjoy this selection of outstanding quilts!

Note: For great deals on quilt patterns, fabric, and vintage jewelry, visit us on E-Bay - we're Top Rated Sellers ! And for continuous listings of free quilt patterns, please check us out on Twitter !

Rolling Into Spring by Sonia Bardella (Italy)

When Sonia Bardella saw her two-year-old grandson somersaulting on a patch of new, soft, green grass on a cold winter day, the quilter knew she had to capture the moment with fabric and paint.  Her grandson's innocence and playfulness brought a breath of fresh, spring air to all those watching him.  This quilt was created with hand-painting using pastel oil, embroidery, applique, and snippets (small pieces of cloth) and is hand- and machine-quilted.

Sonia says the somersault surprised a bee who flew low over the water making concentric rings on its surface.  The closeup photo shows the snippets of fabric and the embroidered bee detail.

Anhinga by Barbara Barrick McKie (Connecticut, USA)

Barbara McKie is the Featured Artist at the Brigham City Museum's 46th Annual Invitational show. She specializes in digitally created nature quilts based on her own photographs and surface design. The inspiration for this quilt was from McKie's visit to the Florida Everglades, where she saw an anhinga spreading its wings against a background of water surrounded by green plants.

Anhinga was created with disperse dyed polyester print, free-motion machine applique, trapunto, thread painting, machine quilting, and several layers of wool batting.

Heart of the Alps by Michael Fitchett (United Kingdom)

Bold graphic images of vintage travel posters inspired artist Michael Fitchett's design for Heart of the Alps. The location is in Murren, Switzerland, where Michael Fitchett was looking for a scene suitable for a quilt design.  Suddenly this view suddenly presented itself.  The northern flank of the Eiger rose sharp in the clear air. Although winter has passed, its legacy of snow is at its thickest.

Their color and style of vintage travel posters lent themselves well to working with blocks of plain color fabric. The choice of fabrics was guided by color and tonal values, with careful planning heightening the effect of sunshine and shadow. The quilt was constructed with bonded applique and machine stitching.

St Mary Axe by Greta Fitchett (United Kingdom)

The stimulus for this quilt is a bullet-shaped, 41-story, modern building in London, constructed with 745 huge diamond-shaped panes of glass.  In medieval times, St Mary Axe was the name given to the street where the building is located.  The composition includes three high-rise office blocks with one disappearing upwards.  A red crane represents the construction work underway in the area at the time.

Fitchett created the design by taking photographs of reflections on the glass surface of the building and turning them into drawings... working from the final drawing, she used free cut patchwork and constructed each diamond segment by machine.  The diamonds were joined with 1/4" wide sashing to represent the window frames.
You can read more about Greta Fitchett and Michael Fitchett at their joint website, Heatherlea Design.

Nature's Floating Sculpture by R. Leslie Forbes (Canada)

This scene is based on R. Leslie Forbes' photos of icebergs off the coast of Newfoundland.  Her granddaughter challenged her to make a quilt with an iceberg after the two of them viewed photos of "sculptures in ice" from her school's science project.  Forbes took artistic license and added mountains to the background to contrast with the shimmering white/blue of the ice floating in the North Atlantic Ocean.

Some of the wonderful fabrics and embellishments can be seen in this photo.  R. Leslie Forbes says her goal is to paint with fabric and thread, honoring four generations of quilters in her family. Nature's Floating Sculptures was made with commercial and hand-dyed fabric, dyed wool, and shells.  It was machine assembled and machine quilted, and tsukineko ink was used for highlights.

Barcelona Sunset by Lisa Walton (Australia)

This stunning quilt really drew our eye.  It was inspired by the artwork of Antoni Gaudi (Barcelona), who animated the surfaces of his work with floral or reptilian metalwork, bright ceramic tiles, and patterned brick or stone. The tile floors of two of Gaudi's buildings were structured like clusters of lily pads.
A single piece of hand dyed fabric was cut and pieced to create the background of Barcelona Sunset. A tile design was quilted over the top and then hand painted with fabric paints. You can find more information about this and other works of art on Lisa Walton's website.

Image credits: Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration.

Highlights of the 2016 AQS QuiltWeek / 4

The 2016 AQS QuiltWeek in Phoenix, Arizona was one of the best shows ever!  With hundreds of quilts and very special exhibits by renowned quilters, it was an incredible show. Here are some more of our favorite quilts.
Please note: We're continually posting free patterns on Twitter ! Check us out @quiltinspire. 

Swimming Upstream, 44 x 33”, by Naida Koraly (Cape Carteret, NC)

This mermaid with her flowing locks appears to be swimming with ease! We admire Naida's split-complementary color scheme of golden yellow with hues of cerulean blue to violet. Naida's lovely quilting can be seen in the closeup photo below.

The description reads:  "Naida was arranging pieced squares for a bed quilt and making a small mermaid art quilt when she realized that the two needed to be merged into one. The bed quilt was put on hold and Swimming Upstream emerged."  Naida says that the quilt pattern was by Sarah Maxwell and Delores Smith at Homestead Hearth.  

Summer Storm, 48 x 34”, by Peg Collins (Alamosa, Colorado)

Peg Collins’ used her hand dyed cotton fabrics to create this Summer Storm, which was designed in the style of Dutch painter Ton Schulten. Peg's houses are set among brightly colored fields and surrounded by groups of monochrome trees. The piece was laid out and fused in place, then quilted. Ton Schulten (born 1938) is known for his landscapes that are painted using bright blocks of color. 

We love the sky in Summer Storm. The driving rain was depicted with parallel quilted that appear to have been overstitched for emphasis.  On her website, Peg explains: "One problem that I had is that I decided the lines of rain didn't show up as much as I wanted. I added more lines in a lighter thread color."

Following Mommy, 32 x 31”, by Barbara Barrick McKie (Old Lyme, Connecticut)

Barbara McKie's work is instantly recognizable for the way in which she merges digital photography with quilting to create artistic portraits in fabric.  On her website, Barbara explains: "My love of surface design, photography, and computer graphics, and my travels have influenced my work to make it unique in the art quilt world."  While in New Zealand, Barbara photographed two baby sheep following their mother up a hill where she was sitting. The effect is so realistic, it is like being in the scene.

The Past is Precious, 36 x 52”, by Claire Kerr (Scottsdale, Arizona)

The Past is Precious is a wonderful juxtaposition of colorful steer skulls with classic feathered star blocks. The steer skull is very symbolic of the Southwest where Claire Kerr lives. Claire chose bright colors to contrast with the deeper background.  For the underlying design, she used the Feathered LeMoyne star pattern from Electric Quilt (EQ7).  Each skull was embellished with a turquoise and silver pin as shown below.

In My Mind 2, 38 x 56”, by Eunsuk Lee (Cheongiu-si, South Korea)

This fanciful quilt was embroidered with dozens of different stitches and designs, inviting the viewer to look more closely.  Eunsuk Lee used a traditional Korean motif pattern for her design. The description reads, "In My Mind 2 expresses the tangled thoughts in Eunsuk’s mind through embroidery and free-motion quilting." Through searching the web we discovered that Eunsuk is a Bernina educator in Korea (no wonder!)   You can find her on Facebook and on Pinterest.   

Image credits:  Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration.

Highlights of the Pacific International Quilt Festival - Part 4

We had a fabulous time at the 2015 Pacific International Quilt Festival, the largest quilt show on the Pacific coast of the U.S.  Beautiful quilts were displayed from around the world. All the quilts were designed and constructed at a high level of talent. We are showing some prize winners, but we also will be showing some real gems that did not win. For a complete list of prize winners in the World Quilt category, please click here. Last week, we featured Part 3; and now, here is Part 4!

Yellow Crowned Night Heron, 32 x 27", by Barbara McKie, Connecticut

Barbara writes of her original design, " I create all of my fabrics, and my inspiration comes from my photographs. The 'pins and needles' come when finding inspiration from many photographs, many from travels." We loved the artistic texture created by the quilting on the leaves and feathers.

Barbara continues, "Once an image is [chosen], I select and print sections to fit on my 17 inch printer. Free motion quilting just flows ! The last decision is whether to make it without a border or to select [some of my] hand dyed fabrics for the border. "  We were very impressed by the detailed, sensitive face on this bird and Barbara's amazing quilting, which was done on a home sewing machine.

Pentecost by Linda S. Schmidt, California

Linda S. Schmidt is an internationally renowned quilt artist who presented a spectacular one-woman show at P.I.Q.F. , titled "Whatever It Takes". This means that she combines a wide variety of techniques and embellishments to express her inner vision. Pentecost refers to the 50 days after Easter in the Christian church, when the Holy Spirit was said to descend upon Christ's apostles.

Linda notes, "The readings for Pentecost are all about light in darkness, the good news being brought to the world, the rebirth of spirit, and the holy fire. This piece has been used for many celebrations in my church and has been used as a Pentecost symbol for ....convocations and confirmations. This quilt hangs for one weekend a year in my church and only took six months to make. The background is completely pieced; the bird is appliqued."
Her work is both admirable and breathtaking, with its juxtaposition of different fabrics, contemporary piecing angles, and quilting lines.

Still Waters , 62 x35, by Jenny Hearn, South Africa

Jenny Hearn explains, Still Waters is based on a pond seen at the golf course in the White River estate in Mpumalanga, [a province in South Africa]. The flowers are very loosely derived from antique upholstery fabrics and embroidery motifs." To us, this looks like a lovely underwater scene, with the sunlight shining down on top of the water, highlighting elegant tropical flowers.

Jenny's exotic original design is machine pieced and appliqued and machine quilted.  Striking split-complementary shades of purple-gold, and aqua-orange provide a lively foreground amidst the deep green background.

Natural, 12 x 39", by LaQuita Tummings, California

LaQuita says of her original design, "When I envision an idea, I get excited, and I get what my mother would call an itching in my finger: the desire to see what my idea will become." We think that LaQuita's idea turned out to be terrific ! This sophisticated lady with gracious, expressive features is adorned with fashionable, vivid flowers in rich, color-saturated shades.

LaQuita's fabulous work is hand appliqued, hand pieced, and hand quilted. We counted at least two dozen very creatively fashioned felt flowers, which give "Natural" so much energy and vivacious personality.

Lircles, 33 x 50", by Susan Garrity, Wyoming

Susan says of her original eye-catching design, " As I hand dyed these fabrics, I was unsure of exactly how I would use them. Then one winter day, as I looked out at the mountain and saw the skiers' tracks, the design popped into my head." Lircles was one of the prettiest modern quilts that we saw at PIQF.

Notice that each wavy-line  "ski track" here has a different sewing-machine quilted pattern. These appliqued circles in various sizes give such a  whimsical, cheerful look to this fun modern quilt. Susan's very innovative work is machine pieced and machine appliqued as shown in the photo below.

Image credits:  Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration.

Birds on quilts: painted, printed, appliqued and stitched

Here's a quilted tribute to the seemingly endless variety of birds that exist in the world of nature.  Today, we're bringing you some outstanding quilts with very life-like representations of birds.

The White Raven, 40 x 32", by Virginia Greaves (Georgia, USA)

 Virginia states, "Legend holds that black ravens were kept at the Tower of London to protect the monarchy. My piece presents a rare white raven to the Tower and ask the question of what that would mean for the monarchy and the Tower."  Inspired by a photo  by Mike Yip of the white ravens on Vancouver Island, Virginia used machine applique and machine quilting  to create this striking piece. We really admire the intricate details in the bird's feathers and especially in the creation of the Tower in the background.

Botswana's Beautiful Bird, 31 x 32", by Barbara McKie (Connecticut, USA)

Barbara writes, "While in Botswana, Africa, on safari in the spring, I photographed a colorful bird, and it inspired this quilt." The bird, a Lilac Breasted Roller, is highlighted against the pale blue dye-painted background.  Barbara has done a wonderful job of conveying the stunning colors of this exotic bird with her combination of digital imagery and quilting. 

Close- up, Botswana's Beautiful Bird by Barbara McKie

Barbara notes that her techniques include photo transfer, dye-painted silk, machine applique, and quilting. Each section of the bird was finely stitched in a different color to match the underlying image.

Eagle Eyes by Margery Hedges (Texas, USA)

Margery notes of her original art quilt,  "I enjoy doing close-up views of animal faces, and this look of intense concentration makes you feel as if you are really face-to-face with this awesome eagle."  Margery's techniques include hand painting with jacquard textile acrylic paint,  machine thread painting, and quilting on cotton fabric. We are impressed with the fierce, compelling look Margery has captured on the eagle's noble countenance.

Did You Wash Your Beak?  by David Taylor, Colorado, USA..

David Taylor's applique quilt was inspired by a photo by Steve Byland.  David notes, "Bird have always been my favorite subject matter to turn into quilts. I hope I captured the attitude of the mother bird, as she looks appalled at her baby's manners. I spent weeks debating with myself over the background color, and ultimate stayed true to Steve Byland's photo."

Close up, Did You Wash Your Beak?  by David Taylor

Winner of a Judges' Choice Award by Carolie Hensley at the 2013 Houston International Quilt Festival, David's materials include commercial cotton prints and purchased, hand-dyed, painted fabrics.  In addition to the details on the birds, we admired the leafy textures in the background of this quilt.  David will be teaching his techniques at the March 2015 Empty Spools seminar.

Wild Goslings, 24 x 32", by Cherrie Hampton,  Oklahoma, USA

Second place winner in the Wall Quilt category at the 2013 Pacific International Quilt Festival, Cherrie states, " "I took a jump into art quilting when I began learning about paint and other product to apply color to fabric. Without patterns to follow, I feel the freedom to create fiber art which, although built on a traditional quilting background, expands that framework to personally expressive art using my fiber fixation."

Close up, Wild Goslings by Cherrie Hampton

We love the realistic look of these darling babies as they sit in repose amongst a beautiful background reminiscent of a Claude Monet impressionist painting.  Cherrie expertly created her original piece using ink painting, machine applique and free-motion quilting. Angelina, net and other embellishments were added.

Cock of the Walk, 39 x 58", by David Taylor (Colorado,USA)

Third place winner for Pictorial Art Quilts at the 2013 Houston International Quilt Festival,  David notes, "This is my second rooster quilt, and this one has a whole lot more attitude. Finding the perfect hand-marbled fabrics was the key to the feathers......that, and amassing enough different red "textured" prints for his wattle."

Close up, Cock of the Walk by David Taylor

David's original design was inspired by a photo by Robert Churchill. It was created with commercial cottons, purchased hand-dyed, painted fabrics, and variegated cotton thread.

Image credits:  Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration.