River City Quilt Show - Day 1

"Rhapsody in Bloom" was the theme of the  River City Quilters' Guild 2012 Quilt Show, which took place from Nov. 14-16, 2012 in Sacramento, California.   We really enjoyed the exhibits put on by this local guild, and we have many fantastic quilts to show you !

River City Quilters' Guild, 2012 Raffle Quilt, close-up photo by Quilt Inspiration

This year's Opportunity Quilt was adapted from a pattern by Crabapple Hill Designs.  The blocks of delicate floral motifs, and blossoms in soft pastels remind us that cultivating good friendships is like tending to a cherished year-round garden.

Red Chair, 41 x 58”, by Mary Upham

Winner of the "Best in Show" award and First Place winner in the Art Quilts category,  Mary writes, "The inspiration for this quilt came from a photo that I took of the porch of a winery in Murphys, CA. I started this project at a Ruth McDowell class at  the Empty Spools Seminar in Asilomar, California." Mary's perfect piecing work has resulted in a life-like depiction of an inviting, homey porch on a sunny afternoon, with one's favorite chair waiting to be occupied.

Close-up of Red Chair by Mary Upham

The strong vertical lines of the house are mirrored in the vertical lines of the chair's colors and quilting pattern.The house, chair, and the garden have a very comfortable rustic look to to them, as a place to relax and daydream.

Fractured Star, 60 x 60”, by Linda Bergmann, quilted by Debbie Lopez

Blue ribbon winner in the Scrap Quilts category, Linda says "This star is a variation of the Star of Bethlehem; all paper pieced with Civil War fabrics."  We recognize this design as the "Unusual Lone Star" pattern in the book, 'Quilts by Karen K. Stone'. Linda has done a wonderful job with a fabric selection of mostly browns, reds, and oranges, which contrast nicely with the taupes and ecru shades of the background fabrics.

Close-up of  Fractured Star by Linda Bergmann

Here's a close-up of how this graceful contemporary star is constructed. The triangles are paper-pieced into smaller diamond blocks, then the blocks are sewn together to make larger diamond components of the eight-pointed star.

Bridget, 22 x 29”, by Linda Bergmann

Winner of a Judges' Choice award, Linda writes, "This portrait was made in a Ruth McDowell class-from a picture of Bridget; pattern was made in class, and this is a form of paper piecing."

Close-up of Bridget by Linda Bergmann

With her perked-up ears and lively eyes, Bridget exudes a lovable personality full of energy.  We can really imagine Bridget just begging to be taken on a walk by her owner

Lady Bug Picnic, 74 x 73, made by Linda Boehm and quilted by Karen M. Walker

Third place winner in the Two Person Pieced Quilt category, Linda notes,  " My children listened to the classic song, Ladybugs' Picnic, during early Sesame Street. In tune with this whimsy, Karen Walker long-arm stitched an Eric Carle (Children’s author) pattern, I spy a dragonfly, snail…”

Close-up of  Ladybugs' Picnic by Linda Boehm and Karen Walker

Complementing the darling polka dot sashing is the ladybug in the center of each quilt block.  Can you spot the cute quilting patterns of the bugs which are stitched into this block?  ( Hint : One bug's head is in the blue background, on the right hand side of the block).

Italy in Bloom, 57 x 81”, made by Malene Evans, quilted by Karen Valdez

Malene tells us, "This [one-block wonder] quilt was created in memory of our trip to Italy and Sicily in October 2009 to celebrate our retirement." These lovely primary colors and the cheerful round symmetrical patterns remind us of the beautiful hand-painted folk art plates that travelers find throughout sunny Italy.

Image credits:  Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration.

Delicate Intricacies: The Wholecloth Quilts of Cindy Needham

Cindy Needham is a renowned quilter, designer, writer, and teacher from California whose special interest is creating magnificent patterns on vintage linen (and occasionally on silk, as shown below). Quilting became Cindy's passion when her family was stationed in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia and North Carolina, and she has now been quilting for over 38 years. The first 25 years of her quilting career were dedicated to hand quilting, but for the past 13 years she has focused on machine quilting.

Feathered Crystals



Feathered Crystals is an updated version of a wholecloth quilt, which was one of the earliest forms of quilting in the American colonies. This is not a patchwork, but one single piece of fabric covered with thousands of tiny, amazingly precise stitches, which create the raised pattern of interlocking rings. Our colonial ancestors often created quilted bed coverings from one large piece of woven flax and wool, known as "linsey-woolsy". However, Cindy's quilting, above, was done on a whole piece of green dupioni silk. We're dazzled by the design and by the exquisite luminescence of the silk. You can read about the creation of this quilt on Cindy's blog, here and here.

"Feathered Crystals" was recently displayed at the nationally renowned Empty Spools Seminars at Asilomar, California, where Cindy taught Stepping Stones to Beautiful Quilting. To read about the Asilomar experience and see some wonderful photos of the beach - and the workshop - visit Cindy's blog. Also check out the schedule of Cindy's popular classes and upcoming retreats.

Quilting Stencils


For her fellow quilters, Cindy has created an extensive line of original quilting patterns for stencils (these are copyrighted). The patterns range from simple to ornate, and small to very large (very handy!) Her many charming designs include medallions, feathers, fans, circles, butterflies, and other motifs. To view the complete line, see Quilting Creations. We're showing a few of them, above: Butterfly Wreath, Whirligig, Feather & Lines Circles.

Wholecloth Linen Quilts



Cindy is also the author of the book, Wholecloth Linen Quilts: Patterns and Designs, which is available from the American Quilters Society. You can ogle the wholecloth quilts here, and read about designing and creating them. The pieces are often in miniature sizes and are frequently embellished with small pearls, transforming the quilts into bejeweled treasures.

Images are courtesy of Cindy Needham. For more information and to view a gallery of her work, please visit Cindy's website. For information on next year's Empty Spools Seminars, see the 2011 schedule here.