Connecting Our Natural Worlds - SAQA Global Quilt Exhibit (Day 7)

The Connecting Our Natural Worlds exhibit by SAQA showcases art quilts that illustrate the natural wonder of habitats around the globe. Through their own unique artistic interpretation, each artist has identified danger to flora and fauna in their own backyards. The selected pieces inspire viewers to get closer to nature and become better stewards for our environment.  We recently visited this outstanding exhibit at the Brigham City Museum in Utah.

~ P.S.  Check out our eBay shop for great bargains on books, magazines, and collectible items. For free quilt patterns, please visit us on Twitter. 

Desde Mi Ventana (From My Window) by Georgia B. Heller (Arizona)

Georgia B. Heller says, "This is a view of my yard in Scottsdale, Arizona.  The colorful pool and patio invite you to enjoy the outdoors, and the ambiance is accented with several native plants. The saguaro cactus defines the Sonoran Desert and its blossoms are the state flower."

A short drive away from this locale is the Sonoran Desert Preserve, a protected desert and mountain habitat.  Georgia notes, "By keeping large areas safe from human development, we hope to find a balance between preserving their natural beauty and the demands of population growth."

This beautifully rendered, photo-inspired scene was constructed with cotton, acid-free inks and markers. Many of the details were accented with thread painting.  Applique was used to construct the brightly painted Talavera pottery seen on the table, above.

Soon the Summer Sun by Brenda H. Smith (Arizona)

This fantastic art quilt honors the penstemon, which provides valuable nectar for many insects and hummingbirds.  Brenda H. Smith says, "Penstemons are some of my favorite flowers.  We have planted these low-water-use species to add color and augment the native landscaping in our yard [in Flagstaff, Arizona.]  Penstemon species native to Arizona are not endangered, but reducing non-native plants in favor of native species helps preserve local biodiversity in our urban landscapes."

Soon The Summer Sun was constructed with hand dyed and commercial cottons, which were painted, screen-printed, fused, machine appliqued and machine quilted.

Sonoran Monsoon by Debra Kay (Arizona)

People who live in the Sonoran Desert are familiar with the summer monsoons, which bring much-needed rain and spectacular lightning displays to the parched terrain.  Debra Kay says that her journey into art quilting began three years ago with a move to Tucson, Arizona.  She began to depict desert scenes with mountains, washes, and desert flora and fauna.  The jagged outlines of the Catalina Mountains are shown in this piece.

Streaks of lightning can be seen above the mountains, with  the rocks and sand rendered in muted tones of the appliqued batiks. Sonoran Monsoon was constructed with cotton and cheesecloth, using various techniques including batiking and tea dying; applique; free motion stitching; and fabric painting. We were intrigued by the use of a coiled and knotted fabric "rope" to outline the upper edge of the quilt, shown below.

Precious Reserves by Linda Syverson Guild (Maryland)

Amazing in its detail, Precious Reserves pays tribute to the High Plains aquifer, which is critical for the existence of the magnificent Sandhill cranes that live along the Platte River in Nebraska. Linda Syverson Guild says, "Our world exists in a precarious balance with nature.  What lies beneath the surface of the earth is the 'Fort Knox' of our future - the precious reserves."

The High Plains Aquifer is depicted in meticulous geographic detail with applique and embroidery, ranging from Texas to Wyoming and South Dakota. Linda explains that central pivot irrigation has depleted the reserves to the point of crisis, endangering the Sandhill cranes. Many different materials and techniques were used to create this piece, including hand-dyed and commercial fabric, polyester netting, and fabric paint.  The shading, created with black netting, can be seen in the closeup photo below.

Image credits: Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration at the Brigham City Museum in Utah. As of August 2021, many of the pieces can be purchased at the Connecting Our Natural Worlds web page.

Quilts Celebrating Creativity ! part 2

Welcome to the Santa Clara Valley Quilt Association 2019 show! The Santa Clara Valley lies at the southern end of San Francisco Bay in Northern California. This year's show, titled Quilts Celebrating Creativity,  featured some outstanding works by talented quilters. Here are more of our favorites!

(Note: please check out our E-Bay shop for great bargains on quilt patterns and collectibles ! For continuous free quilt patterns, please visit us on Twitter !)

Samba Selfie, 39 x 39”, by Randa Mulford

Randa Mulford was a featured quilter at this year's show, and we are sharing several of her quilts today.  She says, "A selfie of my daughter and her friend dressed to participate in a samba parade during their student year in Chile was the inspiration for this collage quilt... The background shows the shore of lake Llanquihue in Puerto Varas, Chile, with the Osorno volcano in the background and fireworks over the lake."

Randa continues, "The biggest challenge was creating the contours of their faces and shoulders from printed fabric."  This quilt conveys the happiness and friendship the girls must have felt as they enjoyed the parade!

Radial Sonnet, 42 x 42”, by Randa Mulford

Randa explains that "Radial Sonnet is a kaleidoscope quilt, created for a challenge with the theme “sonnet.” (A sonnet is a 14-line poem with the specific rhyme scheme ABAB-CDCD-EFEF-GG). The central design has 14 wedges and the patterns inside the wedges reflect the rhythm of the poem."

We really enjoyed Randa's fantastic choice of fabrics, along with her use of fancy stitches to quilt the background circles, as shown below.

On Campus: Lewis & Clark College, 26 x 33”, by Randa Mulford

We love map quilts! Randa explains, "I began this quilt in an advanced composition workshop with Valerie Goodwin as a gift for my daughter upon her graduation from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. It features a map of the campus in the center, with an image of the beautiful Frank Manor House (now an admin building) at the bottom and Mount Hood looming over it all (assuming it’s a clear day!)  The closeup photo, below, shows Randa's excellent applique and quilting techniques.

Glorious Clams, 60 x 70”, by Denise Martin

Denise Martin says, "[Fellow quilter] Joni Strother showed me this quilt in Quilter’s Newsletter. Carole Donovan let me use her magazine. This is the result, three years later. I had fun using fabrics from my large stash of beachy fabrics."

The Quilters Newsletter pattern description says, "Foundation piecing and curved seams make this a challenging quilt to make, but the beautiful results are worth the effort."

Sedona Opus, 33 x 69”, by Tracy Visher

Tracy Visher made this outstanding, colorful landscape quilt. She says, "My husband and I have a strong affinity for Sedona (Arizona), Santa Fe (New Mexico), and the surrounding desert lands. I have had a Sedona art quilt in my head for years and finally tackled the “prickly subject”. My personal challenge was to show the depth of the landscape and the many hues of the red rock formations."

Tracy continues,"I further challenged myself to figure out how to make a dimensional foreground, showing some of the native plants that live in these regions (like the agave plant shown above). It is the largest, most complex art quilt I have attempted to date."
The large embroidery stitches on the cholla cactus, shown below, lend an extremely realistic feel!

Image credits:  Photos were taken at the 2019 Santa Clara Valley Quilt Association show.

O Canada ! Canadian Nine Patch quilts

What are Canadian Nine Patch quilts?  They are quilts made by Canadians to honor the country's 150th anniversary in 2017.  Each of these outstanding quilts incorporates a nine patch design, either overtly or in a subtle way.  The quilts represent Canada’s history, geography, and culture as expressed by each artist. Since Canada Day is coming up (July 1), we wanted to share some of these wonderful quilts.

p.s. For bargains on quilt books, magazines, and jewelry, visit us on E-Bay - we're Top Rated Sellers ! For continuous listings of free quilt patterns, please check us out on Twitter ! 

Maple Leaf by Susan Therrien (Winona, Ontario, Canada)

Maple Leaf was hand appliqued, machine pieced and quilted, and paper pieced. Susan Therrien says, "I am proud to be Canadian! Finding a variety of symbols representing life in Canada became the inspiration for my Canadian Nine Patch." The nine-patch center of the quilt, inspired by clip art from the web, reflects the many aspects of Canadian heritage and cultural activities.

The red Maple Leaf and small quilted leaves are internationally recognized as symbols of Canada.

Canadian Tartan by Rebecca McAlpine (Oakville, Ontario, Canada)

This map quilt was inspired by the Canadian Nine Patch theme, the map of Canada, and Scottish heritage. All of Canada’s provinces and territories have official tartans. The Canadian Tartan quilt is a map of Canada with each province and territory depicted by its tartan as registered in The Scottish Register of Tartans.

The Tartan map of Canada is on a background of the Maple Leaf Nine Patch. The quilt is bound in the national tartan, The Maple Leaf. The Canadian Maple Leaf tartan was designed by David Weiser, for Canada in honor of the country’s centenary in 1967. If you look closely you can see the maple leaf block in the white-on-white background, shown below:

Modern Hudson Bay by Joanne and Jenna Prokop, quilted by Leslie Prokop

Machine pieced and quilted, Modern Hudson Bay is a modern interpretation of the iconic Hudson Bay Blanket. This quilt uses a variation of the traditional Nine Patch to illustrate Canada’s patchwork history.

Founded in 1670, the Hudson Bay Company was at the center of Europe’s exploration of what would become the second largest country in the world, Canada. Driven by the fur trade, HBC was the driving force in developing the trade routes across Canada, connecting Newfoundland and the Atlantic Ocean to Vancouver Island and the Pacific.

True North by Karen Brown (North York, Ontario, Canada)

Machine pieced and quilted,  Karen Brown's Canadian Nine Patch quilt takes a modern approach to traditional blocks. You can see traditional blocks, such as the Maple Leaf, viewed from a perspective.  She says, "Learning from the past and building toward a future brings Canada together as a country at the top of the world."

O Canada in Morse Code by Susan Richard (Oakville, Ontario, Canada)

Susan Richard says, "I have always been intrigued by Morse Code, a special alphabet represented by a series of dots and dashes... In this strip pieced quilt, I used the combination of dots (replaced with Canadian maple leaves) and dashes to spell out Canada’s National Anthem, “O Canada”. Within the quilt, there are two places where the dots and dashes line up and appear as three mini Canada flags sitting one on top of the other. Each flag, composed of three pieces of fabric, creates a Canadian Nine Patch out of Canadian flags."

Image credits:  Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration at the 2017 Houston International Quilt Festival.  The Canadian Nine Patch exhibit was organized by Leslie Prokop and Shelley DeHay-Turner in honor of Canada's sesquicentennial.

Solar Sister: Empowering Humanity through Clean Energy

In tribute to the Summer Solstice on June 21, the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, we're showing a quilt challenge that highlights the work of Solar Sister. This  non-profit group  assists women in Africa who want to start their own small business. They sell solar-based appliances that provide light and power to rural households with no electricity, a condition known as "energy poverty."

Good Day Sunshine by Laura Cooke, Rhode Island, U.S.A.

Laura Cooke writes,  "When I read the title of this year’s challenge: Light, Hope, Opportunity: Empowering Women through Clean Energy, the image of a benevolent sun shining down on all of Africa lit up my mind... In Africa, I imagine women enjoying the sunshine as they work through the chores and joys of each day. Perhaps some are now cooking on solar stoves to give children breakfast before school, or using solar cells to charge cell phones to connect to family, or to light lanterns so children can read and study after dark.  Traditional or modern, the sun gives wonderful ways of using clean energy and even a single ray of sunlight can inspire hope."
The sun face reminds us of the fabric collages by Susan Carlson, the author of Serendipity Quilts.

Close up, Good Day Sunshine by Laura Cooke

Monochromatic shades of yellow-orange, plus a splash of complementary lavender, provide a beautifully colored background to highlight the sun's expressive face. Laura adds, "This quilt is an original design from my initial vision of the sun shining down to blanket the whole continent of Africa. It is made using commercially available fabrics, raw edge appliqué and free-motion quilting with rayon and machine quilting cotton thread."

Light-Hope-Light by Marianne Gravely, Virginia, U.S.A.

Marianne Gravely explains, " Our children are both the light of our lives and our hope for the future. While we in the U.S. turn off lights to save electricity, and worry about conserving energy...on the other side of the world.  children live in energy poverty. No electricity means no reading or studying at night, which limits their educational opportunities. This quilt is my vision of a happy planet with plenty of light and energy for all the children of the world." We enjoyed all the happy faces which comprise the border of this fun quilt.

Close up, Light-Hope-Light by Marianne Gravely

Look at this fabulous machine quilting work, whose individual patterns converge on the center of the quilt like rays from the sun !  This light gold thread looks beautiful on the deep blue background.

Light the Darkness by Joan Blade Johnston and and Melanie Johnston, Connecticut, U.S.A.

Joan and Melanie state, "...Without a consistent source of light, it is challenging at best for children to read books for the purpose of doing schoolwork or merely for pleasure. Solar power can mitigate the effects of energy poverty by providing a dependable source of light contributing to greater access to education.... In the bottom right corner, there is a small silhouette of a child holding an open book in one hand and an illuminating “Solar Sister” solar lantern in the other."

Close up, Light the Darkness by Joan Blade Johnston and Melanie Johnston

The quilters continue, "Our quilt consists of a large yellow-gold sun with fabric-collaged rays of sunlight in shades of yellow and blue quilted onto an iridescent “aura.” Like the rays of the sun itself…the fabric rays and decorative quilting extend to every corner of the piece."

These artists  have lettered their quilt very creatively, by placing the message on organza fabric in the center of the sun: “In one second, our sun provides enough energy to meet the current needs of the entire Earth for 500,000 years” attributed to the Boston Globe, Energy Information Administration; The Guardian Unlimited.

Sewing Sister by Allison Wilbur , Rhode Island, U.S.A.

Allison Wilbur notes,  "[This is] the story of Teddy the Tailor. Before she purchased a solar light, Teddy Namirembe would walk to the nearby village in Uganda to work at night, leaving her daughters at home. The simple purchase of a solar light brought  positive changes to her life. She has extra time to work since she does not have to walk to the village, so her income has increased 30 percent. She is safer for not having to make the walk and her children are not alone. Her children also use the light to do  homework. She is not paying for renting a work space or for expensive kerosene and they no longer breathe in the kerosene smoke.  Like most women, Teddy turns the extra money she makes (she sews school uniforms) back into her family and her business."

Close up, Sewing Sister by Allison Wilbur

Allison continues," As the owner of a small home quilting business, I can relate to Teddy.  The hours I have to work after dark, after the work of caring for my family is done, are vitally important to my business. Solar Sister is not only important  to the entrepreneurs who sell the lights, but to many others who buy the solar lights and phone chargers as a part of their small business." We admire the colorful geometric print fabric Allison used to depict Teddy's native dress, plus the elegantly quilted message, "Let your light shine", which applies not only to the Solar Sisters, but to all the people of the world.

Wind to Enlighten by Barbara Eisenstein, Maryland, U.S.A.

Here is a village of  brightly colored homes that are benefiting from electricity generated by wind turbines in motion. Barbara says of her cheerful, positive quilt with energetic quilt patterns, "Electricity brings light for reading and learning, safe refrigerated food and clean smokeless cooking. Electricity brings connection to others, through the wider world of TV and computers. Electrical power means power for women to be educated [through distance learning via the internet]  and to improve the lives of their families. Wind power is a way to generate electricity in very remote areas. I wanted to show the connection between wind technology and the light inside the homes, where women keep themselves and their families healthy, well fed and informed."

Image credits:  Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration at the 2015 World Quilt Show in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Happy Earth Day !

Since 1970,  Earth Day has been observed on April 22 to raise awareness of sustaining our planet's natural resources. It is now celebrated in more than 192 countries each year. We chose the map quilt below, because it reminds us of the iconic photo of Earth from outer space, as shown on the Earth Day Flag.

The Island, 41 x 38", by Alicia Merrett, U.K.

Alicia writes, "Maps have fascinated humankind from the birth of civilization; now we have progressed to contemporary aerial photography and GPS.  Maps describe features of the earth, tell us where places area, and lead us to destinations. Maps can also be products of the artistic imagination."

Alicia has done a fabulous job of creating an island with apparent mountains, roads, rivers, and even little buildings in settlements shown in the close-up below.  

Close up, The Island by Alicia Merrett

Alicia continues, "This island is completely imaginary - it just exists conceptually on a blue ocean. But, I have borrowed the cartographic symbols of a typical aerial view and used them to describe it."  We love the vivid, clear fabric colors used in this highly innovative and fascinating original design.   Alicia's work is  machine pieced, appliqued, and quilted. It was displayed at the 2015 World Quilt Show in Florida, U.S.A.