Pictures from a Quilt Show

 

On March 17, I went to the Quilt Show by the Sea.  We saw all sorts of beautiful quilts, but the one above impressed me most; it was all hand quilted!

Below you see a detail from one of the panels; marvel at the evenness of the hand stitching:

We were talking about the quilt below, when a woman standing near us grabbed a corner of it in her bare hand, a big no no at quilt shows.  I said, "You're not supposed to touch them!"

She said, "I'm the woman who made it, so it's OK."  Happily, she wasn't mad at my attempt to protect her quilt from oils and other yuckiness on human hands that can ruin a quilt.

We were so lucky to be able to talk to her.  It was great to hear about her process.  She did the quilt by paper piecing, which explains the precision in the quilt.

She said, "It took me such a long time to finish."  When we asked her how long a long time is, she said, "Two months."  We all sighed, since it usually takes us much longer to complete our projects.  And something with all those little pieces would take me a small forever.

I much prefer to create quilts like the one below, something with long strips and not too many tiny pieces to stitch together.  I can keep long strips going together, but small pieces can go astray in all sorts of ways.

Below, a detail from the quilt.  Note the safari theme to the fabrics.  Then look at the larger quilt above.  Do you think the quilter is making a statement about zoos and windows?  Bars?  Or am I reading too much into it?

I love art quilts best.  We didn't see many art quilts, but there were some breathtaking ones:

Below, a detail of the kelp.  How do I know it's kelp?  Because the sign told me so.

Below you'll see the quilt I voted for as the one I liked best.  From a distance, it looks like a lot of the effects were done with paint or other effects. 

As you may be able to see below, it's all done with fabric.

In short I came away both inspired and a bit sad.  Once I had more time to quilt, to do more with my inspirations.  But that's not where I am right now.  I'll likely have time again.  So for now, I'll store up my inspirations.

For more pictures of quilts from the Quilt Show by the Sea, see this post on my theology blog.