adventures of a quilting diva

While I enjoy the big picture looking at paintings and quilts, what I am most intrigued by are the close-up details: the brush strokes and stitches, the weave of the fabric and the facets of the embellishments. So direct from Ontario, California, I bring you a close-up look at the details of a few of my favorite quilts. I hope you are as fascinated and inspired as I am by these intricate works of art from Road to California 2010.

Vases by Suzanne Marshall, MO

What I love most about Suzanne’s prize-winning quilt is the way she outlined each applique piece with hand embroidery.

The Sky’s the Limit by Linda MacDougall, CA

Linda MacDougall pays such attention to each exquisite detail in all her quilts. (Her Garden Party quilt won 2nd place in the Innovative Traditional category. You should be able to see it and the other winners soon on the Road to California website.) Notice the beads and crystals she used for the tiniest ice cream scoops.

I also like the way the iridescent sheer changes the colors of the fabric underneath it.

Flowers Galore by Cindy Shoop, CA

These pieced center circles look like stacked cover buttons or dimensional applique. It really makes a difference compared to plain circles.

Inner Beauty by Cathleen Miller, NM

Look at how the trapunto flowers and leaves tie the appliqued borders into the rest of this magnificent quilt.

When you take a closer look, you’ll see that it’s details like these that take a great quilt and make it a fantastic quilt! Visit the Road to California website to see photos of the rest of this year’s winning quilts.

Presenting a gallery of a few of my favorite quilts from IQA Long Beach 2009. To me quilts are art, even traditional quilts, so here’s a bit of fun for you:

At most quilt shows, the quilts are hung on draped black fabric. What might those same quilts look like in an art gallery or museum setting? Take a look and find out! (Gallery/Museum backdrops by Photofunia)

The Line Between Warm and Cool
by Joanell Connolly

Edge of Information: A Cityscape of Paper and Cloth

Leaves of Grass
by Betty Amador

Pointless Possibilities
by Jamie Fingal

The Cubist’s Edge
by Frances Holliday Alford

19th Century Patchwork Divas

Spiraling Geese
by Arlene Heintz

Hawaii Sunset – 1845
by Linda Wilkey
quilted by Dana Goyer

Now for your viewing pleasure, the results of the Citrus Belt Quilters’ Quilt Green 2009 Challenge as seen at the May 16 CBQ Quilt Festival in Redlands, CA. Those who quilted before us knew how to reduce, reuse and recycle; something we sometimes forget after being spoiled by all the wonderfully stocked quilt fabric stores around. As you can see by this collection, it really is quite easy (and fun!) to be green.

Reincarnated
Recycled double bed quilt by Lois Cowan
A true quilt … made from clothing to create a useable quilt. Made from two pairs of jeans and four shirts. The maroon is a sheet. The batting is a mattress pad. Backing is a duvet. I needed another dark color so the gray around the border. I dug out the gray plaid shirt and began cutting, when my husband said … “But I still like that shirt.” “Oh well, now you can really enjoy it.”

Days of Wine and Roses
Wall quilt by Marguerette Tate
Grandmother’s Mother’s linens (napkins/small tablecloth) background/backing. Used ribbons for grapes and binding. Mother’s scarf for roses. Lace center from old lampshade. Family jewelry for beads. This challenge was fun! Corks from “2 Buck Chuck”, not from gifts.

Literally Green
Wall quilt by Violet Vaughnes
Made from my collection of men’s neckties. Batting is necktie interfacing and a baby’s receiving blanket. Backing is a shirt from Salvation Army Thrift Store. Pattern is “Boston Lettuce” from Pieced Vegetables by Ruth McDowell.

Pizza & Coke
Wall quilt by Lily Marie Amaru
This piece came from my love of pizza and Coke. The idea started with collecting Coke cans and etc. from around the world for about 15 years. My favorite pizza is from Pizza Hut. The ideas kept coming and being refined until this piece Pizza and Coke materialized.

In the Garden
Wall quilt by Marguerette Tate
So much fun — old linens, coasters for wine glasses (flowers), cuff links, earrings, pins and family jewelry — beads, old cheesecloth (flowers). I used fabric ink for dye.

Sewing Room Floor Massacre
Wall (floor) quilt by Donna Gaston
Often times while sewing in my room the dogs are playing. But when it’s been quiet for awhile I realize something’s up. And usually this is what I find.

Jean Jacket
Recycled pair of jeans by Lois Cowan
Made from just one pair of jeans. Everything, but the front pockets were used. While attending Chaffey College fashion classes, we were assigned to design a wearable garment from a pair of jeans. This was my design and it placed second in the California State Community College Fashion classes Denim Deconstruction Contest.

I Love Coke
Wearable by Lily Marie Amaru
Working with Coke cans and other fun ideas I have made several of these vests. My collection of Coke memorabilia is displayed throughout my home and this vest is my wearable to display my Coke pins and caps that have been collected from all over the world.

Grandpa and Grandson Matching Outfits
Child’s shirt and jeans by Lois Cowan
Taking the idea from the Fons and Porter ad … the two women that are always cutting up the husband’s shirts and pants. I made Grandpa and Grandson matching outfits. But I don’t think Grandpa is going outside in his outfit.

Turn Me Over — One More Time
Shopping bag by Marlene Padavick
Using the socks with holes (my husband’s) and the gardening gloves (mine) was the start. The denim pockets from granddaughter’s discarded jeans sent me on to pieces of beach towels, dish towels, and plastic bag from our travels. Then lastly the single earrings, bottle caps and a broken watch completed it.
And of course, my upcycled quilt:
Quilt-cycle Sampler
Wall quilt by Laura West Kong
Quiltmaking has a long tradition of reusing materials. In Quilt-cycle Sampler I used a variety of old clothing and linens. I couldn’t resist adding some fun and unusual recycled materials as well: plastic grass sushi garnish, a souvenir keychain, pieces of old jewelry, broken baby sunglasses, buttons off the old clothes, fused plastic shopping bags, part of a juice pouch and clear vinyl packaging, used stamps from around the world, and a painted dryer sheet.

Finally, instead of challenge ribbons, I made cell phone charms out of recycled vintage fabric and beads as souvenirs for each participant.
Quilt green! =(^_^)=

Here are a few highlights from last weekend’s Vintage Home Tour & Quilt Festival.






Now if I could only quilt my stack of tops so that I could have a quilt-i-ful house too! =(^_^)=

Saturday, May 16 was the Citrus Belt Quilters’ 2009 Vintage Home Tour and Quilt Festival. It was a gorgeous day … breezy and sunny, but not nearly as hot as last year. Take a short stroll with me through Smiley Park and enjoy the quilts!
I just adore the sight of quilts swaying in the breeze.
Green grass, warm sun, cool breezes, colorful quilts and live music! The Redlands 4th of July band gave a wonderful performance. Click here to listen to The Redlands 4th of July Band and find out more about them.
Stay tuned for the Quilt Green Challenge entries and highlights from the Vintage Home Tour.
=(^_^)=

I’ve always loved the idea of a quilt made up of numerous little “quiltlets” so I was thrilled to find two of them at Road this year. Here are two neat versions of the quiltlet concept:

This lively portrait quilt is Hanging by a Thread by a group of 10 quilters (Penny Abnet, Audrey Prothero, Norine Jones, Ann Zabriskie, Margie Smith, Phyllis Lund, Nanine, Bonnie Keller, Marie Kaiser and Mary Fran McClure). Yes, it is done in Kaffe Fassett fabrics

—what a fun way to use your Kaffe collection! Below is a detail showing how the quiltlets were connected, solid black fabric strips with novelty yarns for embellishment.

Sorok by Melisse Laing has 40 blocks connected by torched chain. Sorok is 40 in Russian. I love how the light yellow fabric glows. Below you can kind of see the chain connectors.

Finally something new for me … yarn at quilt shows! Maybe it’s always been there and I’d just never noticed before, or maybe it truly is new. Either way, finding delicious fabric, beads and yarn all in one place, what could be better?

This Olympus Silk Bijou Saya is a yummy hand-dyed silk-cotton-rayon blend. It even shimmers in the photo. The 3 mini balls of yarn were too cute to resist. It is a little thinner and shinier than regular sashiko thread, thinner than sock yarn, and says “Knitting Yarn” on the package. I’m not sure what you’re supposed to do with them, since “knitting” in Japanese could mean anything from actual knitting, to crochet, to embroidery, basically anything you might do with yarn. I don’t think it’s thick enough for amigurumi, but you never know. Maybe I’ll try it out and make a really tiny doll. Or I could use it for big stitch quilting. Any ideas?

This vintage quilt (maker and date made: unknown), Love in a Tangle, Snowball, Windmill, was part of an exhibit of orange quilts at Road to California 2009. It is believed to have once been all the same shade of orange. I like the spontaneous, carefree feel that uneven dye fading on old quilts gives, as well as when the quilt-maker ran out of one particular fabric and finished the quilt with whatever she had on hand.

I have fond childhood memories of snuggling under quilts at my grandparents’ farmhouse in northern Minnesota, and although I can’t recall the shape of the blocks themselves, I distinctly remember noticing that some fabrics “didn’t match”. Today, this mismatched casualness is one of the things I enjoy most about quilt-making. Of course, since I’m not into matchy-matchy, this necessitates a larger fabric stash, but that’s part of the fun!

I bought this marvelous assortment of vintage silk kimono fabric pieces, 22 in all, at Maeda Importing. Opening the package, I felt like a magician pulling an endless string of silk hankies out of a hat because there only appeared to be half that many pieces in the bag. These will be fun to play with when I want to make special little treasures from my Kumiko Sudo books.

Kahn Fagan was a new Road vendor this year where I got some wonderful vintage beads. Above, left to right, 1st three strands: West Germany, post World War II, probably Berlin glass; 4th strand: Bohemia, Post World War II; 5th strand: Japan 1940s-1950s, possibly Cherry brand. I’m planning to make earrings with these beads. Below, Czech seed beads, 1950s-1960s for embellishing quilts and making jewelry.

Still more Road adventures to come! =(^_^)=

Today at Road, Annika chose her favorite quilt, which was of course a cat quilt! =(^_^)=
This is Dave’s Cat Quilt, made and quilted by Trudy Smith. While we were admiring the kitties, Trudy herself came by to say hello. I love it when I get to meet the actual quilters of the quilts at shows. It’s just like a mini show and share where you get to hear the inside scoop! Annika confided in Trudy that she was collecting cat fabric to make a cat quilt of her own.
I like this kitty the best. It’s like he’s reaching for the stars!

Everyone couldn’t help admiring Last Dance in the Arctic made and quilted by Kathy McNeil. Her artist’s statement read, “This grand old mother asks for your help as her life and children literally melt away.”
A closer look at the bear cub.

At first glance, Rhapsody at First Light made and quilted by Bonnie Keller is not an animal quilt at all…
but if you look closely you can find animals hiding in the exquisite machine quilting. Stay tuned for Road to California, chapter 3!

happy quilting! =(^_^)=

Yesterday I went to Road to California. It was simply amazing this year. The quilts were outstanding, there were wonderful new vendors, and of course favorite old ones. In addition, harpist Bronn Journey was there at the show, playing LIVE music. Imagine that, live harp music accompanying the quilts. Now I can say that I am TRULY spoiled. Bronn said that this is actually not the first quilt show he has played at. We both agreed that the quilts and the harp music go together quite splendidly. You can listen to samples on his website.
I’ll share a few photos for you to enjoy here tonight and more in future posts. I thought that leaves would be a nice theme to go along with the harp music.
Foliage in Transition, above, made and quilted by Carol Taylor won second place in the Innovative Mixed category. Below is a detail for you to see her beautiful quilting and satin stitching.
Windfall, below is also made and quilted by Carol Taylor.
And a detail. Carol uses such lovely color palettes in her quilts!
Finally, Paul’s Magnificent Treehouse, below, made and quilted by Helene Blanchet is such a lively, fun quilt. This quilt would make a darling children’s book illustration.
I love the way she used buttons for the kids’ faces stitched on with seed bead eyes.
Consider this the first chapter of Road to California 2009. More outstanding quilts, as well as shopping news to come. =(^_^)=

On May 17 Citrus Belt Quilters held their 2008 Quilt Festival and Vintage Home Tour. Here are a few highlights from the quilts displayed in Smiley Park, Redlands, CA. As you can see it was a gorgeous day. These four quilts all happened to have such charming labels on the back I wanted to share them here with you as well as the beautiful fronts.

by Natalie Andrews

Muffy’s Quilt

by Marguerette Tate

Spin Cycle

by JoAnn Woods

Summer Porch

by Janna Waller

You can see more quilts and vintage home photos at the Citrus Belt Quilters website. Next year’s show will be May 16, 2009.