Friday, 17 March 2017
Today began the three day quilt show at the Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum. You had best go on Sunday between noon and four to see ALL the quilts. These, my favourites, comprise only about half of the show. I tend to go for jewel tones of green, blue and purple, and for less traditional patterns (with exceptions). Under most of this year’s quilts is the description from the show programme.
Large Quilts
The first quilt I saw became my people’s choice pick for best large quilt.
“This is a combination of the traditional Irish Chain pattern with a little applique added. I am not a huge fan of doing applique but occasionally it sucks me in.”
details (the flowers are what made it my favourite):
This bright quilt would appeal to my friend Montana Mary and reminds me of our job at the Red Barn.
“I love anything with horses and when I saw this quilt pattern I knew I had to make it. I have donated this quilt to the horse therapy for needy/abused children organization for an auction.”
A pleasing green and flowered quilt turned out to be by our friend Ann.
“Shortly after his marriage, our son’s bride picked this pattern and gave me some fabric she had been saving. I found it easier to make the stars by hand so over 7 years I did just that. Susan James did an amazing job of quilting.”
Below: The quilter to the left made the stunningly beautiful horse quilt. It was not in the people’s choice competition.
While not “my” colours, the quirkiness of this typing test quilt appealed to me.
“The bright and vibrant jewel tones have me imagining far off travels and colorful markets. Curved piecing is simplified by use of the Quick Curve Ruler. Pattern from the book One Wonderful Curve and enlarged from a wall hanging.”
“My entry for my quilt group’s annual challenge. House quilts being my favorite pattern I decided to make a block for each member and the rest of the blocks a tribute to my favorite quilt stores. I could have called it the ‘Kiss of Death Quilt’ because as soon as I started making it, the stores started closing!! Lucky for us it did not have the same effect on our members!!”
I like house quilts, and my grandma had a little red house. I think the last quilt store on the Long Beach Peninsula closed recently.
Here’s a quilt in my favourite colors:
“I have made three quilts designed by Kathleen Starr. I love the hand dyed batiks and how the colors flow together.”
“Made for my granddaughter who likes Harry Potter.”
details, because I also like Harry Potter:
Medium Quilts
Because it reminded me of a quilt made by my grandma, “Flower Pots” was my favourite medium quilt. Gram liked that sort of appliqued flower.
“Too small to keep and too big to throw out. Combination of several patterns.”
“I have enjoyed making Yellow Brick Road many times. It is fun laying out the blocks like a jigsaw puzzle to not have same fabric touching same fabric. Beautiful “daisy chain” quilting made this one a keeper.”
“I collected the blue and silver batiks for 2 years and spent another year embroidering the design during my work lunch hours. This is a labor of love for my daughter.”
I like the Mariner’s Compass pattern very much. Here are three versions:
“I purchased the pattern for Paris Boutique at Cotton Pickin’s Quilt Shop in Stanwood, WA. I added extra fabric to make it twin size. I’m hoping one of my granddaughters will want it.”
“This was my first time using the freezer paper piecing technique.”
“This started as a kit from the Stitchin’ Post in Sisters. The ‘balls’ were just pieced straight strips of fabric. As I was going through the boring task of piecing all of the fabrics I suddenly saw beach balls bouncing. Of course beach balls are not just straight stripes so I had to design them into something that might resemble beach balls. Never feel limited by someone else’s vision.” (All of a sudden I feel that this is my favourite medium quilt.)
“Needed a project to go fast so big blocks and not too many colors.”
I like the plant fabric:
Normally, I don’t go for orange, but I had to put in this next quilt for Mr. Tootlepedal:
I like quilts that are geometric but askew:
“I wanted to make a funnel quilt for my Grand Niece. Polka dots and birds seemed to be a cute combination.”
Small Quilts
The small quilt category often has the most creative and painterly entries.
“After last year’s quilt show, I moved to Vancouver and to a much smaller sewing room. When the dust settled, I wanted to get back to quilting. The first box was full of solid fabric so I made a small throw. I have enough blocks for another quilt and one empty box. Only 20 more boxes to go.”
Many of the small quilts feature “BOMs”.
“A fun Guild BOM…. I did put a teacup in mine as that is one of my ‘small treasures’.”
My grandma made some quilts with the flower pattern in the upper right corner.
“I made four small quilts to represent the four seasons.”
“I love Batiks, flowers, butterflies, and applique so this pattern jumped out and grabbed me. It was fun making each flower different. I added yoyos and Swarozski crystals.”
This got my vote for favourite small quilt, because I loved the crystals and it reminded me of my grandma, even though Women’s March quilt (shown a ways below) was a close, such a very close second.
“When my husband retired, he swore he would never wear a tie again. So I gathered them up to hold him to his promise and to do something creative with them someday. I’m grateful he had a playful attitude towards the ties he wore. The silk was challenging. I chose Dresden because it looks like teeny ties.”
“Bought kit at Maui Quilts after seeing sea turtles at the beach.”
“Landscape quilt, raw edge applique, acrylic paint and machine quilted.”
Wait. Now I think the above is my favourite small quilt.
This one spoke to my heart and was also almost my favourite small one:
“This quilt was made to take to the Astoria Women’s March in January 2017. I was inspired by my daughter who works in Civil Rights in Washington, DC and will be sending her the quilt.”
“A quilt guild in Newport, OR sells artwork panels by Dennis McGregor and had a large panel in their raffle quilt. Since I didn’t win, I made this wall hanging with a small panel to practice blending the panel with added fabrics.”
“This is my first landscape quilt. It is an original. I grow over 100 dahlias on my property so, naturally, there are dahlias in this quilt.”
“I bought this pattern at the Quilted Dandelion. It was rather dull so I jazzed it up! I added bright colors, sand, star fish, sand dollars, and flowers. I love beach scenes.”
“Group challenge using a specific color and using black or white as an accent.”
“I’m a fabric stasher. My husband calls it hoarding. I had a lot of blues that I kept playing with and finally came up with this skinny quilt that I named Ocean View.”
Just after another show viewer and I were laughing over this one, he tried to turn over the corner of the next quilt by the paper piece, as one is supposed to (to admire the stitching), and he knocked it off the wall. I don’t know what happened to him…
“This little wall hanging was inspired by a cartoon from a 1986 Quilting Magazine.”
“I found this pattern at the Paisley Duck in Kelso. I was intrigued by the fact that it was made with tiny squares.”
“Three of us in the guild took a class from Ann Shaw. We all made a rooster. It was fun.”
“This quilt was very challenging and I learned some new skills. All of the fabric came from my stash so it didn’t cost anything.”
“Made for a Christmas wall hanging for myself.”
“This was my first attempt at making circles on a home machine with a walking foot. I really enjoyed the whole process and look.”
There are many more quilts to see if you go to the show, and there are quilts and quilt books in the museum gift shop.
Ss we left, we saw a sign promising fabric, but though we followed the arrow and went all the way round by the port, we never did figure out where it was pointing to!
My grandmother made quilts. With a dozen kids and a hardscrabble life farming, there was no money for quilt stores and fancy fabrics. Still she would put together quilts of beauty (and of course utility) using whatever fabric was at hand.
More than a few of these quilts brought her to mind. Thank you for posting this.
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I have a great quotation about quilting that I will share with you later…when I find it.
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Wowza! I’ve never been to a quilt show, but honestly, so many of these quilts exceed any expectations I could have. Wish I knew how to quilt!
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Me, too. I have tried but I don’t have the patience or the alignment skills.
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Quilt shows are always great value. Quilters seem to be inexhaustibly creative. I liked the cycling quilt as you expected that I would.
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