MQX 2012 - post #3

The quilts in this post are the ribbon-winners in the Solo category. I realized I have not really shown very many of my Meet Me at Giverny quilt as I was quilting it, so here's a few. As I posted a couple days ago, the quilt won a surprise 2nd place. Go to the link to see a full shot of the entire quilt. Also, note that some of the close-up pictures I am posting were taken before all of the quilt was completely finished. There's at least one taken before the painting was added, and another that I noticed a section of quilting undone.

The outer borders are quilted with freely-placed sunflowers. I used gold Glide thread almost exclusively, and it looks fantastic with the gold flecking in the Stonehenge fabrics, which as I said, reminded me of Monet's gardens. I never expected that this quilt would place as well. Usually you need some applique to show diversity and added ability. I was very pleasantly surprised. My jaw nearly hit the floor when I learned it took a 2nd. I do have a rope template, but it's a pain to use so for this one, I made a template from cardboard, and marked the rope. It is freehand, and I know there are subtle bobbles. I have learned to live with them. That is part of this process. I love how the dense quilting allows the squares on point to pop, and how the very-simple style of the feathers in the green border just settles the eye. So much about the quilt is busy. It needs rest occasionally.
I designed the quilt to show optical illusions with the borders. It was a little tricky piecing, but viola...it did work. I am getting better with creating frames with my quilting rather than just plunking quilting into the sections of piecing. That's boring. The frames give much variety and depth to the piecing. I ordered one of Ronda K. Beyer's large double-S hatching rulers, but I have yet to use it for cross-hatching. The s-shape makes wonderfully pretty framing lines.
As it has been pointed out, I have my (getting to be my trademark) rays at the center. There's just something about filled rays to bring the eye inward to the focal center of a quilt.
OK, there ya go. That's my entry, and judging by the number of people I spoke with at the show that liked the quilt, I think I underestimated how it would do.

This is Keith Dommer's quilt (Curvilinear Energy) that took 1st. It's a bit smaller than my quilt.
It has a goodly amount of yellow machine applique on a rather busy background. Unfortunately, I found it hard to look at the quilting because it just didn't show much. The quilt appears to have been washed and dried, and is very puckery. Good thing I'm not a judge. They are trained to see things I don't see obviously!
Third place went to Bethanne Nemesh. This quilt is about 60" and is all raw silks. I had seen pictures of this on MQR prior to MQX and seriously, was really nervous to hear she was in the same category. The quilt delivers a beautiful sunny pictorial of her garden. The center has many flowers quilted out. The outer border has everything from koi fish to crickets to flying starlings. I want to quilt like this someday :-)
I have a closer picture of the center. The silk has a gorgeous sheen. I loved it so much that the night of my win, I went and splurged on 2-1/2 yards of dupioni silk to make a small quilt maybe for next year!
Next post?...maybe more quilts (I have a ton of pics), maybe the Neutral Fusion exhibit, or maybe progress on my own quilt. Stay tuned.