MQX 2012 - post #4

Here is the Best of Show, by Sherry Reynolds. It's called America, Let it Shine. It's kind of no surprise whatsoever that this quilt won. It's amazing, and she quilted it on a domestic machine. Hard to believe.

She's combined regular cottons, fabrics that appear to be batiks/hand-dyes and some gold satin even. There are the words to the constitution written in near-perfect script around the quilt, and if I go back and read the card by the quilt, will learn that there's symbolisms in the number of stars, etc that are on the quilt.
The quilting is detailed, and would have had an absolute ton of stops and starts to look the way it looks. The outer border below, for example...I would have taken the lazy approach and stitched in to the cream triangles from the outer edge so it could be stitched continuously. She started and stopped each one beneath where the crystal is afixed.
This, sadly, was the only ribbon-winner that was not hung so that we could oogle over the backside. I'm sure it was fantastic.
The quilt has won at every show it's entered, so be on the lookout if you go to a major show this year. It's well worth a good look.

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.

MQX 2012 - post #2

These are some of the results from the Large Traditional Wallhanging division. You saw from the previous post that my Zen Garden quilt received the Honorable Mention. Here are (albeit, mediocre quality) pictures of the three that came in ahead of mine. Much variety in this "traditional" category, dontcha say??

This is Janet Stone's Letter Carriers, and it got 1st. If she ever stops making quilts with letters, we'll probably walk right past it without giving it a 2nd thought. I probably should have counted all the little buttons and "attachables", as it is quite a few (most with letters on them!).

Second place was by Kathy Wylie, and was on a Quilters Newsletter magazine last month. It's stunning. I can appreciate fully how long all of this hand applique and vinework took.
Third...Hmmm (I cannot locate who did this,or it's name, but I will update this with the appropriate info later). Three words: simple, classic, elegant. The silk fabric and trapunto mix is gutsy, and glorious. Someday.
Next up...Solo category.

MQX 2012

I returned last night from a busy 4 days at MQX. Although I have over 150 pictures to sort through before I post any, I thought I'd put up a couple shots of my own 2 quilts. Much to my surprise (because the confirmation email to ribbon winners came just after I departed for Providence on Tuesday!), both quilts earned ribbons in very tough and large categories. I could really get used to doing the winner's walk up to the stage - it's a happy trip!

The first quilt is Zen Garden, 65" square. It took an Honorable Mention. I love to see it when my quilts hang so straight and pretty (this is before the ribbons were even hung, at the sneak preview). It's headed next to HMQS if you want to see it.

My other quilt, Meet Me At Giverny, is 69" square, and has my favorite Stonehenge fabrics that just remind me of Monet. This was entered in the Solo category, and I really did not expect it to fair as well, in that it is only pieced. Solo usually has some "blow your mind" quilts. It walked away with a 2nd place and some nice shopping cash. It will be traveling to MQS next month.
I now must reintegrate with my family. I'll post more about the classes and other quilts this week.

Neutral Fusion awaits binding

Reminder: I live in Maine. It is winter. And it is January. The thermometer guy from 6 days ago should be a reminder of how bone-chilling winter here is, usually. Then it was mearly 40F below freezing. Today it is more than 20F above freezing. Mother Nature is on a serious dose of something. It is projected to be in the 30s the rest of the week, which sounds warm for January. I took advantage of the nice day. Most of the snow was melted off the sidewalks. With the kids due home in an hour, I went out for a nice walk. Sounds like spring fever, but until the custom work I am getting Friday is here, I have little to do except hand-stitching, and I am getting sick of that!
I took this small quilt off the blocking boards today. It is part of MQX's Neutral Fusion exhibit. It's not judged or anything, and is not specifically secret, so I suspect there's no harm in showing these. The quilt is only 30"x36". They sent the people participating 8 fat quarters of all neutral fabrics (AKA "uglies"!). I added a few more of my own. They range from a white-ish batik to heavily painted beiges to tan modern prints. As I said, Uglies. Then, they were (the center of all quilts will be pieced the same) cut into pieces to make 6 9-patch blocks and 6 snowball blocks, to form the center of the quilt. We were allowed to do whatever for the 1" inner border. Pieced or not, colorful or not. Our choice. The 5-1/2" outer border piecing was our choice too, but it had to be from the neutrals. I do not know why I did what I did for either border. I'm not thrilled with my choices.

Then, we are instructed to quilt it however we want. All neutral fabrics must be quilted with coordinating thread though. Drat! Do you know how hard the painted fabrics are to see anything on?? Really hard. Blindingly hard.

Once again, I have questioned my logic for the quilting in the corners. Don't really know what I was thinking there. The thought of the pumpkin seeds on the diagonals sounded better before I densely quilted around them, turning them into obnoctious "x"s. Oh well. It's a learning experience every day. All of my quilting is obviously freehanded. No computers to smartly quilt even and symmetrically for me. I love the feathers and the rays - they are very much my style.

I had a little fiasco with the narrow pink inner border. In spritzing the blue marker out, I discovered that one of the darker pink fabrics ran. This quilt is so small that I did not plan to wash and block it. It would have been just fine for an exhibit. But runny pink on white looked rotten, so it went through the washer 2x with color catchers. I have learned in this project that I like Superior's Lava thread. I received a sample cone of a variagated rose. I had no idea how many yards were on it so I never used it on any quilt. I assumed that this border was small enough that I stood little chance of running out, and gave it a go. Lava is 30wt polyester. It will go on my must get list when I go to MQX. Another pretty obvious learning that I found the hard way: Feathering that 1" border was too much work!

The back is interesting. The rose bobbin shows, but the rest of the bobbin was cream. This is a busy (and kinda ugly) sage print. From a few feet away, it blends to a neutral. Hey, it's the back!

So I have no idea how many mini quilts will be a part of the Neutral Fusion exhibit. Hopefully many. Go to MQX to see.

Tune in later this week to hear about my Tales of Quilting with my DSM...another chapter in my "What not to do" book.