My Zen Garden at VQF

One last post from VQF.  I know you have seen this a time or two, but hey - it's mine and it took the Best Mixed Media Award last week at VQF.  That's the award for both piecing and applique.  My thoughts??...I was pretty excited to read that upon arriving.  Then I saw my quilt hanging, and felt horror & shock.  Red ribbon??? What on earth did the judges think I did wrong?  I'd have to wait for the quilt to come home for that answer.  The show hung my quilt on an end, in a lovely prominent place.  I was pleased for that.  It's probably my most dramatic quilt -- nothing subtle about the bright colors.  The purples & greens are all me.  ALL.  And did you know that when I designed this 14-15 months ago, I made it completely from fabrics I had on hand.  Only the backing & binding fabrics were purchased.

I will be happy when all quilt shows will put the cards and awards hung off of the drapes.  You can imagine how horrible it looked on the 24" miniatures to have all these cards blocking the view of the quilt.

The judges in general gave me very nice comments.  They liked my machine quilting, especially the checkerboard.  Gotta admit - this is so easy, but so very effective.   There is always one thorn in a bunch of roses though.  It was this way last year too (but somehow the average of the 3 judges yielded a blue ribbon then).  One judge scored my quilt way lower than the other two.  It's kind of irritating not to have more consistency, or at least some explanation  for deductions.  My piecing is textbook; no missed points anywhere.  So why take off 2 points when the other judges didn't?  This one judge took off a point on visual impact too.  They went so far as to write "powerful and bold impact", but only gave it 4 of 5 possible points. One judge shouldn't be allowed to score 10 points below the average of the other two.  And they ought to give some credit for complexity of piecing and applique.  I know they have a system, and I am far from understanding it, but when a very simply pieced quilt without so much as a triangle to possibly nip off can score a blue ribbon (because frankly there wasn't anything included that could be done incorrectly), it beckons the question, Why?

I could rant about judging until the crows come home, but all it would do is make readers think I am ungracious, which I am not.  I am a product of 45 years of having lived a competitive and judged life.  First it was competitive gymnastics through my youth.  Then I figure skated as an adult, and now the quilting.  I have lived and experienced judges that "just do it differently" than the others time and again.  I disagreed with it then, and still feel there should be be more accountability or guidelines for consistency.  At the very least, I'd like to receive some comment that indicated why this one judge thought this quilt only deserving of the yellow ribbon-points she/he awarded.  The fact that the Vermont Quilt Festival is known for being a conservative and traditional show should not be a factor.  I ask you...

What is improper about my suitability of materials?...
Is there something only 80% in my border treatment?...
Is the quality of quilting only deserving of 17 out of 20 points?...

 I bury all threads, it has perfect tension, and is wildly creative.  The fabrics chosen are perfect for a "blooming" style quilt, creating a big wow factor.  I stood around anonymously and listened to people looking at the quilt long enough to know that they thought it was beautifully executed.  The other two judges wrote that the values and colors were highly complimentary, so why is one judge allowed to deduct.   They should at the least be required to put their names on the judges forms (pink!) so that we know who they are.

Just my thoughts, ya know!

Here's some other looks at this quilt...here and here and here

VQF - #2 The Outrageous!

 Here's a sampling of the truly outrageous and fun quilts that were at VQF.

This first one took the viewer's choice.  It's called Sweet Memories by Dominique Ehrman.  It has more stuff appliqued, floating, 3d, puffy, etc than you can imagine.

The chef is holding this 3D frame of a wedding cake on top of a candy house, complete with cupcakes around the border.

 

It has to be a shipping logistical mess.  How on earth does one put a quilt like this into a box to send??  Here are some of the floral vines.

And more vines, with an easter egg cookie wrapped in tulle.  Everywhere you looked there was something flapping or popping off of the quilt.  It was really fun to look at.

This next one is called Barn Doors and is by Rita D'Alonzo.  It's cute but not in a hysterical and outrageous way.  There were lots of great animals and details in the barns.

The Best Things in Life are Free, by Janet Cohen & Linda Vizi has a sweet upside down rabbit and a stuffed carrot.  He's pretty cute.

Here's a fun one... No Slices! Fuggedaboutit! by Betsy Vinegrad is a definite fun miniature done in the RaeNae Merrill method.

This next one is entitled Remember the Ladies by Connie Harris Farrington.  There's so much humor in this that I couldn't possibly capture it all.  This is the front...

 ...and some closeups...Lady Godiva,

 Lady of the evening...There was Lady Luck, Sales Lady, My Fair Lady, just to name a few.

A while later, we passed by the backside of the quilt, which was displayed too, and discovered that it had the photos of 14 former first ladies, with funny anecdotes about each.  Who knew that Ladybird Johnson was the first to hold hootenannies in the white house??  What is a hootenanny anyways?!

 ...or that Louisa Adams was the first to raise silk worms in the white house, or that Dorothy Madison was the first to cream ice cream in the white house!

This last one is a parody on all things floral.  It is called A Punny Thing Happened on the Way Through the Garden by Karen Viega.  It's cute and 3D from a distance, but just plain comical up close.

Here's her butterfly bush...

 and the peace lilies...

 Spider plant and blue bells..

And there's more - tiger lilies, and lady slippers (Can you see the glass slippers stitched into the flowers??!). The trumpet vine had trumpet buttons.  The palm tree had hand buttons on it.  It was seriously outrageous.

 

So there's my take on the fun and silly quilts from the show.  Tomorrow I'll show mine and a final wrap-up.

Vermont Quilt Show..#1

I got back from a whirlwind weekend trip to upstate Vermont last night.  I made the 4-1/2 hour drive with my mom and daughter to see the VT Quilt Festival.  It's the oldest (and largest?) quilt show in New England.  Though known for favoring more traditional designs, it had a wide selection of everything to see - modern and hand quilting alike.  The quilts I am posting today represent a selection of what was there, but the next post will feature some of the complete whimsy that I saw.  

This is Diane Craft's Life at Round Pond.  I like the log cabin quilts even if I probably don't possess the patience to boringly piece all the logs.  The applique around it is fun (see next pic)

 She appliqued all kinds of creatures from deer to fox to other birds, and lots of tiny leaves/vines.

This is appealing to see.  Larger applique, lots of different colors.  It's called Phone Home by Marjorie Lydecker.  She claims that one of the appliques looks like ET.  Dunno about that!

 Up close, "Jewel in the Crown" by Dawn Hays shines because I think it is made largely of silk.

Do you remember last winter when I quilted 2 of these miniatures?...  This one is Betty Chouinard's, and it took a blue ribbon!  Robyn's quilt was there as well, but I royally blurred the picture.  It was fun to see both of them (and their quilts) at the show yesterday.  The piecing is near perfect.

 This is a Judy Niemeyer creation, Starburst, by Kathie Alyce and Pat Boyle.  Catchy design, nice colors, good quilting - I just failed to get any closeups.

 Timna Tar often makes quilts with nice color variations, and this is no exception.  It's fun, and colorful.

 And so is this one.

 Not really a big fan o f modern quilts, but the colors worked here.  It's interesting in a minimalist kind of way.  Colleen Kole claims it is inspired by seeing VT barn rooflines from the sky.

This quilt looked nice.  It's called Banff Star by Bethany Morelli. It's the same general idea of the quilt I entered in this quilt, just considerably tamer. She took the home machine quilting ribbon.

Love, love, love this.  The color and whimsy are perfect.  Something small and colorful is on my bucket list for someday.  It's made by Ann Feitelson and called Leaves Fall.

Winter Frost by Thea Kazmer features very soft array of blues.

As I mentioned, this show is relatively conservative.  I think that the judges definitely preferred the conservative quilts.  Nobody that enters quilt shows wants to think that there is a strong subjective force in the judging room, but it's evident.  The more whimsical and bolder colored quilts, though very eye-pleasing, had to be truly exceptional to get blue ribbons.  Many versions of Baltimore album quilt were there.  It's definitely a labor of love to applique all of that!

This was probably my favorite quilt there.  I may be slightly biased towards the machine quilted works, but Marilyn Badger never disappoints.  SuperStar appears to be all silk, and has amazing quilting.  The best piecing and best longarm quilting awards verify her tremendous abilities.

Just have a look at how she overlay quilts...She ignores the piecing at times and boldly just quilts a different pattern, and it works beautifully.  This quilt is all in metallics of several shades.

Here's the Best of Show.  It's Christine Wickert's Sampling the Silken Road.  The piece is hand quilted, and is indeed very pretty.  She has long pipette beads around the binding, and on the quilt (at first we thought they were pins...)  I can't believe how she appliqued all the silk so well.

 

Sooo Ridiculously Small

Do you see the new ribbon to my collection??
Of course not, as it is the size of my index finger. My quilt came home from the Vermont Quilt Festival yesterday, with of all things, a first place ribbon. Since when is a first place, 96 points, deserving of a 4" high ribbon? It's so small it is just silly. Someone oughta protest, and question what our $25 entry fee was for. Like how much can a respectable ribbon really cost???

Enough ranting. I should just be happy that it is blue this time. I was starting to have the "always a bridesmaid" feeling. The quilt got a 2nd at MQS. And I heard through the grapevine that someone thought it had a 2nd place at VQF too. It was nice to see the blue ribbon and the kind judges comments. It makes me excited to have it go to the Maine Quilt Show next month.

I should be out reheating some leftovers for dinner, but I am lazy. Looks like my countertops will be several more days, and my builder is on vacation for a week starting Friday. No stovetop until he returns. My husband is late tonight. Seems he thought it prudent to get his finger checked out, finally. You see, he nipped the tip of it off Sunday afternoon with his table saw. I warned you all, he is not terribly handy, but he thought he could rip down a piece of our hardwood flooring to make a threshold. That he did, but the last 2 cuts came at my insistence after he chopped off a good hunk of flesh. Yum- not in the mood to make dinner now :-)

So, here's a couple scenes of my garden - the front one (since the back one got dug up prior to the renovation). It's full of color.

The Shasta's are huge this year.