More IQF Fun….

Thursday was our first full day a the International Quilt Festival and, believe me, it was a FULL day.

As you know, I am truly enamored with thread work and quilting and these are a few of my favorites for the day……

This amazing quilt was another creation of Hollis Chatelain and there are no words…..

I loved this whole cloth quilt that was done entirely in free-motion quilting. It reminds me of a type of Zentangle design.

This was another whole cloth design and the quilting was exquisite. I especially enjoyed the dimension that she was able to get in the top sky checkering…..

I thought that this was an applique piece with some amazing machine quilting, but when we got to look at the back, I realized that the ENTIRE scene is done with thread…..

This is an older quilt (2014) that was part of the SAQA exhibit but the thread work is astounding…..

And this guy…..you just want to walk up and ruffle his fur….and then run of course!!!

I didn’t include the entire quilt in this post but these bricks were quilted to great effect…..

This quilt was a group project and we loved how the ladies overlapped between the panels and also the way that each person added interest in the bottom border of the quilt. I wonder which one gets to keep the finished project??

This quilt was part of a “Seasons” exhibit and although the focus should have been the trees and mountains, everyone was oohing and aahing over the raccoons!!!

These two quilters certainly captured the soul of their subjects…..

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….and these “Step Sisters” were so lifelike……

In the landscape division, I was drawn to this simple picture and amazed by the light that she added with fabrics…..

When I glanced at this quilt, my first thought was that it reminded me of a photo of the Great Wall….and then got close enough to find out that it was the Great Wall!!!

This is a smaller version of my train quilt that was started many years. I REALLY need to get it out and finished!!!

It seems that circle applique is super popular today. I guess everyone has learned how easy they are to applique…..

This quilt is a simple design, but I love the color movement…..

We met this woman in the entry line this morning and were excited to see her with her quilt……

I attended two lectures during the day. “Playing with color” was presented by Cindy Grisdela and was another good reminder of how much color comes into play when designing a quilt. She encouraged us to think about where our color comfort zone was….what colors do we wear or decorate with. Then, she challenged us to step out of that zone and try different colors.

She did veer off topic for a minute and talked about machine quilting. Her admonition was to stop worrying about the individual stitches that you are doing but instead to think about the texture that you are creating. I think that is good advice.

The second lecture, “Kicking up your creativity” was supposed to by by Jane Dunnewald but she was unable to attend, so Susie Monday filled in for her. One of her first statements was the most poignant as she reminded us that, thru history, people have made things more beautiful than they had to be. That is a good reminder that it is okay for us to be creative and look to beautify our mundane lives.

The day ended with dinner at “The Rustic”, a new restaurant close to the convention center….

The grilled Jalapeno was the PERFECT accompaniment!!