Only two colors…..

I am not usually a fan of two-color quilts. Sometimes I find them to be a bit boring, but these five quilts that were displayed at the International Quilt Festival were anything but boring!!!

Lynn Crimes presented this wonderful low-volume quilt…..

“A Neutral Score”

Let’s get a little closer on this one…..

She used improv piecing over BLACK batting. That is why the seams and quilting stand out so much!! VERY clever!!!

Connie Dyer Zafaris used a mixture of Charcoal and Silver to make this “Ripples” quilt….

“Ripples”

The quilting does an amazing job of highlighting the design!!!

This next quilt from Martha Ferguson is also enhanced by great free-motion quilting from Karen Kendo……

“Modern Chain”

Connie Dyer Zafiris also submitted my favorite of the two-color quilts……

“Fitting A Square Peg in a Round Hole”

Finally, this quilt from Hope Reed……

“The Preppy Illusion”

….is a great optical illusion quilt and the colors are perfect for the design!!

And of course….. now that I have looked closely at these two-color quilts, I am thinking that it might be fun to try one myself!! Isn’t that how it always goes!!

Come back tomorrow and we will look at some astounding landscape quilts!!!

Can it GET any smaller?

One of the exhibits at the International Quilt Festival was called “Micropiecing: 200K”. MAN was this category amazing!!

Instead of the limbo mantra of “how low can you go?”, the quilting version is “how SMALL can you get?”.

There were 21 quilts in this exhibit, all made by Amy Pabst. The quilts focus on a traditional pineapple block done on a VERY small scale. All blocks are 2-inches or less and the strips are 1/8-inch wide OR LESS!!

The series was considered complete when the total number of pieces reached 201,751!!!

Many of these were pieced on a 1947 Singer Featherweight!!

These are a few of my favorite quilts in this exhibition…..

“Sari Not Sari”

Linda lent her hand to show a bit of perspective….these are TINY blocks.

I loved the low-volume fabrics in this quilt but I bet that it was a pain to piece…..

“Ghost”

“Sharp-Dressed Man” was designed using a friend’s discarded ties……

“Sharp-Dressed Man”

Just look at these blocks…..

This was one was my favorite because of the different designs formed by using light and dark fabrics…..

“Peaches and Cream”

This quilt was made with 1/2-inch blocks, with 34 pieces in each block…..

“Self”

I can’t say anything but WOW!!!!

She made this quilt to be entered in “Festival of Quilts” in England and she knew that a miniature quilt would be cheaper to ship……SMART!!

“Tight Pineapple”

Finally, this quilt was made to emulate a stained glass window…..

“Stained Glass”

I would say that she achieved that easily!!

Tomorrow we will have a look at some two-color quilts!!

No machines allowed….

Today we are looking at the “Hand-Made” category at the International Quilt Festival….again…a category that I would NEVER be able to enter. But I can enjoy the quilts anyway!!

Zena Thorpe entered this fun quilt……

“A Spark of Joy”

The applique is immaculate but LOOK at the hand stippling……

Zena said it gave her a spark of joy every time she picked it up to work on it!!

This quilt from Aiko Yokoyama is a feast of fascinating details……

“A Place Dear to My Heart”

Just look at these embroidery accents….

….and the roof on this house is perfect!!

The quilt “Clematis — Hope” from Taeka Kozuka……

“Clematis — Hope”

….has wonderful applique, but to me, the star of the show is the quilting in the background…..

This quilt by Aiko Saito and a plethora of her quilting friends…..

“Something Lily”

She apparently worked with a group from a quilting class and, from the quality displayed, I assume that it was an “Advanced Class!!

Kyoko Someya made “Temptation of the Breeze”…..

….is another quilt that brought a smile, and the quilting made that smile even broader….

The Blue-ribbon winner was from Isako Wada…..

“In the Square Where the Refreshing Breeze Is Blowing”

The piecing is mind-boggling, but the border treatment adds so much to the quilt…..

And speaking of

…..come back tomorrow for “MICRO-piecing”. Some of these quilts are insane!!!

Quilts in Full Bloom

Aurifil Threads sponsored the “In Full Bloom” exhibit at the International Quilt Festival and the quilts just made you smile!!

Being a HUGE sunflower fan, I immediately headed to this quilt made by Marinda Stewart….

“La Fleur du Soleil”

I especially liked the center of the sunflower. She used lots of dimensional touches, including yo-yo’s……

It was VERY effective!!

Next is “Orange Orchid” by Ann Harwell……

“Orange Orchid”

This quilt would have also fit in the Abstract Category and I found it fascinating!!

One of the things that I noticed was the quilting. In the class I took from Christa Watson, she encouraged us to use “non-straight” lines, which is so effective here…..

Mary Lynne Izzo presented us with Van Gogh’s Flowers……

“Van Gogh’s Flowers”

The most impressive thing about this quilt were the handwork touches that she added to the pictures….

“Hummingbird Garden” from Linda Waddle was a favorite because of the background…..

“Hummingbird Garden”

She said that it started as a Shibori dye and she decided it looked like tall grasses and turned it into a garden!! She found the perfect balance between embellishing, painting and quilting…….

Kim Folger hand-appliqued this beauty……

“Colorful Willow”

She said that she spent more than 1000 hours on the applique alone!!

I love the emotions evoked by this pink tree by Jill Ortlip…..

“Gazing Into the Wonder of Spring”

This is an excellent use of fabrics…..even incorporating some fun gingham fabrics!!

“Dyeing for a Cup of Tea” by Felice Dahlhausen…..

“Dyeing for a Cup of Tea”

….also started with a Shibori dyed fabric. She worked wonders with the designs!!!

Well, I started with a sunflower so will end with one as well (by Jill Ortlip and quilted by Sharon Vitt)……

“The Summer Buzz”

Naturally, all I could see were the flowers, but when I read the title “The Summer Buzz”. I returned to the quilt and found the 9-patch Honeybee blocks…..

These are SO fun!!!

Come back tomorrow for the “Hand Made” exhibition….. again…..a category that I will NEVER be able to enter!!

GRAFFITI!!!

Today will take a wander thru the Cherrywood GRAFFITI challenge..;….

There were SO many of these quilts displayed at the International Quilt Festival. This is just ONE of the walls (notice that is PLURAL)…..

There are a few requirements for this challenge…. First of all you must use ONLY the eight fabrics that you purchase and it MUST be 20-inches finished size. You even have to put a ruler on your entry photos to prove that!!

I am going to start with my favorite, and see if you notice the same thing that I did……

When I first looked, I saw the train car with graffiti on it….that’s cute. THEN, I looked further and realized that you are sitting in a car, looking out at the train. HOW CLEVER!! I especially love the clock and the rear view mirror. Teri Pyles definitely gets kudos for creative thinking!!

I think that the giraffe drew me to this one…..

…but the title didn’t hurt either!!

Since I am a huge fan of bright flowers, I loved this wall…..

…and I especially liked the painter in this one…..

“Quilter Power” was evident in this creative entry…..

….and this colorful cat was amazing……

I love the way she did the background and the pawprint “signature” on the right corner is a perfect touch!!

Finally, this one caught my eye because the background was a different color…..

Most chose the grey or black background and the yellow made it stand out from the others!!

Now….for YEARS I have thought that I would join the challenge but each year I found a reason that I didn’t want to do it….. no time, no inspiration, etc.

This year, I made my friend Linda promise that she wouldn’t let me leave without the fabrics and challenge pack. She kept her promise…..