Women’s Encyclopedia

This was our introduction to the “Women’s Encyclopedia Exhibition…..

“Galla Grotto designs the women’s series based on cultural traditions throughout the world. It is reinterpretation of myths, images and symbols. In the gallery of portraits of her heroines, goddesses, fairies, muses, and female images, all of them convey ideas and express different feelings”

Her quilts were colorful and fun to look at!!

I love the 3-D interest that she added to this one……

“Nephela – Goddess of Rain and Clouds” by Galla Grotto

As with many of the quilts at this festival, the QUILTING is what MADE each of the quilts….

I particularly enjoyed this one with the flowers on her hat and parrots over her shoulder…..

“Parrot Is A Bird of Paradise” by Galla Grotto

The “group” quilts were also wonderful……

Look at the details…..

These quilts had a whimsical feel to them as well as a serious rendering of the female population……

“Encyclopedia of Non- Existent Women”by Galla Grotto

We are starting to close in on the last of the quilts from the International Quilt Festival …..be sure that you don’t miss a single one!!

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Contemporary Painted Florals

We walked through this exhibit a couple of times without much interest but once we REALLY started looking at the quilts, we were enamored!!

She had several different styles of quilts, starting with whole-cloth painted designs…..

that were magnificently quilted and embellished…..

These quilts have a very realistic appearance…..

“Passiflora – Find Joy, Live Your Passion” by Andrea Brokenshire

Since I grew up in West Texas, I appreciated this cactus…..

“Desert in Spring” by Andrea Brokenshire

Just look a the details in the quilting…..

BUT, she didn’t JUST do Whole-Cloth painted designs!! On some, she added a three-dimensional background made of fabric snippets…..

Doesn’t the background add SO much depth to the piece!!

For these quilts, she paints each of petals and appliques them to the background before adding the magnificent quilting…..

Of course, I LOVED the sunflowers…..

We listened to Andrea talk about her process and found her to be personable and willing to share her skill. Here she is talking about the way she placed the snippet backgrounds….

Now that you have heard how she did it, take a good look at the background……

“Dogwood – The Promise” by Andrea Brokenshire

NOW….and only now….. I can see the subtle changes in color in the background. It adds so much to the quilt!!

And you can see the gradations that she talks about in this piece…..

“X-Caret: Orchid Blossoms I” by Andrea Brokenshire

It was a wonderful exhibit and I am so glad that we finally realized the extreme creativity displayed in it!!

Tomorrow we will look at the Handmade category…..be sure to come back!!!

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Comes In All Colors

One of the fun exhibits at the International Quilt Festival was “Comes In All Colors” by Lorraine Turner.

Her animal portraits were amazing and were, as advertised, in all colors!!!

She said that the horse’s mane was stitched one thread at a time…..

One of the hallmarks of her quilts is the use of “other” fabrics, such as doilies and felted wool!!

Just look at the way she used the doilies in these cute penguins…..

“From The Bottom of Our Hearts” by Lorraine Turner

…..and the use of interesting fabrics in this one…..

This next one made wonderful use of wool roving and felting…..

“Everglades Evermore” by Lorraine Turner

That background is gorgeous!!

My favorite quilt in the exhibit was this one…..

She included fun “dots” of color in the Zebras…..

……excellent embroidery….

…..wonderful machine threadwork….

….and, of course……lace……

It was a fun exhibit to view and I came away with lots of ideas!!!

Tomorrow we will move from fauna to flora….. come back for more!!

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Saving the Monarchs!!

Continuing our tour of the 2023 International Quilt Festival, let’s have a gaze at the Cherrywood Fabrics “Monarch Challenge”.

It was a HUGE exhibit with this being one of THREE walls of quilts…..

Now, before we go further, I have to say that this was a difficult exhibit to view. I was keenly aware that my quilt had NOT been selected for the exhibit and, honestly, it stung a bit!!

Regardless of that disappointment, the quilts were amazing. Here are a few of my favorites.

This first one was awarded the First-Place ribbon…..

I loved the piecing in this one…..

….and the applique here…..

This one was a fun take on the name “Monarch” with it being written in an “inkblot” style…..

Since I love daisies, it is no surprise that this one was also a favorite…..

I liked the name of this one…..”Dots & Stripes”…..

For all of the “Frida” fans, there was this one…..

Now….what did I learn from this exhibit…..

Several quilts were similar in design to mine, which tells me that I needed to be MORE creative in the design of future challenges!!

I purchased the fabrics for the 2024 challenge…..Poppies…..

These are luscious colors and I am already trying to think of interesting AND DIFFERENT ways to meet the theme!!!

Congratulations to ALL who were accepted in the exhibit!!

Come back tomorrow and we will check out another special exhibition!!

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Dreamcatcher Quilting

Over the last few days, I have been talking to you about the MQG Fabric Challenge that I am working on….

In particular, I have been gnashing over how to quilt it!!

I finally made some decisions, including adding another set of arcs to the Dreamcatcher and decided to use the “arrows” for the Dreamcatcher outline…..