Pictoral quilts at IQF

As I walked around the International Quilt Festival in Houston, it became clear that collage quilting has taken a good hold in the quilting industry. And, as I expected there were some amazing quilts that fell into this category.

I have always been interested in water and rocks but this quilt blew my mind….

I loved the depth that she found with her fabric choices and the water is beautifully done. It looked as if the water was hand-dyed and she mentioned doing some inking. It was definitely one of my favorites.

This little boy……

…..was spectacular. In her artist statement, she said that the water reflections were a challenge. Most of the quilt was constructed with pure silk….opaque for dry areas and another for the shiny, wet areas.

Just look at the stitching…..

The “Birds of a Feather” exhibit produced many gorgeous quilts such as this one……

In particular, I love the lighting in this quilt and she did a great job in letting you know exactly where the sun was coming from!!!

This swan…..

….was a fantastic mixture of fabric collage and detailed quilting. In particular, I loved the water…..

…especially the additional tiny white beads to provide some shimmer in the foam.

Probably my favorite quilt in the show was this one……

The detail was eye-popping, down to the metal studs in the swing.

Then there was this quilt…..

The quilt has 2 panels for each season and flows from Spring on the left to winter on the right.

Here is a video that will let you get a bit closer…..

In some respects, it is a simple design, but the attention to detail made it outstanding…..

One of the things that caught my eye were these couched threads…..

I am thinking that they would be perfect to add to the marshland that my stork will be standing in!!!

I will leave you with one more photo of one of the panels…..

Come back tomorrow for some of my favorites!!