Amazing Applique from QuiltCon

Today, let’s finish up my favorites from the Applique Category at QuiltCon 2023…..

This first quilt took the 3rd-place ribbon……

Cassandra used a reverse applique technique to create the top. Dark blue was the top fabric and light blue was underneath. It reminds me a lot of a Mola design, but without the colors.

This next quilt won the 2nd-place ribbon…..

She started out by cutting a stack of rings in various sizes and then played with the actual fabric until she found a design. The fabrics are Oakshott cross-dyes.

The quarter-inch grid quilting adds so much dimension…..

The first-place ribbon went to this beauty……

Now, I like appliqueing circles, but this one went a bit far…..

The background is one piece of fabric. Can you imagine man handling that while you were appliqueing?

The last two are a different style of applique…..

Meet Frida….

The shapes look very cohesive but are really made up of a lot of small pieces of fabric…..

The last is a whimsical quilt that I can identify with…..

The quilt is constructed using a “Stitched Mosaic” technique which includes applique within each 2-inch square. The squares are sewn together into rows. It is ALL turned edge applique!! The only fusing is the catchlights in the eyes!!

AMAZING!!!

Now I am REALLY inspired to do some applique…..how about you??

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A smaller view

There were 47 entries in the “Small” Pictorial Quilts category at the International Quilt Festival. In this post, I have managed to narrow it down to a dozen favorites!

So…..let’s go!!

Mimi Ghauri-Young produced this quilt that really does look like a Matisse painting…..

This quilt from Judith Phelps is painted and machine quilted…..

As with many of these pictorial quilts, the quilting makes all the difference…..

The expressions on these sheep faces drew me into this quilt from Enid Weichselbaum……

Karen Hull Sienk used mixture of piecing and fused applique to create this wonderful canyon scene…..

I love how the pieced border echoes the interior picture.

This Third-place winner from Roxanne Nelson was a study in detail…..

Just look at how many fabrics are used to create the eye…..

….and these couched threads work perfectly as whiskers….

For the last few years, there have been so many quilts that came from the quilters in Taipei City, Taiwan. This beauty from Li-hsiang Wang is another of those…..

Sandra Mollon used fused applique, dying, inking and machine quilting to create this wonderful landscape….

Ann Pigneri created this quilt from a photograph that she had taken……

In particular, I love the reflections…..

Carolyn Allison used a photo to depict her grandsons on a windy day at the beach…..

In particular, I was enamored with the movement in the clothing…..

The horizontal lines in this quilt by Deanna Corrigan are the perfect contrast to the applique!!

I loved this quilt from Sue Colozzi…..

And was particularly impressed and interested in the thread painted foliage…..

Finally, Kestrel Michaud presented this fun quilt based in a steampunk junkyard……

Just look at the detail in the Roadrunner…..

Well, that is it for the pictorial category. Tomorrow we will have a look at some of the quilts in the Pieced category!!!

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Applique Competition at IQF

I am NOT one who loves Applique!!! I have a DESIRE to do more but it never makes it to the top of my “To-Do” list!!

For the entrants in the International Quilt Festival Applique Competition, it was obviously at the VERY TOP of their list!!

Here are a few of my favorites…..

The Blue-Ribbon winner was by Akiko Yoshimizu…..

You have to get closer to see the details……

…..and EVEN CLOSER…..

Each of these 640 girls are dressed in different outfits, complete with purses and shoes!!

In her artist statement, she says…. “I hope this will make you feel gorgeous as if cherry blossoms are in full bloom, or make you smile and feel kind”

Next is the most fun temperature quilt that I have ever seen. Debra and Donna Lohman worked together to create this sweet project…..

Rain, wind, and temperature are all depicted in one quilt design. It combines the days into weeks and an umbrella showcases the high and low temperatures for each day that week.

Raindrops are used to show the amount of rain in that same week and the average wind speed is reflected in the tilt or angle of the umbrella…..

This is SO clever!!!

Next is a quilt by Heidi Proffetty…..

I had to get “up close and personal” with this quilt to determine how it was made. I discovered that it was fusible applique, leaving tiny strips of white to imitate mosaic grout……

Using a dense filler quilting design greatly emphasized the white lines.

Finally, I enjoyed this quilt from Jan Hutchison…..

This was inspired by Uzbekistan traditional textiles. It is machine appliqued and quilted and hand embroidered!!

Seeing these quilts ALMOST makes me want to start an applique project!!!

Come back tomorrow for several interesting Abstract Quilts……

I forgot about this!!

A couple of weeks ago I was looking for something in my quilting closet and came across a piece that I had forgotten about completely!!!

The story goes back to 2011 when Michael and I were visiting with friends in Chaing Mai, Thailand. One night after dinner, we headed out to the center of old-town to the Nighttime Walking Market…..isn’t that a great name!!!

The weather didn’t cooperate so we didn’t have long there but I was able to make one special purchase…….

This applique piece is 37 x 20 and is an amazing example of fine applique!!

I love all of the animals, especially the monkey sporting USA Red-white-and-blue…..

And look at the fine appliqued details, especially in the black monkey…..

Those hands are TINY!!

I especially love the fabric used for the river…..

The piece gets even more interesting when you look at the back…..

…..and realize that it is a panel of sorts with the “grass” printed on the fabric and line designs of all of the animals printed as well.

Look at #35 from the back…..

….and then from the front…..

I would love to have seen the people actually doing the applique but this market was just for sales. Sadly, I didn’t pay much for it which means that the creators were making pennies!!

But, what a talent they have!!!

Now the big question is “What do I do with this?”

It is kind of funky and I am not sure that it would hang well in my home. Frankly, that is probably why it was put in a box and forgotten about over 10 years ago!!!

But, maybe it is time to get it out and use it.

What would you do with it??

Grandbaby Quilt!!

Early this year, our daughter Jenny and her husband Kevin announced that they were expecting their first child…..and OUR first grandchild!! Needless to say we were SO excited!!

And of course, my first thought was making a quilt.

When Jenny told me it was a boy and she was thinking about a jungle/safari theme, I knew EXACTLY what I wanted to make!!

You see, back in the early 1980’s we lived in Australia and there was a sweatshirt pattern in a magazine that I had clipped out to keep. Over the years I had purged many of these patterns but this one had stayed around……