One of the things I learned this year about quilts is that a portion of a quilt can be attractive to me, even if I don’t like the total execution. This revelation came about after viewing a number of shows where I found no quilt that jumped out at me and said “I am the best.” There was a lot of brown and a lot of techniques and patterns I had already seen. I am not disparaging the efforts of any quiltmaker, because making a quilt is no mean feat. I truly believe that everyone should make whatever quilt they want whenever they want (and can) in whatever method and colors they choose. So, below you may see some quilts where the pattern or a portion of the work is what I liked.
San Mateo County Fair 2008: I liked the use of pink in the quilt. I also admired the use of different black on white fabrics. Scrappy, but pulled together. I am looking for uses for pink and like the movement of the pinwheels. I also admire the maker for using hand applique.
APNQ 2008: Love the wheels and the use of turquoise/aqua as a background.
PIQF 2008 – Quilt is a reproduction of a Pennsylvania Dutch Quilt. Each block is really tiny – like a little jewel. I want to find the book as some of the blocks are very unique (EQ can you make a CD so I don’t have to draft them all???), but it is hard to come by for a reasonable price.
PIQF 2008: Seasons by Linda McLaughlin. There were many, many quilts depicting leaves and trees at this year’s PIQF show. This was one of the best. One of the things that I noticed about this was the excellent use of Shibori. I don’t like quilts that are all about making people notice the maker used hand dyed fabric. In this one the hand-dyes are part of and advance the design. Nice work!
PIQF 2008: On the Wings of a Dream by Ana Bazzolino. I like this quilt, because of the attention to detail and color. There is just enough pink to make it interesting, but not so much that it becomes sickly sweet.
This is the detail that I really like the black on white fabrics are appliqued on to the solid black fabric and the white on black pieces are appliqued to the white fabrics. I like the thoughfulness.
Overall thoughts:
- There was less brown this year, so perhaps quilts will become more cheerful.
- Many of the EBHQ big names did not enter quilts into the annual show and the show was not as good as in previous years. I didn’t enter one either, so I shouldn’t talk.
- I was interested in complex patterns as well as older block designs such a wheels.
- Was attracted to flower quilts.
- Scruntinized design elements much more carefully.
