Thursday, March 21, 2013

Fun in the Sun : Day 4 of the Arizona Quilters' Guild Show

Quilt Inspiration is back in the Arizona desert today for a continued visit to the 2013 Arizona Quilters' Guild Show.  Here are four lovely quilts which really caught our eye at this fun quilt show. 

Swallowtail Summer by Patsy Kittredge


Patsy notes, "Using three photos taken in my garden, I constructed the butterflies, and then tried a lot of layouts until coming to the design that conveyed movement. "

Close-up, Swallowtail Summer by Patsy Kittredge


Here you can see the beautiful detail and careful applique work done by Patsy to make the delicate and graceful butterfly appear very life-like.

Sunlit Circles by Ann L. Petersen


Blue ribbon winner for Best Pieced Quilt of medium size,  Ann writes, "Sunlight through star windows is shown with pieced spiky blocks pieced into an asymmetrical setting, balanced with repetition of circles and lines across the quilt. The muted blue background contains its own set of deeper blue circles, designed to accentuate the lighter circles in the foreground."

Close-up, Sunlit Circles by Ann L. Petersen


The backgrounds on the offset center medallion are pieced to depict windows through which the viewer can look outside to see nature, including a variety of flowers and a butterfly.

Close-up, Sunlit Circles, border by Ann L. Petersen


In addition to a blue ribbon, Ann also won the aqua ribbon for Exemplary Machine Quilting on a Stationary Sewing Machine. This photo shows her outstanding work on the quilt's scalloped border, which is enhanced with yellow piping. For more close-up photos of this work, see our Exemplary Quilting board at Pinterest.

The Nest Quilt by Carrie Bloomston


Honorable Mention winner for Best Pictorial Large Quilt, Carrie says,  "The Nest Quilt came to me all at once on a hike up Piestewa Peak. It comes from my life as an abstract painter." 

Close-up, The Nest Quilt by Carrie Bloomston


In this close-up, you can see the raw-edged fabrics comprising the outside of the nest, as well as the longarm machine quilting of the backbround, whose smaller circles match the ones found on the focal point, the two white eggs.  Note added on 6/24/13: The pattern for The Nest Quilt is available at Such Designs and you can read Carrie's post about the quilt at her blog: suchity such.

In Bloom by Renee Caswell


Second place winner for Best Pictorial Large Quilt, Renee writes, "This is an original design started during a Jane Sassaman workshop. I had fun with trapunto and embellishing [with beads] to bring the bloom to life."

Close-up, In Bloom by Renee Caswell


In Bloom was one of the favorites at this year's show, (judging by all the complimentary remarks we heard). "The puffy flower" as it was admiringly called, displays such a lively personality through the juxtaposition of a variety of mauve, green, and orange plaids, checks, and prints.

Image Credits: Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration.

6 comments:

  1. The Swallowtail quilt is so beautiful. I can hardly believe it's a quilt and not a painting. I am in awe of Ms. Kittredge's talent. May I ask, are the different pieces sewn on with raw edges, or are the edges stitched over, or folded under? I can't enlarge the photo enough to tell.

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    1. Hi Savannagal, those are all raw edge pieces, not folded under. Some of the fabric bits are only 1/2" wide. The background fabrics are expertly blended, and the whole quilt is heavily quilted, so it is hard to see the raw edges even when you are up close. Patsy Kittredge also made the Saguaro Sentinels quilt which we featured on Day 2 of this show.

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  2. I really love the butterfly piece and appreciate that you do enlarged versions so I can see the details.
    The way she quilted the piece gives their bodies a realistic look.

    Debbie

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    Replies
    1. Absolutely, she really succeeded in giving the butterflies a realistic look. We could have stared at this quilt all day!

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  3. I have thoroughly enjoyed looking at your quilt show pictures, present and past..So many different quilt ideas that I don't see in the Upper Midwest. Beautiful, beautiful quilts, you can post many more for my eye candy..thank you so much.

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  4. I attended this show and was really taken by The Nest Quilt. There were so many lovely and outstanding quilts at the show this year.
    Have a great day.
    Always, Queenie

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