Pieced Quilts! Highlights of the 2014 River City Quilters' Guild Show - Day 3

The River City Quilters Guild is a prominent guild established in 1977 in Sacramento, the capital city of the state of California. We really enjoyed seeing the over 200 quilts in this year's show, and we'd like to share some of the highlights with you.  Today's post exclusively features pieced quilts !

Colors of the East, 80 x 92", made by Laura L. Jones, hand quilted by Lydia Miller

First place winner for Two Person Large Pieced Quilts category, Laura says, "Colors of the East  began as a Block of the Month in 2009. A triangle was cut from the sides of each block to skew the block layout. The triangles were then sewn to the black sashing fabric and and trimmed to complete the chevron border. All the scraps and pieces left over from the block construction and the border were used to make the one inch diamond sashing borders. This original layout and design were a work in progress.'

Close up, Colors of the East by Laura L. Jones, hand quilted by Lydia Miller

The "ribbon" border was made by placing two half-rectangle triangles side by side.
Laura adds, "Even when I wanted it to be finished, I knew it wasn't finished until the last diamond sashing border was added. Diamonds are a girl's best friend, and you can never have too many. [This was] hand quilted by Lydia Miller and finished in 2014." Although the hand quilting was done in white thread on black, the tiny stitches are actually hard to see!

Close up, Colors of the East by Laura L. Jones, hand quilted by Lydia Miller

The traditional blocks were given an entirely new look by the use of Asian fabric prints, and by placing the blocks on an angle.  A stylized fussy-cut flower was used for the center of the block shown above.

Clarissa c. 2013, 74 x 88", made and quilted by Inga Waegell

Quilter Inga Waegell notes that her quilt, shown above, is a reproduction of a quilt sewn by Clarissa White Alford about the year 1890 (the pattern is available at Hoopla Patterns.) Clarissa c. 2013 won 2nd place in the Pieced - Large Quilts category.  Each of the 42 large blocks has 36 hourglass blocks, for a total of 1512 hourglass blocks, which means there are 6048 pieces in this quilt!

Close up, Clarissa c. 2013 by Inga Waegell

In this close-up, you can see Inga's very precise piecing of softly colored vintage-inspired prints.  "Clarissa" was quilted with a Baptist Fans design; and we are sure that Inga's quilt will be considered a treasured heirloom by her friends and family.

Marie's Galaxy, 63 x 81", made by Nancy Causey, quilted by Michele Simes

Third place winner in the Two Person Pieced Medium Size Quilt category.  This pretty red, white, and slate blue quilt was made in honor of Nancy's friend, Marie, a fellow quilter who passed away suddenly.

Close up, Marie's Galaxy by Nancy Causey, quilted by Michele Simes

The Galaxy Quilt pattern is a straight piecing pattern that gives the illusion of curves.  It combines the 54-40 or flight block with an additional red star.  As of this writing, the Galaxy quilt pattern by Deb Tucker can be found at Studio 180 Design.

Batik North Wind, 68 x 78", by Alice Morgan, quilted by Janell Dobbs

Alice notes that this quilt was the result of a North Wind pattern challenge from a local Sacramento quilting group. You can see that Alice has an excellent eye for design here. She has cleverly used the fabrics with deeper values to create a very intriguing "barn raising" concentric diamond overall effect in this vividly colored quilt.

Close up, Batik North Wind by Alice Morgan

The versatile North Wind quilt block is based on triangles and half-square triangles; you can find free patterns for the block at Quilters Cache and at The Wooden Thimble.  A free pattern for the Corn and Beans variation can be found at Jinny Beyer.com.

Rings Rings Rings, 57 x 57", made and quilted by Winifred Fung

Honorable mention winner in the Quilt Show Challenge category, Winifred states, " This was the challenge quilt for 2014. The red print and the batik were used with only fabrics from my stash. I'm pleased that the challenge fabrics got lost in the quilt. I used Peggy Martin's method of foundation paper piecing.  Thanks to Nancy MacDonald for giving me fabric from her stash for the border. This was a challenge to make."

Close up, Rings rings rings by Winifred Fung

The Indian Wedding Ring quilt pattern by Cynthia Caroff can be found in Paper Piecing Picnic: Fun-Filled Projects for Every Quilter (Quilters Newsletter, 2002).

Image credits:  Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration.