Beating the Heat at the 2015 Arizona Quilt Show #4

It was 95°F for this year's Arizona Quilt show... but, as they say, it's a dry heat! It was the perfect occasion to enjoy an air-conditioned quilt show. Many of the quilts reflected the hot colors of the desert and exotic locales. Here is part 4 (and the finale) of our photos.

Painted Beauty by Barbara Janson

Barbara Janson created this portrait of a painted Surma (Ethiopia) woman by using fusible applique and acrylic paint.  The leafy headdress was made with 3-D applique, and various fibers were used to depict twigs. In the closeup photo, below, you can see the facial decoration, as well as the necklace and earrings made of real beads.

Painted Beauty was inspired by the photography of Hans Sylvester, whose recent work features the Surma and Mursi people of the Omo Valley in southern Ethiopia. A collection of Hans Sylvester's photographs, presenting the beauty of the tribes' ancient tradition of temporary body decoration, can be seen in the 2009 book, Natural Fashion: Tribal Decoration from Africa.

Cosmati Revisited by Linda Schoenfeld

This vibrant blue-and-orange quilt was based on 13th century stone floors created by the Cosmati family in Italy. Linda Schoenfeld's design was based on her own photos of the decorative mosaic floors. 

An impressive amount of planning must have gone into designing the pieced elements, including the stone-colored background blocks.

Not a City by Betty Hahn

We are fascinated by this digital quilt, which won First Place, Art/Painted or Digital Images.   It reminds us of a cityscape with lights reflected in water.  But wait... the image is Not a City!  Betty Hahn explains that image is "a photograph of [the] demise of my computer screen because of a grandson magnet event that “killed” it." 

Betty accented the fried computer screen with quilting - in orange thread - that reminds us of a computer chip.

Focus If You Can by Alicia Sterna

We really liked the composition and colors of this floral art quilt, which won Honorable Mention.  Three sunflowers in bright batik colors are set against block and white striped fabric, which creates illusions of movement.  The machine quilting was beautifully done.

Stateline Road by Nancy Hawkes

There's a sense of serenity to this row quilt, with a setting sun that tops pieced designs made with blue, green and violet batiks.  Nancy Hawkes says that most of this quilt was made from pieced sections that never made it into other quilts. It was beautifully hand quilted as shown below.

Nancy Hawkes is a member of the Mavericks Art Quilters and Cactus Patchers quilt groups.

Off the Wall by Carol Caplan

Carol Caplan says, "This guy lives on a wall in our backyard, although not this size!"  The background was the perfect setting for the dark lizard.  It was based on the Run for Color pattern by Karla Alexander.

Colore e Forma by Christy Schliesmann

Thirty-four different batiks, and many different colored threads, make an eye-popping design in this 12-point star quilt by Christy Schliesmann.  Christy says that the pattern was "a piecing challenge I couldn’t resist and fabrics I loved using."

Winner of Honorable Mention, the paper-pieced quilt was based on the Florigia quilt pattern by Cat Nix for Anthology Fabrics. The star points are constructed from French Braid wedges.  As of this writing, you can still download the free 23-page (!) pdf pattern from Anthology Fabrics.

Image credits: Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration.