Quilts Celebrating Creativity ! part 3

Here are more quilts from the Santa Clara Valley Quilt Association 2019 show! The Santa Clara Valley lies at the southern end of San Francisco Bay in Northern California. This year's show, titled Quilts Celebrating Creativity,  featured some outstanding works by talented quilters. Here are some of our favorites!

(Note: please check out our E-Bay shop for great bargains on quilt patterns and collectibles ! For continuous free quilt patterns, please visit us on Twitter !)

Headed Outback, 46 x 42", by Randa Mulford

The colors and patterns drew us to this outstanding quilt.  Featured quilter Randa Mulford says, "Louisa Smith’s Double Vision workshop inspired me to dip into my sizable stash of Australian aboriginal fabrics. Once I got started, I just had to keep cutting out and adding more motifs from these fabrics as appliques until I had a whole parade of down-under creatures headed somewhere - to the Outback?"

Layers of colorful ovals create a sense of three dimensions in this contemporary art quilt. For more information on "Double Vision" quilts, on which this design was based, please see Louisa Smith's workshop page.

Flowers for Our Lady of Guadalupe, 27 x 27", by Carole Donovan

Carole Donovan says, “Freddy Moran taught a class using flowers cut out from fabric. We made a black and white background and glued the cutout flowers on the fabric to make a design."

Carole continues, "I wanted to make this quilt for special friends who celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. I liked my first try so much that I had to keep it for myself and made a similar design just for them.”
We love the broderie perse (collage) style of this original design!  You can see the raw edge flowers in the closeup photo, below.

Afternoon in Paradise, 24 x 33", by Randa Mulford

This wonderful landscape quilt was based on a photo Randa Mulford took during an afternoon visit to Paradise Meadow at Mount Rainier National Park. It appears to be framed, but the "frame" is actually a border made with wood-grain fabric! The quilt was begun in a workshop taught by Lenore Crawford. Randa says, "Recreating the scene with its late afternoon sunlight and flowing stream out of fused fabrics was a new challenge for me, but I like how it came out."

Marilyn's Home, 18 x 24", by Karel Peer

The Santa Clara Valley Quilt Association is participating in an exchange program known as "Quilts Across the Pacific", where each member has a sister quilter in Australia with whom to share designs, patterns, and quilt ideas. Karel Peer says, “This quilt, made for my Australian partner Marilyn Urane, is a quilted rendering of her home in Newscastle, NSW. [It was made with] commercial and hand painted fabrics."

There is a lot a detail in this little quilt; the flowers in this closeup photo were created with small buttons, and the windows and doors were outlined with embroidery floss.  The roof was made with ruched fabric.

Sufficiency, 46 x 37", by Therese May

This large, expressive fish was created by Therese May, who was a featured quilter at this year's show. She says, “This fish represents the potential for more and more abundance. [The] drawing [was] printed onto fabric and machine quilted.”

On her website, Therese May states, "I make the quilts that feel good to me and that convey what I have in my heart. I’m an artist, a painter and a quilter. I like to think in pictures and to share that vision in my art." For more of her drawings, which serve as inspiration for art quilts, please see Therese May's website.

Image credits:  Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration at the 2019 Santa Clara Valley Quilt Association.

Memorial Day "Freedom" Quilt

Memorial Day (Monday) is a holiday in the U.S. for remembering and honoring men and women who died while serving in the U.S. Armed Forces. Volunteers help to decorate the graves of the fallen soldiers with flags and bouquets of flowers. In observation of Memorial Day, we are showing a quilt made by Denise Maas, which was exhibited at Quilt Arizona, the annual show of the Arizona Quilters Guild.

Freedom by Denise Maas, quilted by Terri Reiman

Denise writes that she participates in her church's quilting group, which is cleverly named RWYS, or "Reap What You Sew."  The 68 x 84 quilt pattern, by designer Tony Jacobson, is Unfurled Glory from the Love of Quilting Magazine's July-August 2012 issue.

Denise's group did this project as a "mystery quilt", meaning that each member sewed their quilt section by section without first seeing the entire pattern. The pattern therefore was revealed to them as they made progress on the quilt construction.

These light and dark ribbon blocks are especially lovely in depicting the 7 red stripes of the American flag; and  we really like the stars that longarm quilter Terri Reiman used in order to carry out the patriotic motif. We wish everyone a blessed Memorial Day as we remember those who gave their lives for freedom.

Image credits:  Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration at the 2019 Quilt Arizona show.

Quilts Celebrating Creativity ! part 2

Welcome to the Santa Clara Valley Quilt Association 2019 show! The Santa Clara Valley lies at the southern end of San Francisco Bay in Northern California. This year's show, titled Quilts Celebrating Creativity,  featured some outstanding works by talented quilters. Here are more of our favorites!

(Note: please check out our E-Bay shop for great bargains on quilt patterns and collectibles ! For continuous free quilt patterns, please visit us on Twitter !)

Samba Selfie, 39 x 39”, by Randa Mulford

Randa Mulford was a featured quilter at this year's show, and we are sharing several of her quilts today.  She says, "A selfie of my daughter and her friend dressed to participate in a samba parade during their student year in Chile was the inspiration for this collage quilt... The background shows the shore of lake Llanquihue in Puerto Varas, Chile, with the Osorno volcano in the background and fireworks over the lake."

Randa continues, "The biggest challenge was creating the contours of their faces and shoulders from printed fabric."  This quilt conveys the happiness and friendship the girls must have felt as they enjoyed the parade!

Radial Sonnet, 42 x 42”, by Randa Mulford

Randa explains that "Radial Sonnet is a kaleidoscope quilt, created for a challenge with the theme “sonnet.” (A sonnet is a 14-line poem with the specific rhyme scheme ABAB-CDCD-EFEF-GG). The central design has 14 wedges and the patterns inside the wedges reflect the rhythm of the poem."

We really enjoyed Randa's fantastic choice of fabrics, along with her use of fancy stitches to quilt the background circles, as shown below.

On Campus: Lewis & Clark College, 26 x 33”, by Randa Mulford

We love map quilts! Randa explains, "I began this quilt in an advanced composition workshop with Valerie Goodwin as a gift for my daughter upon her graduation from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. It features a map of the campus in the center, with an image of the beautiful Frank Manor House (now an admin building) at the bottom and Mount Hood looming over it all (assuming it’s a clear day!)  The closeup photo, below, shows Randa's excellent applique and quilting techniques.

Glorious Clams, 60 x 70”, by Denise Martin

Denise Martin says, "[Fellow quilter] Joni Strother showed me this quilt in Quilter’s Newsletter. Carole Donovan let me use her magazine. This is the result, three years later. I had fun using fabrics from my large stash of beachy fabrics."

The Quilters Newsletter pattern description says, "Foundation piecing and curved seams make this a challenging quilt to make, but the beautiful results are worth the effort."

Sedona Opus, 33 x 69”, by Tracy Visher

Tracy Visher made this outstanding, colorful landscape quilt. She says, "My husband and I have a strong affinity for Sedona (Arizona), Santa Fe (New Mexico), and the surrounding desert lands. I have had a Sedona art quilt in my head for years and finally tackled the “prickly subject”. My personal challenge was to show the depth of the landscape and the many hues of the red rock formations."

Tracy continues,"I further challenged myself to figure out how to make a dimensional foreground, showing some of the native plants that live in these regions (like the agave plant shown above). It is the largest, most complex art quilt I have attempted to date."
The large embroidery stitches on the cholla cactus, shown below, lend an extremely realistic feel!

Image credits:  Photos were taken at the 2019 Santa Clara Valley Quilt Association show.

Quilts Celebrating Creativity ! part 1

Welcome to the Santa Clara Valley Quilt Association 2019 show! The Santa Clara Valley lies at the southern end of San Francisco Bay in Northern California. This year's show, titled Quilts Celebrating Creativity,  featured some outstanding works by talented quilters. Here are a few of our favorites!

(Note: please check out our E-Bay shop for great bargains on quilt patterns, fabric, and collectibles ! For continuous free quilt patterns, please visit us on Twitter !)

From The Golden State by Judy Rudolph

Right now, the Santa Clara Valley Quilt Association is participating in an exchange program known as "Quilts Across the Pacific", where each member has a sister quilter in Australia with whom to share designs, patterns, and quilt ideas.

Judy Rudolph says, "This quilt was made as my exchange quilt for Patricia Keevers in Australia. I drew inspiration from California's state nickname, 'The Golden State'. The center features a Mariner's Compass block using the Ruth Robin Fat Robin ruler. 

Close-up, From the Golden State

Judy adds, "The center was hand appliqued, and the compass was hand appliqued to the background. The machine embroidery design was from the 50 States Collection by Anita Goodesign. The compass was trapuntoed with an extra layer of wool batting and big stitch quilting was used to highlight the star points and the circular designs in the background."  We appreciate all of Judy's hard work and the beautiful results !

Daisy by Mandy Fleig

Here's another quilt made as part of the quilt exchange with quilter friends in Australia. Mandy writes, "This quilt features Daisy, my Australian friend's pup. As I have become acquainted with my friend across the Pacific, I realized how similar we are. I lost my beloved pup that was also a yellow Labrador Retriever several years ago. The pictures of Daisy remind me that no matter where we live, how different we appear, really we are all the same. We all want to love and be loved."

Close-up, Daisy

Wonderful thread painting work here really emphasizes Daisy's friendly countenance and soulful eyes. Mandy has done an excellent job in using a variety of neutral fabrics to highlight this yellow Lab's attractive markings.

Yosemite Falls by Jaunell Waldo

Jaunell explains, "I wanted to create a quilt introducing my new Australian friend to one of my favorite places on the planet. Picking a specific place within Yosemite National Park was tricky, but I finally settled on the waterfalls because it will give her an idea of the overall majesty of the park." 

Close-up, Yosemite Falls

We really admire this very lifelike landscape quilt which captures the texture of the rushing water, the large trees, and the surrounding sun-dappled rocks.

La Passacaglia Unravels by Randa Mulford

Randa Mulford was a featured quilter at this show.  She states, "This quilt was my first foray into English paper piecing-- I haven't hand-pieced a quilt in many years ! It's been a fun journey, which I've been sharing with other quilters making the "La Passcaglia" pattern by Willyne Hammerstein.  One goal of this quilt was to use only fabrics from stash, mostly prints by Paula Nadelstern." 

Close-up, La Passacaglia Unravels

Randa continues, "My innovation on Hammerstein's design was to 'unravel' the portions of the rosettes that lay outside of the rectangular perimeter of her design. This quilt won first prize in the Traditional Quilts category at the 2018 Chicago International Quilt Festival."  We certainly like this quilt, which is full of beautiful jewel-tone fabrics.

Hippie Daze by Mel Beach

To describe her quilt, Mel has selected a quotation from Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu: "Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness." Mel says, "Hippie Daze" originated in response to a particularly negative world news cycle. As I stitched out the background design, I gained a renewed sense of hope. Once the quilting was complete, careful cutwork revealed more of my hand-dyed fabrics hidden underneath.
Wishing all peace, love, and happiness ! "

Close-up, Hippie Daze

These giant vividly colored flowers and the tie-dyed motifs in the center really take us back to our youth in the 1960's ! We think this quilt is so cheery and fun -- a real day brightener.

Image credits:  Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration at the 2019 SCVQA show.

Bougainvillea and Bouquets: Flower Quilts

Flowers are happy things, and we hope the flowers are blooming in your part of the world.  Capturing the beauty of nature in a quilt is every bit as difficult as creating a painting - and, according to friends who are both painters and quilters, the quilt takes more time!  Here are some fantastic flower quilts we admired at the recent show.

(Note: please check out our E-Bay shop for great bargains on quilt patterns, fabric, and collectibles ! For continuous free quilt patterns, please visit us on Twitter !)

Bougainvillea in the Garden by Jillane Ocano

Jillane Ocano designed this whole cloth panel, then made it into a quilt!  She says, "I took a photo of bougainvillea in my yard and had it printed on cotton fabric (see below for source).  I double batted it and then free motion quilted this using six different thread colors. I began free motion quilting in January 2018."  This art/innovative quilt received an Honorable Mention award.

If you love the look of this panel, you can view and purchase it at Jillane Ocano's shop on Spoonflower (it's still available, at least as of May 2019)!

Bird & Basket by Susan S. Norris

We love the colors in this striking wall quilt, with its inner rainbow border. Susan Norris says, "Bird and Basket was hand appliqued and hand quilted on a lap, from a pattern  I got years ago by Nancy Pearson." (The pattern was called English Garden Basket.)  It has a batik sky background with vivid colors for the flowers, baskets and first border. The basket was made from fabric with stripes that resemble reeds.

Still Life Bouquet by Jo Ann Kilgroe, photo by Quilt Inspiration

We admire the design, applique and quilting by Jo Ann Kilgroe in this lovely work. The background quilting was divided into two sections with a diamond pattern on the left, suggesting the appearance of a window. Jo Ann says, "I drew up a beautiful floral arrangement in a wonderful vase.  Then selected the exact colors I wanted from my stash of batik fabrics." 

The quilt was made with fused applique on a pieced background. Jo Ann's precise machine quilting can be seen in the closeup photo above.

Garden Delight by Brenda Stanway, quilted by Debbie Newell

In this delightful quilt, every basket has different shapes of flowers! Brenda Stanway says, "I started on a pattern and did not like it, used just the basket and developed the appliques.  My first original design."  The flowers were hand appliqued and they have embroidered stems.  Debbie Newell's professional quilting enhances this design, which won Honorable Mention in the Applique - Small category.

Big Dreams Come True by Barb Tatera

Barb Tatera won Third Place for Big Dreams Come True, which is a whole cloth quilt with gorgeous quilting by Barb.  She says, "This quilt is a [fabric] panel designed by Jeanie Sumrall-Ajero and digitally prnted by Hoffman Fabrics.  It was so much fun quilting all of the feathers to make the petals really pop!"
As of this post, you can still see the fabric panels in various colors on the Hoffman California Fabrics website.

Image credits:  Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration at the 2019 Quilt Arizona show.