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!

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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.