Best of Utah 2018 - Day 2

We had lots of fun seeing the pretty quilts at the 45th annual Utah Quilt Show in Springville, Utah. It's a juried show, featuring quilts of all styles and sizes. We hope you enjoy the "eye candy" below !

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Gravity by Lydia Mack

Lydia Mack (a member of the Armed Forces stationed at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas)  says, "Wherever the Army sends me, my creativity goes too. I love the bold solid colors contrasting and shining next to the black and gray. We all need a splash of color in our lives."
The Gravity quilt pattern is by Julie Herman at Jaybird Quilts.

Lydia's expert workmanship shows through in her precise piecing and hand quilting of these vibrant solid colors.

Rainbow for Lars by Rebecca Wolston

Rebecca Wolston writes, "Rainbow maker, color me home. When I was expecting my baby, I was anxious to get started on a quilt, but didn't know the gender yet. So I went to the fabric store and chose 36 different colors to make this rainbow. I figured that both boys and girls appreciate color, and I loved the chance to play around with so many shades of the basics."

Close-up, Rainbow for Lars

Rebecca continues, "My husband helped me do the math for the back and helped me with the basting before I machine quilted it. It was special to combine efforts for the first project for our child." Rebecca's quilt is a pretty blend of both light and dark values and is so versatile that it can be used and valued by all members of her family.

August Morning by Sheryl Gilliland

Sheryl notes, "I love color, and this quilt was inspired by hot August mornings, with the promise of coolness yet to come in the autumn."

Close-up, August Morning

Sheryl has made very artistic use of batiks, prints and striped fabrics in carefully piecing these New York Beauty blocks. August Morning reminds us of the Radiant New York Beauties featured in the book by Valori Wells.

Playing with Bubbles by Sheryl Gilliland

Here is another beauty by Sheryl Gilliland, who started this quilt at a friend's home in Florida.  The friend had a stash of hand-dyed and over-dyed fabric, and Sheryl had some shibori fabric she had dyed, so the quilt top background was created in one glorious 3-day improvisational stint. 

After the background was created, Sheryl made circles of different sizes from African fabric, appliqued them to the surface, and quilted the piece.  The textured African circles seem to float like bubbles on the surface of the quilt..With its wide array of warm color tones, enhanced by the purple shades of the border, Sheryl's quilt turned out to be most spectacular.

Sunset-Sunrise by Maria Hawkins, quilted by Kristen Webb

This colorful French Braid quilt is aptly named Sunset - Sunrise.  Maria Hawkins says,  "Starting with two brights from opposite sides of the color wheel [purple-yellow] and then finding intermediate colors was a challenge.  My son who has a great sense for color helped pick and arrange the twelve colors.  Finding the correct value and hue of each color was important."

Maria Hawkins' expert piecing can be seen in the perfectly matched points, while Kristen Webb's wavy line quilting adds movement to the otherwise straight lines of the design.

Maria and her son have a perfect eye for choosing fabric shades, as this French braid pattern showcases their lovely selection of complementary colors.


Challenging Kane by Sylvia Borschel Lewis

We really enjoyed this contemporary quilt, with its bold contrasts and improvisational design.  This was a challenge for the Raising Kane Quilt Guild last year.  Sylvia Borschel Lewis says, "We were given a fat quarter of an "ugly" print and needed to use a recognizable amount on the front of the quilt.  The challenge fabric is the multicolored print.  I actually liked the fabric!"  (So do we!)

Sylvia used multicolored thread which matched the lilac and magenta hues of the colored fabrics.

Her selection of pattern, surrounding fabric, and quilting motif has resulted in a stunning contemporary quilt.


Image credits:  Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration.