Houston International Quilt Festival - Eye Candy #2

This is post 2 of 3.  Please check the blog for the others if you wish to see all the quilts that I captured.

Let's start with the winner of the Founders' Award.  This is called Fantastic! and is by Junk Fujiwara of Narashino, Chiba, Japan.  Junko writes, "I began this work to celebrate the birth of my first granddaughter four years ago.  I was excited I made 16 blocks, especially with the flowers that I love.  I used a lot of cloth.  By combining small pieces, the leaves and flowers all look different."  It is outstanding to look at and four years just makes my mouth fall open.  I don't think I have enough years left to do something like this.

Another award winner is Ayako Kawakami of Funabashi-shi, Chiba, Japan and is entitled Kirara's Garden Party.  She says that "this is my sixth quilt for my daughter, Kirara, since she was born.  I made this quilt with Crazy Log Cabins and added a lot of embroidery, beads, and ribbon.  the garden party will begin with her and her dog."

Look at the detail up close ---- Wow

This small wallhanging made me stop, look, move on, and come back to it.  It is by Sarah Ann Smith of Hope, Maine and entitled Listen to the Son in the Night.  "The Dinner@8 theme for 2013 was An Exquisite Moment.  On San Juan Island, Washington, as I lay in bed, I heard something;  it was the orcas' whale song!  They were singing above water.  we woke our young boys to hear a once-in-a-lifetime moment.  The story is written at the top and bottom of the piece."   What a truly exquisite moment.

The next one here is Diaspora:  Journey to Sanctuary by Mary Kay fosnacht of Overland Park, Kansas and is available for sale.  "This depicts the redemption story of those living the life of refugees - relocation and integration is the deepest form of beauty in the face of extreme challenge.  Their story mirrors countless other stories of struggle overcoming addictions, loss, and unwanted transitions."  I love the almost mosaic feel to it.

Evolving I by Lucia Chan of Forest Hills, New York has a look and feel to it that made me think of my sweetheart and all of this before I read anything about it.  Lucia says, "My textiles communicate movement and the passage of time and reflect my inherent joy in handiwork.  The imperfect quality and emotional draw of hand-stitching accentuates the human touch and the slowness of process.  Evolving I is a meditation on time, depicting the process of change in our lives."

Another one that just makes me smile.  Each time I look at it (yes, even now while typing), I can't help but have a twinkle in my eye and the corners of my mouth turned up.  It is Whimsical Bicycle by Sally Manke or Arcadia, Michigan and simply delights me.  She writes, "Two orphan Dresden blocks gave inspiration for this work that includes our favorite summer activities . . .bike rides, four-legged friends, and wildflowers on Lake Michigan's shore.  It evolved after many attempts that included the creation of my first-ever printed pattern.  "Playfully quaint" describes this whimsical quilt.  Hubby insisted that bike tires with that many bumps would be really hard to ride."

Shadow Lands by Leah Gravells of Edmonton, Alberta really just pulled me in.  I love everything about it.  The tiny strips, the colors, the gradations, all of it.  She writes, "I was inspired to create this original fantasy landscape.  The earth's gold fields, with red and purple sunset and the unusual brown sky, create unending space and mystery.  the design uses 232 batik fabrics that were individually cut into 3/4-inch strips."   See --- tiny, tiny strips.

This mini floored me.  The entire block is about 12-15 inches big.  It is by Jane Hall of Raleigh, North Carolina and entitled Twirls.  Gobsmacked.

As I came upon this booth, the blue ribbon winner was standing there talking about her Dear Jane experience.  So now, before ya'll say -- oh great, another Dear Jane story ---- this is her FIRST quilt.  Read that again.  It is called Oh, Dear! and is made by Christine Yi of Portland, Oregon.  She says, "I wasn't a quilter before I made this quilt.  A friend had showed me pictures of Dear jane, and I didn't like it.  One day, I was just staring at a photo and told myself, "I think I can do some easy blocks."  That's how I started Oh, Dear!  That was my reaction all the way to the end."  She was a delight to talk with get to know.  We'll see more from her, I'm sure.

Here is another one that I know my sweetheart will absolutely love.  I do, as well, but he would go ga-ga over it.  It is called Slate Mine Vanadium and is by Susan Szajer of Santa Fe, New Mexico.  She says, "In the copper rich hills of southwest New Mexico, basic shack-like structures house mining shafts and equipment used many years ago.  These abandoned structures have outlived their use and are examples of irresponsible industrial practices and abuse of our natural resources."  Well, after reading that -- he'd like it even more.

There are quite a few quilts that are making social statements this year and several have caught my eye.  Here is another one by Carolyn Castaneda of Santa Fe, New Mexico and is entitled Divided We Fall.  All she says is, "The quilt represents a structure of the current political and cultural divide in our country."

In another special exhibit, I find one by Kent Williams of Madison, Wisconsin that is called Sine Me Up.  Oh the colors are exceptional and I so wish the lighting had not interfered with the photography.  Kent says, "I call this quilt Sine Me Up because the piecing arranges itself into a series of overlapping sine curves.  Putting it together required a lot of measuring - down to eighths of an inch - and I had to more or less pray that the thing would hold it's shape, but it seems to have worked out okay."

Knowing my love of the ocean, there had to be one that would bring that sense of calm to me.  I found it in I Must Go Down to the Sea Again by Leah Gravells of Edmonton, Alberta.  She says, "I was inspired by Canada's smallest province, Prince Edward Island's potato fields, the Westpoint Lighthouse, and the sea.  My maternal grandfather and my father were lobster fishermen.  The Westpoint Lighthouse (now iconic) guided them home to a safe harbor.  I spent my early years at the shore and the lighthouse.  I make a pilgrimage annually, as I must go down to the sea again . . .  "

Another area of quilting that I am still discovering is art quilts.  I know that they are way beyond my own capabilities and a long way away from even being attempted, but I do like some of them.  This one, At the Waterhole, is one such quilt.  It is by Sheila Finzer of Terrebonne, Oregon and she writes, "This was inspired by photographs I took in 2011 while in Kruger National Park, at Camp Shawu, in South Africa.  The elephants needed to be made very large for the greatest impact and to flaunt their tremendous size.  I enjoy making very large pictorial quilts.  It is my specialty, and this one is the largest so far."

Another exhibit was of quilted clothing and I found three outfits that I simply love.  They are all by Gilbert Muniz of Houston, Texas and the first one is entitled Raindrops.  Gilbert writes, "Raindrops was my submission to the Stitch in Time luncheon the year after the Bernina Fashion Show ended.  It was inspired by scarves, and made from hand-painted silk batik.  I layered the squares of fabric to resemble a classic handkerchief hem.  All of the points are embellished with glass beads.  The under-dress was hand-painted with silk dyd and pleated like a broomstick skirt."

The second one is entitled Accidently On Purpose and Gilbert says, "I mispelled accidentally on purpose.  I had wanted to make a backwards, inside-out jacket for the longest time and finally took the plunge.  I used all utilitarian fabrics on the outside because they are typically only used on the inside of a garment.  All the quilting motifs are very simple and basic like the quilting motifs on packing blankets.  I restrained my beading and embellishments on this piece.  I made sure to concentrate all the beading on the lapel - which is made of horsehair canvas.  The skirt was really an afterthought because I felt the original idea, an upside-down skirt, was too simple and lacked personality.  All the buttons are hand-poured resin."

And the last of the three is called Diamond Cocktail.  Gilbert says, "I found this shiny silk at Houston International Quilt Festival one year and was inspired to make this piece.  I have collected a lot of black and white commercial prints over the years, and over-dyed them in blues and greens to contrast the darkness of the silk.  This was my first time working with black stitching on black fabric and I found it to be a real challenge.  I made the beaded snowflake motifs using wired jewelry techniques.  The name of this piece came from a friend who saw the piece and said, 'Oh, I'd wear this outfit when I go out to drink cocktails with my friends.'"

That's it for this post.  Yum.  I loved seeing them all over again as I typed and developed the pictures.  Onto post 3 of 3.