Houston Eye Candy 2018 - Part 2

I love that since our group is here for several days, we can take our time and REALLY see the quilts.  I've had a break and am ready for another couple of hours drooling before the show closes at 7.

Let's get started -

"Moonlight Sonata" by Susan Stewart of Pittsburg, Kansas quickly stops me in my tracks.  I had not considered making the quilt as one big block.  This square in a square really calls to me.  The black and white alone does the trick and then add in the rest of the features and I'm hooked.  Susan writes, "This is a very simple design in black and white with lots of intricate quilting.  It is embellished with bright machine embroidery and edged with free-standing lace."

Sharon Williams and her "Spiralizing Radiance" certainly deliver on color and WOW factor.  It is paper pieced using a Spiral Lone Star pattern by Jan Krentz.  Sharon says, "Spiralizing Radiance provided a way to memorialize my mother by incorporating slivers of fabric from her jackets into the starbursts.  I was able to combine my love of color into that composition as well.  My mother taught me to sew and, therefore, was my inspiration for this quilt."  What a beautiful memory quilt.

In the category of A Celebration of Color, I fell in love with this next one.  I truly would love something like this in the studio.  It is entitled "Remembering Sochi" and based on different logos seen during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.  Claire Haillot of Laval, Quebec, Canada is the creator with quilting by Colleen Paul.  Claire writes, "I was really inspired by the logos . . . and I started to wonder if they could actually be combined into a real quilt.  I began playing with all my scraps, sorting them by color and hue and truly enjoyed the journey.  I used a wide array of strips, ranging from 1" to 2 1/2" to make the quilt."

Dear Jane is on my list.  So is Farmer's Wife.  Apparently I need to add this one as well and just do a series of these.  Say hello to "Absolutely Certifiably Insane."  It was made by Connie Peterson of Fort Collins, Colorado and quilted by Janet Mason.  Connie says that the "the color selection was not easy since I can't settle with one color that is my favorite.  I did try to alternate warm and cool color schemes in the rows."  Pattern is Nearly Insane by Liz Lois.  (Sorry for the blur.  Ugh.)

As I wrote before, it seemed as though a lot of the quilts in the show were of one color palette, but this category of A Celebration of Color definitely brightened things up.  I absolutely adore this next one and it is right up my alley of string work.  Oooh, oooh, oooh.  Entitled "Sea Glass", Timna Tarr of South Hadley, Massachusetts has created such calm and joy in a quilt.  I can already see the room to put it in --- of course I own nothing for that room, but I can see it.  Timna writes, "After spending a week as an artist-in-residence on the island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas, I knew my takeaway from the experience would be a change in my standard color palette.  This quilt is my interpretation of the sea, sand, and sky of that very beautiful place in the world."  I love that the quilting gives it so much motion.

Art deco is my sweethearts passion.  In fact, I just had him work on some certificates I need and they scream it in the design.  This next quilt by Shannon Conley of Moore, Oklahoma is entitled "The Yucca and the Moth."  I am captivated by it.  Truly.  Shannon writes, "This quilt was designed to capture the symbiotic relationship between the beautiful yuccas of the high desert, sparkling in the crisp New Mexico sunshine, and the tiny yucca moths that pollinate them."

Hello Autumn!  Let me tell you what first drew me to this one.  It's the way it is finished.  Looking like a canvas that has been painted.  Without border or binding (yes, the one above is done this way also), I truly get the feel of a painting.  It is called "Transformation" and is by Denise Oyama Miller of Fremont, California.

Here is the same color play that I did on this year's mystery, Autumn Splendor.  No wonder I love it so much.  Just kidding.  I would be drawn to it always.  Again, I have bits of modern work that I really feel talk to me.  This is one such piece.  It is "Unchained Melody" by Jackie Benedetti of Seattle, Washington and quilted by Dionne Matthies-Buban.  In the words of Jackie, "I've always been intrigued by the 1930s pattern Jack's Chain and love how different the pattern looks depending on color placement.  I was inspired to make a modern rendition using solids, lots of negative space, and my favorite colors.  Dionne's quilting helped highlight the background blocks.  Minimal quilting of the Nine-Patch blocks helped make them pop.  The entire top was hand-pieced except for the Nine-Patch blocks."  That last line made me take another look.  Wonderful!

Now, for some minis -

Here is an interesting take on Log Cabins. It is by Laura Aust - Team 208 of Ankeny, Iowa.  Yep, it's an exchange quilt and what fun it is.  Hmmmmm.  Laura says, "Even though I am from Iowa, and my partner is from France, she has visited Iowa many times!  In fact, she told me that she and her husband want to retire to Iowa one day.  While getting to know each other, she told me that the first quilt she made was a log Cabin design.  I learned that not only does she still like the Log Cabin pattern, she also likes Flying Geese.  Since these are two of my favorite patterns, I wanted to use these in my exchange quilt.  I have participated in a lot of quilt swaps, but usually they are secret or blind swaps.  I really enjoyed being able to talk to my partner before and during this one, to ensure that I was making something she will love by using colors, fabric, and a pattern that fit her tastes."

 This next one combines the color explosion with tiny pieces and is the exchange for the previous quilt.  Gotta love it.  It is called "A World of Colors for a World of Quilt" and is by Laurence Robaix - Team 208 - of Provence, France.  She shares, "I was wonderfully paired, as my partner lives in Des Moines, a city I visit regularly as my French nephew got married and lives there.  Like me, she loves bright colors and Log Cabins.  Log Cabin has been my favorite pattern for many years.  The quilt is paper pieced by machine and was inspired by Andree Leblanc's work and Joan Wolfrom's Studio Color Wheel.  It has been a great experience to work on such a small scale and I hope that my partner will love my quilt.  I quilted it with my brand new Sweet Sixteen longarm that I received two weeks before and it worked well with all the multiple layers of fabric I had to manage.  I pieced it on my dream machine, my Bernina 770QE."  It's just so fun and I love the concept of an exchange quilt.

When I spotted this mini, I was floored.  I made the full size pattern and there were so many pieces that the thought of doing them all miniature size, just makes me stand in awe.  It is "See im Nebel - Misty Lake" by Inna Rohrberg - Team 203 of Yach, Baden Wurttemberg, Germany.  I'm really feeling the love of this little mini exchange.  Inna says, "Making a miniature quilt was an extreme challenge for me.  My exchange partner and I have very different personalities and each has her own very individual mode of making quilts.  But there is one thing that connects us and that is love of the American quilt designer, Bonnie K. Hunter.  My exchange quilt is an almost exact representation of her design, On Ringo Lake.  For the choice of fabrics I was inspired both by the original design and also by a photo sent to me by my partner, while at the same time keeping with my own personal preference for more sedate colors.  And honestly, how many people will get to hang a miniature lake on their wall?  The quilt was foundation paper pieced by machine and machine quilted."

 "A Little Blue" by Mayleen Vinson - Team 142 - Huntsville, Kansas also stood out for me.  Oh, I do love this sweet little mini.  Mayleen says, "Alike bu different, that's how I'd describe my IMQE exchange partner and myself.  We both like traditional quilting and are starting to learn more about new techniques in art quilting.  We are different in our color preferences.  I rarely use blue and she rarely uses red.  I enjoyed learning about Judy's lifestyle, which is different than mine.  She lives near a lake, I live in a more rural area currently in a drought.  She's accomplished many things in her life, I'm a homebody.  Even though we're different, we share a love of quilting that allowed us to connect and share our happy and sad times.  In the end, I learned that the quilting process, and the generosity of the resulting quilt, is a gift between friends."  Such a fun quilt to have and it's just chock full of tiny pieces too.

Back to full size -

"Marrakesh" by Barbara Ann McCraw of Denton, Texas with quilting by Fran Dorman is a burst of warm color.  I have buckets and buckets of strings for upcoming workshops in Denton next April.  Maybe something like this should happen as well.  Barbara's words are, "I had never made a string pieced quilt, so after making two of these to donate, I decided to make one in the colors I enjoy."  This one should have been hung right next to the Sea Glass one above to show how much color can change a simple concept.

 Rounding a corner, this next quilt takes up the ENTIRE section.  It is massive and that is not exaggerating.  One would have to have a very large room with high walls to do it justice.  It is called "Happy Sea" and is a collaboration quilt from Tainan City, Taiwan with 28 different quilters adding to it's beauty and depicting a joyous party under the sea.

Blue and white.  Someday I will finish a blue and white quilt.  If I say that often enough, will it really happen?  I have two in various stages of construction at this time, but neither are out and about in the studio.  Instead, they rest quietly on a shelf.  Each year I highlight at least one Baltimore quilt and this one wins for this year.  Called "Alice Blue Baltimore," it is by Alice Sadeghpour of Houston, Texas and quilted by Valerie Wagner.  Alice says, "After perusing many Baltimore blocks, I chose to use needleturn applique methods with fabrics of blue to green hues.  Using a paisley print and solid soft blue accent enhanced the blocks and created a visual separation of each block.  Then to give a finishing touch I used a paper pieced off-center pineapple border."

 Red and white is my thing right now.  I feel like the entire year of 2018 has been a Christmas year for me.  I have worked on many items that will decorate my home next month.  There were several red/white quilts this year at the show, but only this one pulled in in tight.  I have never made basket blocks but these are pretty interesting to me.  Along with the column concept, I am indeed intrigued.  It is "Redwork Garden" by Janice Joyner of Amarillo, Texas and is hand-embroidered along with machine pieced and quilted.  Janice comments that, "After seeing the exhibit, Infinite Variety, at the American Folk Art Museum, I was afflicted with a passion for red and white quilts.  I created this quilt combining my love of baskets and hand embroidery."

 More Log Cabin fun.  Honestly, I am loving all the little blocks.  This one is "Happy Homes" by Ann Horton of Redwood Valley, California and she says, "I wanted to use all the "happy" colors to remind me of joy and sunshine.  Four small Log Cabins make up the little blocks.  The border was a fun take on the logs and chimneys.  2016 was the year of the home for our family.  Both my son and daughter bought their first homes, and as a family we worked together to build a retreat home on our property.  This Log Cabin quilt of many colors celebrates the joy of home and family."  Goodness --- that is a LOT of small little Log Cabin blocks.

Dang, we have come to the last one and the end of this post.  However, I am leaving on a high note and another blue and white quilt.  Doesn't this just take you back to a time of when dishes like this graced all the tables across the country?  It sure does for me.  "The Legend of the Blue Willow" is by Debbie Carrington of Kellyville Ridge, New South Wales, Australia and she writes that, "Inspiration for this quilt came from my love of the radiant flue and white china in my grandmother's home.  A huge family heirloom, the Blue Willow meat platters was brought out every Christmas.  As a child, I was fascinated with the design and the tragic romantic legend depicted on the plates."  It includes machine embroidery and painting.  And with that, another year is behind me, but the inspiration will continue on.  Thank you for stopping in to feed your eyes.  Come again and share with me as I keep on creating.