Venice

Daydreaming of favorite places I've been and would love to visit again .... and thought I would share a lovely quilt of one of these places - Venice, Italy!

 Venice Lagoon

by DAMSS (D. Arnoldi and M. Sarzi-Sartori)

of Milan, Italy

I snapped my photo of this lovely quilt when it was on display in the 2013 Tactile Architecture exhibit at the 2013 International Quilt Market and Festival in Houston, Texas.  It evokes memories of my visit to Venice when I was in college.  I too took photos of the picturesque canals during my visit.  I must find them and post one here .... soon (but not tonight).

The quilt artists used manipulated, pieced, embroidered and custom techniques.  Their inspiration is taken from one of their countless visits to the city of Venice.  They state: "Here we see landscaping and urban perspectives reflecting our respective engineering and architectural vocations.  This quilt is inspired by the Italian Lagoon of Venice."

I love this detail shot.  See the reflections in the canal?

But you must see more work by this amazing pair.  Click here to see several, including nice detail views.  DAMSS, Daniela Arnoldi and Marco Sarzi-Sartori, are featured as L'Artiste du Vendredi (French for the Artist of Friday) on the blog/website of L'Atelier D'Emma (the Workshop of Emma).  I may need to refresh my high school French so I can read more of these wonderful posts of Emma Coutancier!

In her own statement (which I had the talent of the internet translate for me), Emma says:  

I am a textile designer, a little slacker, always in a hurry and impatient, and I offer on this blog sewing projects, patchwork deco and the machine.   My motto: colors, speed and simplicity! Sign up for the newsletter to not miss my adventures and feel free to comment!

I have done exactly that!  If you are interested to sign up for her newsletter too, start by clicking here or http://www.atelierdemma.com/

2012 IQA Group Quilts

For years I have been fascinated by the wonderful work displayed in the Group Quilts category of the International Quilt Association's show (IQA) which is the mainstay at the International Quilt Festival (IQF).  Below are four of my favorites.  I've included the information displayed with each quilt (Name of quilt; IQA member entering the quilt along with names of others who participated in the making of this particular quilt; their home town, state/country; their description of their quilt; techniques used; materials incorporated; and design source).  Enjoy!  

 

This quilt won Honorable Mention in the Group Quilts category this year.

 The Jennings Homestead

Suzanne Mouton Riggio

and 26 members of the Milwaukee Art Quilters

Wauwatosa, Wisconsin

The Milwaukee Art Quilters, a group of 40 artists, have been meeting for over ten years in the business space at Plank Road Publishing owned by Teresa and Paul Jennings.  In gratitude for the Jennings' generosity, the group made a slice quilt of their Victorian home.

Techniques:  Machine piecing; hand, machine, reverse, and raw-edge applique'; fusing; bleach discharge; inking; machine quilting; machine and hand embroidery

Materials:  Commercial and hand-dyed cottons, cord, paint, fabric markers, ink, thin batting, threads

Design source:  Inspired by a photograph by Teresa Jennings

Guitar Blues

by Julie Poirier-Mathur

and the Beaconsfield Quilter's Guild

Beaconsfield, Quebec, Canada

The puzzle quilt begins with an image divided into pieces.  Each artist is assigned a piece of the puzzle and constructs a quilt block independently, as accurately as possible, following specific instructions.  Once assembled, the blocks divulte the original image.  The rule for this particular quilt was to construct the block in blue.  The guitar strings were added after the quilt was assembled.  

Techniques: Hand, machine, and fused applique'; had and machine piecing; machine quilting, couching, embellishments.

Materials:  Cotton, fusible web, buttons, embroidery thread

Design source: Original design adapted from a photo at MusicRadar.com

This quilt is the First Place Award winner of the Group Quilts category.

 Ms. MacDonald Had a Farm

by Lynn Czaban

and members of the Hanging by a Thread group

Vancouver, Washington

The topic is appropriate for these ladies whose lives are rooted in the colorful farming community in Boisfort Valley, Washington.

Techniques:  Piecing, fusing, machine applique', thread painting, inking, machine quilting

 

Materials:  Tsukineko inks, Quilters Cotton, Thermore batting, Steam-A-Seam 2 

Design source:  Designed by Bonnie Keller

 Balancing Act

Sherri McCauley

Frances Holliday Alford, Barb Forrister, Connie Hudson, Leslie Tucker Jenison, Susan Lewis Story, and Kathy York

Lakeway, Texas

Group dynamics are complicated.  Working together is a balancing act.  With our mutual fascination with cairns and balanced rock sculptures, we independently created our rocks and worked on the rock placement together.  As a group, we were able to form the balanced stacks, and as a group, we balance.

Techniques:  Machine pieced, machine and hand quilted, hand embroidered, applique'd with fusible and by hand; background pieces are individually machine quilted and joined with zigzag; shadows are hand painted.

 

Materials:  Hand-dyed cottons, felts, velvet, silk organza, and batiks; metallic foils; fabric paint; ink; commercial fabrics, embroidery floss, batting, fusible 

Design source:  Original design



If you'd like to see more of the award-winning quilts from Festival this year, go to  http://www.quilts.org/winners.html

Chicago

I wandered north this summer to Chicago, Illinois - a place I have never been to until now.  I fell in love with this amazing city and am especially fond of the amazing architectural treasures there (who knew?  not me, but now I do!).

A "Must-Do" for every first-time visitor to this city is to take an architecture boat tour.  The tour guides are well-versed in many facts and details.  They do enjoy telling the "world's tallest building when it was built" stories (there are several!) too.


Here are just a few of my favorite sightings in and around Chicago this summer:

 

The first image features the Wrigley building (in the center), the Tribune building (on the right - both were built in the 1920s), bridge entry points and a smattering of other buildings too (can anyone identify these for me, please?)

a detail of the Wrigley clock tower

 

one angle looking up the Tribune

 

MichaelAngelo greeted us each time we left our hotel.

 

a close-up of this great faux-art portrait/sculpture

This is the Chicago Water Tower, built in 1869. Not the only surviving building from the Great Chicago Fire (rumors saying this are all false), this is the second oldest water tower in the United States (click here for the Wikipedia listing).

 

Cloud Gate by Anish Kapoor

More often called "the Bean", this public sculpture was built between 2004 and 2006. Located in Millennium Park, it is a favorite crowd pleaser.

Last but not least is Wrigley Field, the home stadium for the Chicago Cubs baseball team.  Great news:  they WON the game that we attended!

P.S.  Chicago has sandy beaches too, so don't forget the beach towels....

Betty's quilt and Lynn's books

Reasonably Realistic Structures, 2011

Here is the full view of Betty's quilt, which she calls "Reasonably Realistic Structures."  Betty made her quilts from ten house blocks that were swapped in the QGGH Block Builders Bee many years ago (possibly more than a decade ago? but less than 15 years ...right, Betty?).

The quilters who traded in this ten-block swap begin with Betty Rivers (who is the first to piece her blocks into a finished quilt!), Lynn Roddy Brown (the initiater/organizer/planner of this swap), Rita Carter, Jill Danzer, Denise Goodman, Catherine Purifoy (who has quilts featured in Fons & Porter, click here and here), Barbara Reynolds, Harriet Rhea, Elizabeth Stewart, and myself, Cathy Winter.  Lynn, the organizer of this swap, is our most famous swapper as she has published not one but three books all about making (and trading) scrappy blocks and quilts.

Her books are:

Simple Strategies for Scrap Quilts

This is her first quilting book and features my favorite, "The Texas Two Step".  I have also spied one (or two?) of my blocks on this cover -- but I will not try to point out which one is my block!  Click here to see other quilts featured in this book.

Simple Strategies for Block-Swap Quilts

Lynn's second book has more fun scrappy quilts, including a few more that I have blocks in!  How exciting it is to see blocks I made featured in a quilt that has been photographed and published in one of Lynn's books!  Click here to see more quilts from patterns featured in this book.

Patchwork-Play Quilts

This is her most recent book published.  I ran into Lynn during Quilt Market this year, where she kept busy autographing copies of her newest book.  Stay tuned, I think she may be writing another book already (perhaps one of my quilts will get into one of her future books, eventually .... it never hurts to dream big, right?).  Click here to learn more about my friend Lynn Roddy Brown.

Be sure to check out her website http://www.lynnroddybrown.com any time.  Note: Look for Lynn's books at your local quilt shop.  They are available through Amazon.com as well.

Rita's house

Rita Carter is a member of our Block Builders house-swapping group.  Here she is, next to her house.

Of course, at the moment, I can't recall which of the two story red brick houses is Rita's (apologies to Rita!)  I will correct this post once I've remembered (or been reminded) which is hers, promise!  (hazards of aging -- the forgetful mind, or is it the hazard of holding onto UFOs for far-too-long?).

 

Here are the three of us at the Quilt Show this past summer.  I only wish that more of our group of ten were there that day.

Stay tuned, tomorrow I will post a view of the quilt without smiling quilters blocking it.  As mentioned previously, this is Betty Rivers' quilt made from ten blocks traded many years ago when we were all in the QGGH Block Builders Bee.  I have since switched to another bee, but the Block Builders Bee still meets (on Wednesdays, right?) -- perhaps I will rejoin them!

My house

Years ago, I made ten of these two-story red Victorian homes for a small block swap in my Block Builders Bee, one of the many bees in the Quilt Guild of Greater Houston (QGGH). 

 

For this swap, each of the ten swappers were to make ten blocks of a house -- I can't recall now if we had a size restriction, possibly a size range to keep in within (larger than X" and smaller than Y').  I'll check to see if anyone remembers.  Should I mention that my ten blocks are one of my many UFOs?  Then what is this I'm standing in front of, you ask?  Betty Rivers pieced her blocks together and entered it into this year's QGGH quilt show!  She added the gingerbread man standing in my doorway.

Tactile Architecture

I recently found this neat slideshow of the 2011 Tactile Architecture exhibit from the 2011 International Quilt Market and Festival in Houston.   I wanted to be able to find it again, so am doing a post-dated post (sending it back into time on this very blog).  Hope the links work -- I am slowly becoming more adept at running my own blog, but it's a very slow process. 

2011 Tactile Architecture click here

http://secure.smilebox.com/ecom/openTheBox?sendevent=4d6a6b7a4e544d344e44673d0d0a&blogview=true&campaign=blog_playback_link

IQF Group quilts

Time to feature five favorites from the Group division at this year's International Quilt Festival.

Tulip Mania

by Shannon Shirley and her friends:

Marianne Gravely, Jane Miller, Beth Wiesner, Allison Wilber, Mary Kerry and Kathie Buckley

of Woodbridge, Virginia  USA

In Shannon's statement, she explains that she split her photograph of tulips into 7 vertical sections and gave them to six quilting friends, asking each to interpret their portion in any method they chose.   I love the diversity of their work and how they are united by the one commonality -- the red tulips.

Boston's Fenway Park

by Bobbie Sullivan and friends:

Lynne Conover, Betty Crowell, Anne Marcin, Sandy Gregg, Geri Barr, and Penny Myles

of Scituate, Massachusettes, USA

From Bobbie's statement:

The sun sets, the lights come on, and there's excitement in the air when they yell, "play ball!"  This 'slice' quilt captures, with a variety of innovative techniques and embellishments, a night at the park.  Can't you just hear the crowd? 

This is a fun quilt to examine and admire.  The judges thought so too as it won Third Place in the Group category.  It is also a favorite of my baseball loving family, even though we root for the Houston Astros.  Go 'Stros!! 

Group Conversations

by Sherri McCauley and friends:

Frances Holliday Alford, Jean Dahlgren, Barb Forrister, Pearl Gonzalez,

Connie Hudson, Leslie Jenison, Diane Sandlin, and Kathy York

of Lakeway, Texas, USA

According to Sherri:  As the Austin Art Quilt Group transforms, so does the art we create.  By working on the blocks independently and then re-grouping to compose the quilt, many conversations took place.  These ongoing conversations, along with way too many buttons, led us to the creation of this group quilt.

Don't you wish you can participate on a project with this group?  I can only imagine how many buttons constitute "way too many."  Good work!

The next quilt is in two photos, upper portion and lower portion ...

 

My Quilt Room

by Yasuko Ito and Oharibako

of Chiba City, Chiba Pref,  Japan

This quilt won Second Place in the Group Category.  The intricate detail that each member of this Japanese quilting group used to create each "room" is delightful.  It is another original design (as are all the quilts above in this post) and uses a variety of techniques and materials, including clay.

This photo is perhaps my favorite of all the rooms in this fabric-lover's home:

It looks just like my studio, but without the extra clutter that I own!

This last quilt does not show a full view  since my own Art Quilt Group, Beyond the Borders (BTB) has embarked on a challenge with the same theme.   I did take a few close-up photos and will share those.

Le Souvenir de Alice

by Misako Tsuro and friends:

Usada Kazue, Kawai Kiyo, Kimura Yasayo, Kunii Hideko, Komachi Tomoko, Sakurai Keiko, Taguchi Masumi, Tamai Chikako, Tunoda Yasuko, Kiguchi Yuko, Huzinara Emiko, Maruta Motoko, and Mikami Kimiko

of Machida, Tokyo, Japan

In her statement, Misako expresses her hope that "you recall your own memories (of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland) with this quilt."  I am sure these images recall favorite scenes from Alice's arrival down the rabbit hole, to meeting the Cheshire Cat ... and ....

... painting the white roses red,

or the courtroom scene...

... or playing croquet with flamingo mallets

and the flying flurry finale of the playing cards.

This group quilt was inspired by Lewis Carroll's classic Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.   Stay tuned for photos/stories/updates of my BTB group's version of this classic child's story .....

Our Home

Our Home is my piece in the 2009 Breaking Traditions Art Quilt Exhibit which debuted at the American Sewing Expo. My 12" quilt features a yellow brick cottage with my favorite three people peeking out the windows.

Love is in the air, as I love being home with my family -- so for this year's theme of Home, I created a montage of my family in our little bungalow. Of course it isn't home if someone is missing (namely me), so if you open the door ....

You will discover that I am there too, with my camera in hand to record all our family fun.


Every thought of home includes memories of my childhood home and my sweet kitty cat, especially since this year's exhibit raised funds for A Place to Bark, a rescue organization which saves dogs, cats and other critters finding them new, loving homes.

I dedicate my quilt to my Tabitha.

Thus the 2009 Breaking Traditions Art Quilt Exhibit, Home, has begun its year of travel. Click here to learn where else it may be travelling, or contact Lynn Krawczyk to request bringing this exhibit to a venue in your own home town.