Last Saturday, the Bainbridge Island Modern Quilt Guild hosted the 6th annual Quilt Fest in downtown Winslow. For the sixth year in a row, we were blessed with dry weather. It was a grey day, but the display of over 200 quilts made a colorful splash along our main street. The event was well attended and much appreciated by locals, and folks coming from further afield. Here’s an over view showing just a sampling of these beautiful quilts. The first quilt is one of two of mine displayed, Easter Morning, made from my original 16-piece Bargello blocks and featured in my book, Bargello Quilts with a Twist.

The show was started in 2013 by local fabric store owner Barbara Kirk, modeled on the outdoor annual quilt show in Sisters, OR. Guild members work with local merchants and landlords to accomplish the logistics of hanging all of the quilts with clothespins or clips from lines or poles. This is becoming an annual tradition which we hope will continue. In subsequent blogs I will highlight some individual quilts.

I’ve recently returned from a trip to Sisters, OR for the 43rd Annual Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show. I was traveling with a P & Q Tours group of 42 quilters from the UK. They began their tour by staying on Bainbridge Island where they joined in the 4th July festivities and watched our home town parade. They had a day to explore Seattle too. On their third day, I did a lecture for them in Port Gamble and they visited our lovely store, Quilted Strait. Then we did an evening boat trip to Blake Island for a salmon dinner at the lodge. We went on to Portland via Mount St Helens and then to Bend for a week of visiting quilt stores, quilter’s studios, sight seeing (Crater Lake and the High Desert Museum), and various quilting activities culminating in the magnificent outdoor show in Sisters. Here are some general views of the quilts all over the buildings and I will post more from a variety of exhibits in the coming weeks.

The UK Quilters brought several quilts for a special exhibit and we had a group photo by their display, (more on their quilts in a later blog).

In early July, I was a member of the teaching faculty at the North Carolina Quilt Symposium hosted by the Asheville Quilters’ Guild. 350 quilters were in attendance for the four days of events and classes from 17 teachers on the campus of the University of NC in Asheville. Their quilt show featured the work of the teachers and I’ve posted pictures of my contribution in an earlier blog. Here, I feature the incredible thread painted quilts of author and quilt artist Lea McComas from Colorado. Leah writes, “My work is representational with visual images that touch memory and emotion, forcing them to come forward in our consciousness for fresh analysis.” Check out her website.

“Crossing over, speaks to the subjugation of one culture by another. The title alludes to the cultural turmoil and change that would be forthcoming.” This is my favorite of Lea’s quilts that was displayed. The incredible detail of thread painting on this pair of quilts bring the scene to life, and she is able to convey all the different textures, creating the figures and their clothing, horses, water and more. These amazing quilts have dimension, depth and richness.

Bike Boys depicts cyclists on the The Fowler Sextuplet which was promoted at the Denver Cycle show in1896. The composition incorporates 91 fabrics in the fabric collage base, and was thread-painted with 114 threads, (approximately 9 miles of stitching!).

The Cobbler, is a portrait of a cobbler in Turkey. Power is Knowledge, shows African boys who live in a village without electricity. A solar lantern allows them to study after dark and education is their bridge to a better life.

A couple of weeks ago, I had the good fortune to be a member of the teaching faculty at the North Carolina Quilt Symposium hosted by the Asheville Quilters’ Guild. 350 quilters were in attendance for the four days of events and classes from 17 teachers on the campus of the University of NC in Asheville. We had a wonderful time and the Asheville quilters worked tirelessly to give us a warm welcome and to make everything run smoothly. Here is the banner which was ceremoniously passed along to the group hosting the event, “Quilt Stock”, next year at Lake Junaluska not far from Asheville. I love the quilt in the backdrop.

The quilt show was an exhibit of the teachers’ work and we were each invited to submit five quilts to represent our work and published material. My five quilts were all hung toether. Here are all five and a single shot of Winter Garden, my Bear’s Paw variations, featured in my book, Traditional Quilts with a Twist.

The other four quilt are as follows, from left to right:
Retro-Radiation made from 16 of my Op-Art Kaleidoscope blocks.
Gateway to Mongolia is based on a design from the door of a yurt. This Olzii symbol is thought to bring long life and prosperity and in the Buddhist faith it symbolizes the universe and never-ending cycles of life and death.

Bainbridge Delft,  the blue and white quilt, is made from 24 of my original 16-piece Bargello blocks and is featured in my book, Bargello Quilts with a Twist. The book may be ordered from my on-line store.
Brideshead Radiance, is a 28″ Feathered Star with borders added. The borders were inspired by a wooden table with an inlaid wooden pattern which I saw at Castle Howard in Yorkshire, UK. The movie, Brideshead Revisited was filmed there, hence the name of the quilt.
Patterns are available for Gateway to Mongolia, Brideshead Radiance and the Op-Art Kaleidoscope technique at my on-line store. For the Op-Art Kaleidoscope technique, check out my YouTube Videos.

At our recent Kitsap Quilters’ Guild show, over 200 quilts were exhibited displaying the wide range of talent in our guild and a large variety of techniques used. In previous blogs, I’ve already shared pictures from our featured artist, some Round Robins and some animal quilts. This collection shows just some of the many quilts that appealed to me for a variety of reasons. I like quilts with strong designs and those in which the use of color and value enhance the patterns. The use of black in first two makes stunning backgrounds to intensify the scrappy colors.

Linda Eakin-Johnson made this striking Curved Log Cabin quilt, quilted by Linda Moran, after taking a class from Ann Trujullo at Quilted Strait. She had a collection of Asian fabrics and used all 1,500 pieces! I love how the black fabric makes curved ribbons between the medley of scrappy logs. Checkerboard Garden, was made by Carol Kunold and quilted by Mirium Gill. The pattern is by Jason Yenter and I like how effective this very simple idea of a strippy quilt with assorted small squares and a fussy-cut large scale print with a black background works.

These two are very intricate with foundation paper-pieced triangles. On the left, Tumble, was pieced and quilted by Pam Knight. The pattern for this stunning quilt is Fire Island Costa by Judy Niemeyer. Pam dug into her stash of French General fabrics to create her own look. Her machine-quilting is exquisite and really enhances the quilt. Something Blue was made by Becky Rico and quilted by Teresa Silva, using a pattern by Jacqueline De Jonge. I have a soft spot for classic blue and white quilts. The next ones have a more modern feel.

Marj Deupree made this Prism quilt which is so bright and dimensional, and the Fruit Slices, a variation on the Courthouse Steps Log Cabin, (pattern by Monique Jacobs). The use of color in these two quilts really makes them pop.

On the left, a-MAZE-ing, was made by Mary Ann Hooker and quilted by Linda Moran. Mary Ann used the Antelope Canyon and Garden Delights pattern by Laurie Shifrin. Her persistence with ripping and re-sewing after discovering mistakes in three out of the four blocks, paid off and the finished quilt is beautiful. Becky Rico made Hexie Hexies, (quilted by Linda Moran), after being inspired by an antique quilt of a similar design. She enjoyed updating this pattern with more contemporary fabrics and the white background makes it look fresh and modern.

At our recent Kitsap Quilters’ Guild show, these wonderful animal quilts made me smile and I wanted to share them with you. We’ll begin with the birds. The Rooster, was made by Terry Loy using a fusible applique pattern by Laura Heine. Most of the fabrics are Kaffe Fassett with additional pieces from Terry’s collection to create different textures. I love this vibrant, colorful bird. Anne Trujillo made the Dancing with the stars bird quilt using Sue Spargo’s book, Bird Dance, for inspiration. The vintage lace came from Anne’s mother and vintage buttons were donated by Dorothy Thompson. Each bird has dupini silk beaded collar and a piece of Kaffe Fassett material. Check out the details on the close up pictures.

The detail on this cat quilt, Brownie, by Debi Snyder is amazing. This is Debi’s original design copied from a photo, using raw-edge applique enhanced with heavy thread work in the quilting. Brownie was hiding in the Christmas tree and Debi snapped a photo.

This playful fox quilt, Quilt for Kaci, was made by Sharon Broom from the pattern Kits ‘n’ Caboodle in Animal Parade, and quilted by Wanda Rains. Sharon used her own flowers and humming bird to improvise on the pattern. Jaxine Anderson made Giraffe using the fusible applique pattern Potpourri by Laura Heine. Jaxine loves giraffes and was captivated by this pattern. She collected the fabrics during a road trip to Chicago.

If I was in Charge, this rainbow of zebras, is an original design by Carol Bracher. Carol says “If I was in charge, zebras would be colorful!” She hand appliqued all the zebras’ stripes and made fuzzy yarn tails for them.

At our recent Kitsap Quilters’ Guild show, there were four round robin quilts made by a small group of quilters, The Sew What’s. The quilters, Nancy Mathisrud, Deana Cherry, Marj Deupree, and Cheri Searles, all began with the same central motif, then passed it on to one of the others for the next border. This continued so that all four quilters contributed to each quilt. They were challenged to design different borders and piece patterns that they hadn’t previously made.

Top left – Nancy Mathisrud, top right  –  Marj Deupree, bottom left -Cheri Searles and quilted by Nancy, and bottom right – Deana Cherry. Nancy, Marj and Deana all quilted their own quilts. I love how these quilts have developed with the addition of each border and how differently they turned out with each quilter setting their color palette of choice. This is so much fun and very inspiring.

Our annual Kitsap Quilters’ Guild show was on 16th and 17th of February. Our featured artist was Marybeth O’Halloran, whose beautiful work made a stunning display for us all to enjoy. Marybeth is a well-known, award-winning long-arm quilter from Bainbridge Island. Her work has appeared in books, magazines and other publications. In addition to her talent as a long-arm quilter, she is a precise piecer with a great eye for color and design. Last week I posted pictures of Marybeth’s display area with the promise of detailed pictures of her New Hexagon Millefiore quilt. Here it is.

The pattern for this quilt is by Katja Marek. Marybeth made this as a block of the month project, which took her years to finish. The piecing is all by hand using the English paper-piecing technique. What began as a serious project became more whimsical as Marybeth fussy cut pink poodles, astronaut cats, whales, foxes and more. The details are delightful and add so much to this absolutely gorgeous quilt. Check out the photos.

Our annual Kitsap Quilters’ Guild show was on 16th and 17th of February. In the next few blogs I will share some of the highlights. Our featured artist was Marybeth O’Halloran, whose beautiful work made a stunning display for us all to enjoy. Marybeth is a well-known, award-winning long-arm quilter from Bainbridge Island. Her work has appeared in books, magazines and other publications. In addition to her talent as a long-arm quilter, she is a precise piecer with a great eye for color and design.

Here’s Marybeth in her display area. Next week my post will be detailed shots of the lovely millefiore quilt behind her. She rescued the chairs from our Rotary Auction and friends’ throw-aways. They are so whimsical in the bright colors and with the patchwork seats which Marybeth foundation pieced on denim for extra strength. She also made all the table mats, lamp shades and even fabric cup-cakes!

This spectacular Lone Star, Daddy’s Home, was a commissioned quilt and is made from three generations’ worth of ties set into a background of fine Italian shirting. The ties were stabilized with interfacing. The inset corner stars are from a Karen Stone pattern and Marybeth designed the rest of the quilt. Check out the details of her incredible machine quilting.

Rainbow Frankenquilt is sampler which began as a Pacific Fabrics block of the month from 2009 and then evolved to incorporate components from Marybeth’s spare parts bucket. The center was originally a stand-alone wall hanging but it looks wonderful as the focal point in this quilt. This quilt is eye-catching with so much detail and variety in the components which all come together to make an extremely successful design.

Corona, (on the left), is made from a pattern by Tula Pink. Marybeth modified it to be sewn by machine using an invisible zig-zag stitch to join the pieces instead of the hand-pieced English paper-piecing technique.This is a color-wheel within a color wheel, surrounded by coronal arcs to celebrate last summer’s eclipse. The Lion, (pattern by Violet Craft), is a fresh modern take on a paper foundation pieced lion. Marybeth is a Leo and loves lions of all sorts. She used prints instead of solids and changed the palette to incorporate her favorite color, turquoise. Check out the lovely patchwork lamp shades too.

More rainbow colors with these quilts that pop. On the left, Free-pieced Posies. pattern by Atkinson Design, is one of Marybeth’s first experiments in free-piecing on a polychromatic theme. She made sheets of fabric from scraps and then cut the sheets to the petal size. On the right, Modern Diamonds, was Marybeth’s pattern designed to use as a sample for a scrap quilting class. It was made entirely from her scrap pile.

Please join us for our Kitsap Quilters’ Guild annual show this Friday and Saturday. We will be displaying over 200 quilts, enjoying a fantastic display by our talented featured artist Marybeth O’Halloran, shopping from our quilt store vendors, observing demonstrations of a variety of quilting techniques by our members, bidding on our silent auction baskets and more. We always put on a good show and would love to see you there.