Monthly Archives: June 2018

Southern Region Forest Service quilt celebrating 100 years

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On my recent trip to the Asheville area to teach at the North Carolina Quilt Symposium, I stayed an extra three days to explore the area. I headed southwest to the Pisgah National Forest and saw this beautiful hand appliqued and hand quilted quilt hanging at one of the park information centers.

As you can see from the legends in the borders, the quilt was made in 2005 to celebrate 100 years of service caring for the land in the Southern Region. Each of the southern states from the east coast to as far west as Texas provided quilt blocks representing their area. Here are some detailed shots. There is a map showing the states which are part of this Southern Region, and on the right, a block from the Interagency Wildland Firefighters and Support group depicting Smokey the Bear.

Here the blocks from the Cherokee National Forest and the Daniel Boone National Forest.

The block for North Carolina depicts a hiker silhouetted with a waterfall behind. The picture on the right is of Looking Glass Falls which is just a few miles down the road from the Center where the quilt is hanging. The waterfalls were spectacular and very swollen. The locals enthused that they had never seen so much water gushing. The area had over 20″ of rain in a two week period just before I arrived. I was blessed with three clear sunny days to explore the Pisgah National Forest and the Blue Ridge Parkway and experience the glorious natural beauty there.

 

North Carolina Quilt Symposium, Asheville, NC

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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.

Quilt Garden, Asheville Arboretum, NC

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I was recently teaching at the North Carolina Quilting Symposium in Asheville. My quilting host took me to the Arboretum where there is this wonderful quilt garden. The blocks contain a variety of plants of different colors to display the patterns and the concrete sashing helps to accentuate the overall design.

The Arboretum’s Quilt Garden represents traditional quilt block patterns common to the Southern Appalachian region, in this case the maple leaf. The carpet plantings in masses of harmonious or contrasting colored foliage and flowers last for one season. The garden is replanted each season with a block pattern that changes every two years. Plants appropriate to the growing season are selected and grown for spring, summer and fall. In winter, the quilt garden may be filled with hardy plants or covered in contrasting colored mulch or stone. The garden is best viewed from an elevated spot as in the photo above. Here are two more pictures taken from the ground level. On the left you can see the viewing area with fence at the back. This is a great place to visit if you are in the area.

BIMA Auction June 2018

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The Bainbridge Museum of Art (BIMA) will be hosting its annual BIMA Bash fundraising event on June 8th with music, refreshments and a silent auction, followed the next day by a dinner with a live auction. I have donated a quilt which will be auctioned to help support this top-notch museum right here on Bainbridge Island. My quilt, Ferntastic Star, was made for a Kitsap Quilters’ Guild challenge several years ago. The challenge was to use the floral fabric and make any “star” quilt. I printed the ferns using fabric paints and ferns from my yard. I machine quilted it to accentuate the ferns and flowers on the floral fabric. Size is approximately 45 x 45″.