Our 4th Annual Bainbridge Island Quilt Festival took place recently on Saturday, 10th September. This is the fourth year in a row that we have been blessed with glorious sunny weather for hanging all these quilts outdoors for the day. There were 190 quilts displayed and they made a colorful show along our main street in Winslow. We had a good attendance and the public were very appreciative. Here’s an overall view and I’ll post more pictures in the coming weeks. My Original Octangles quilt is the black, white and red one in the center of the top left picture.

This Festival was initiated in 2013, by Barbara Kirk, owner of Esther’s Fabrics on Bainbridge Island. Barbara was inspired by the joy and beauty of the annual Sister’s Quilt Show held outdoors in Sisters, OR and wanted to put on a similar but smaller venture on Bainbridge. The Bainbridge Island Modern Quilt Guild collaborated with Esther’s Fabrics and other local businesses make this happen.

Here are two of my favorite quilts.

On the left is Temperance, by Marybeth O’Halloran. Marybeth writes, “I am a Leo, so of course this pattern spoke to me. It is entirely paper pieced, with almost 200 individual paper pattern pieces.” The pattern is The Lion by Violet Craft. On the right is Chromatic Hex Flowers, also by Marybeth O’Halloran. “This project was done long distance with my creative friend Jenn Rhoads. She moved to New York State, and so we mailed fabric and finished blocks back and forth. This is my finished quilt from those exchanges. I modified the pattern, Hexie Garden, by Atkinson Designs.” Marybeth is an accomplished long-arm quilter on Bainbridge Island – here’s her website.